EveryBestPicture.com revisits this Oscar Best Picture winner
This is a musical about a woman's coming of age. But this is not a coming of age we would recognise in today's world- this teenager has no angst, she is happy all the time and her transition to womanhood is thanks to her aunt who runs a one woman finishing school. The men that surround her (Honore played by Maurice Chevalier, and Louis Jourdan as Gaston) think themselves sharks in a pond of lady-fish known as 'Gay Paris'. Although I do wonder if they mis-spelled 'Gaudy'. Technicolor, the company that were behind the colour revolution in Hollywood may also have been behind the set design... much like Around the World in 80 Days which suffered from the same headache-inducing promotion of scarlet reds, panther pinks and canary yellows. Now, this film was clearly made in another age. The innocence in having 60 year old Chevalier sing an opening song called 'thank heaven for little girls' directed a schoolgirls in uniform without thinking it might come across as creepy... especially since you hear him declare that he loves to collect pretty young things. The men are free to galavant, they brag about attempted suicides from the women they have spurned and do so while somehow receiving favourable treatment from the director who expects us to applaud and admire them. The chaos caused by young Gigi having the presence of mind to turn down Gaston's offer of marriage in the film only highlighted just how insane the idea of a woman having her own will is in this universe they all inhabit. Once again, this was a triumph for a film providing audiences with an experience they could not get close to anywhere else. Parisian high society of the turn of the century had taken on a mythical status- mentions of the Moulin Rouge, Monte Carlo... and all in colour. Once again, the spectacle trumped quality. The film is entertaining enough, if you can get around lines like "So fresh, so eager, so... young!" from pensionable men aimed at young teens in school uniform. The soundtrack contains memorable numbers, although not always for the right reasons. The sets and locations are beautiful, costumes once again garish to remind you that the film is in colour (I KNOW!). At least there were no unnecessarily overlong song and dance numbers and there was at least an effort to tell a story. But it was all just a bit dull. By the end you are struggling to understand why anyone would go for Gaston, a spoilt rich boy who having mistreated every woman in town can't seem to pin down how he feels about Gigi. With more back-and-forthing than a metronome (and just as much predictability) he finally settles on proposing, by which time the correct response from Gigi and her aunts would have been to "sling yer 'ook, mister." Surely it'll be a short-lived engagement, nil chance of marriage, less chance of fidelity? But despite the propaganda and conditioning process she has been through, Gigi is very clear on what she is getting herself into. In her words: "I'd rather be miserable with you than miserable apart." She has little choice either way. Depressingly, she may as well benefit from the material gains brought by this unfortunate alliance. And so it ends. Unless you are writing a masters on the sanitisation of predatory male figures in historical cinema you too will want to avoid it. |
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AuthorPablo Griffiths is a man with a passion for many things. He has recently taken an interest in writing about film, and himself in the third person. |