Thank heaven for little girls
for little girls get bigger every day!
Thank heaven for little girls
they grow up in the most delightful way!
— Honoré Lachaille, singing the most famous number
A 1958 MGM movie musical based on the 1944 novella by Colette,
Gigi was directed by Vincente Minnelli and written by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe, following their success on
My Fair Lady. Starring Maurice Chevalier and Leslie Caron as the eponymous Gigi, the film won all nine of its
Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, breaking the record set by
Gone with the Wind.
* Not counting the latter's two special awards.
Gaston is a rich Parisian who wants to break from the traditions of his family. He finds refuge in his time with Gigi, a young girl raised by her aunt and grandmother to be a rich man's courtesan. For quite a while, the two see each other as siblings, nothing more. Over time, Gaston comes to the realization that Gigi has grown up. Can he really bear to take her as his mistress?
Not to be confused with
Gigli.
This film provides examples of:
- All Knowing Singing Narrator: Honoré Lachaille.
- All Musicals Are Adaptations
- Be a Whore to Get Your Man: This was what Gigi was raised to be; it wasn't until she started dressing more her age that she won Gaston.
- Character Title
- Cool Old Guy: Honore.
- Costume Porn.
- Disappeared Dad: Gigi's father.
- Fashion Show
- Fourth Date Marriage: Subverted. While Gaston and Gigi go on maybe one date before the proposal, they've known each other for most of their lives, and have gone on several non-dates.
- The Gay Nineties: This film, its predecessor film and stage adaptations, and the original novella, are all dripping with nostalgie for la Belle Epoque.
- He Who Must Not Be Seen: Gigi's mother.
- High Class Call Girl: Mamita would prefer that you not use such words, but Gigi is being raised to become just this.
- Non-Singing Voice: Betty Wand filled in for most of Leslie Caron's singing.
- Pygmalion Plot
- Screen-to-Stage Adaptation: Later got a stage version in the seventies.
- She Is All Grown Up: The whole point of the plot, basically lampshaded in its title number.
- Spirited Young Lady: Gigi.
- The Film of the Book: Colette was an insanely successful writer in her day, beginning with the scandalous Claudine at School, written when she was about Gigi's age. Gigi was only one of her many, many bestsellers. Today, if it weren't for this film, she'd probably be completely forgotten.
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