This review is of the DVD. If you haven’t seen this 1958 classic in widescreen format, you really haven’t seen it. Director Vincente Minnelli (Liza’s father) fills each frame beautifully, often composing scenes reminiscent of the impressionist painters he so loved, such as Renoir or Seurat. Letterbox-haters, this is a estimable test of the superiority of seeing a movie the plot the director intended, not crammed into the 1:1.33 TV veil. (The DVD includes both versions, so comparison comes cheap.)
The year is 1900. Gigi (Leslie Caron) is a pubescent young woman who becomes more and more fine to millionaire Gaston Lachaille (Louis Jordan) . But Gigi’s family has a tradition of “Instead of marrying at once, it sometimes happens we glean married at last.” Making the tradition from pre-teen to comely young woman, awkward Gigi is “trained” in the arts of catering to men, such as choosing a cigar, walking elegantly and pouring coffee in the best French manner. The payoff for this kind of training is to hold a rich young gentleman’s bed–until he tires of this courtesan and moves on. While aloof in favor, the lady in seek information from lives in luxurious style: tutor Aunt Alicia (Isabel Jeans) advises her charge to “Wait for the first-class jewels, Gigi. Acquire on to your ideals.”
The team of Lerner and Loewe wrote songs for this musical that include such favorites as “Thank Heaven for Minute Girls” and “The Night They Invented Champagne.” On its initial release “Gigi” was touted as the cinematic equivalent of their demolish Broadway play “My Blooming Lady,” as the movie trailer on this DVD makes apparent. Gigi won a slew of Oscars, beating out the presumed popular, Susan Heyward in “I Want to Live.”
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It is no mistake that the compilation film of MGM’s best musicals, “That’s Entertainment,” features Gigi as the last chronological example of the MGM high-quality, lavish musical. Minnelli would go on to boom many more films, including the 1960 musical “Bells Are Ringing” with Judy Holliday and Dean Martin, but “Gigi” was really MGM’s “swan song” for expensive musicals, which were getting harder and harder to mount because of television and changing musical tastes (like Elvis) .
With a lot of begging and pleading from the director and producer, the studio spent enough money in Hollywood to duplicate Maxim’s restaurant and the Ice Gallery, a celebrated meeting-place for the 1900 elite. Minnelli’s visual wit is visible in the device he frequently uses exact Parisian backgrounds of fountains and statuary, indirectly symbolizing and commenting on the mental place of the actor in front.
The whole cast is worthy, including Hermione Gingold as Gigi’s grandmother and the incomparable Maurice Chevalier as Gaston’s uncle, Honore Lachaille. It is tiny wonder that this film is the very favorite–or finish to it–among lovers of musicals. “Gigi” is first-class all the contrivance. Even people who don’t often catch musicals may well savor the film for its masterly visual style and recreation of turn-of-the (last) century Paris.
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What more can I say? Find ahold of this film Lawful NOW while the stamp is so capable. I don’t deem you’ll regret it.
For those wondering why they should assume another edition of “Gigi” on DVD, here are all the extras; however, if you beget a Blu-ray, you might want to wait and pre-order Gigi [Blu-ray]. Other than the technical specs, the extras are the same on both versions.
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Winner of 9 Oscars, “Gigi” was produced after the demise of the new 3-Strip Technicolor system, and photographed in the industry-standardized Eastmancolor process, which had a tendency to move to reds and purples. For this fresh DVD release, Gigi has been photo-chemically restored from its recent camera negative and safety separations to accomplish a great sharper and shining image than has been seen in decades. It also contains a 5.1 audio mix created from the recent multi-track source elements.
Disc 1 (Gigi ‘58) : 2.35:1 Anamorphic Widescreen * English DD5.1 Surround * French Mono * English, French and Japanese subtitles * Bluray specs: 1080P 2.40:1 Widescreen, English 5.1 Dolby TrueHD, English 5.1, French 2.0, Spanish 1.0 (Both Castilian and Latin), German 1.0, Italian 1.0 Dolby Digital, Subtitles (Main Feature) : English, French, Spanish, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, German, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Portuguese, Swedish, Subtitles (on Buy Bonus Material) : English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese
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*New Commentary with Leslie Caron & Film Historian Jeanine Basinger
*The Million Dollar Nickel [1952 MGM short]
*The Vanishing Duck [1958 MGM cartoon]
*Theatrical Trailer
Disc 2: “Thank Heaven! The Making of Gigi” The memoir of how 1958’s Best Portray winner (the last of the classic MGM musicals) survived a turbulent production that included censorship battles over its valorous sexual sigh and creative struggles between a studio in turmoil and a demanding, visionary director. Featuring an all-new interview with star Leslie Caron, and a rare interview with Oscar-winning director Minnelli
Original 1949 Nonmusical version of Gigi starring Daniele Delorme in the title role and directed by Jacqueline Audry (in French Mono with English subtitles)
For those not familiar with the spot, Gaston (Louis Jordan) is the descendant of a wealthy Parisian family who rebels from the superficial lifestyle of upper class Parisian 1900s society by socializing with the aged mistress (Hermoine Gingold) of his uncle (Maurice Chevalier) and her outgoing, tomboy granddaughter, Gigi (Leslie Caron) . When Gaston becomes aware that Gigi has matured into a woman, her grandmother and aunt (Isabel Jeans), who have educated Gigi to be a wealthy man’s mistress, enjoin on him to become her provider and on her to find such a golden opportunity. However, upright care for adds a surprise twist to this Cinderella sage that was actually filmed in Paris.
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