Gigi Overview:

Gigi (1958) was a Comedy - Musical Film directed by Vincente Minnelli and produced by Arthur Freed.

The film was based on the novel of the same name from & Musical Play written by Sidonie Gabrielle Colette published in 1944 (novel); Nov 24, 1951 - May 31, 1952 (play performed at Fulton Theatre, NY).

SYNOPSIS

Set in Paris at the turn of the century, this delightful Lerner-and-Loewe musical, based on a story by Colette, follows a precocious French girl as she is groomed into a would-be courtesan and blossoms into a stunning woman. The story provides plenty of opportunity for Minnelli and MGM to pull out all the stops in its first musical production shot on location.

(Source: available at Amazon AMC Classic Movie Companion).

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Gigi was inducted into the National Film Registry in 1991.

Academy Awards 1958 --- Ceremony Number 31 (source: AMPAS)

AwardRecipientResult
Best Art DirectionArt Direction: William A. Horning, Preston Ames; Set Decoration: Henry Grace, Keogh GleasonWon
Best CinematographyJoseph RuttenbergWon
Best Costume DesignCecil BeatonWon
Best DirectorVincente MinnelliWon
Best Film EditingAdrienne FazanWon
Best Music - ScoringAndre PrevinWon
Best Music - SongMusic by Frederick Loewe; Lyrics by Alan Jay LernerWon
Best PictureArthur Freed, ProducerWon
Best WritingAlan Jay LernerWon
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Gigi: BlogHub Articles:

Thank Heaven For GIGI (1958) (1)

By Margaret Perry on Oct 13, 2012 From The Great Katharine Hepburn

Thank Heaven For GIGI (1958) "GIGI" is the shortest title of any movie to have won the Academy Award for best picture. The day after the film won nine Oscars at the 1959 Academy Awards, telephone operators at the studio answered the phones with a cheery "M-Gigi-M!" The original story was wr... Read full article


Thank Heaven For GIGI (1958)

By Margaret Perry on Oct 13, 2012 From The Great Katharine Hepburn

Thank Heaven For GIGI (1958) Labels: Alan Jay Lerner, Andre Previn, Anita Loos, Cecil Beaton, Colette, Frederick Loewe, Gigi (1958), Hermione Gingold, Leslie Caron, Louis Jourdan, Maurice Chevalier, MGM, My Fair Lady (1964), Vincente Minnelli "GIGI" is the shortest title of any m... Read full article


Thank Heaven For GIGI (1958) (2)

By MargaretPerry on Oct 13, 2012 From Margaret Perry

“Caron leads the cast in a contest to see who can be the most French.” (TV Guide) “No doubt inspired by the finicky claustrophobic sets and bric-a-brac, the cast tries (with unfortunate success) to be more French than the French.” (Time Out New York) “I am too old for w... Read full article


Guest Blogger: Author Gigi Amateau interviews Author Joseph Papa

By Google profile on Jul 18, 2011 From Out of the Past - A Classic Film Blog

About MeBlogger, Out of the Past - A Classic Film Blog and more. Please add my Google profile to your circles. When Elizabeth Taylor passed away earlier in the year, one of my favorite authors Gigi Amateau tweeted the fact that she had met Taylor briefly years ago. I tweeted her back asking if she'... Read full article


“Gigi” – Leslie Caron, Louis Jourdan, Maurice Chevalier

By Art on Jul 10, 2011 From Classic Cinema Gold

“This story is about a little girl. It could be about any one of those little girls playing there. But it isn’t. It’s about one in particular. Her name is Gigi.” ~ Honore Lachaille (Maurice Chevalier) . “Gigi” is a 1958 musical film produced by Arthur Freed and... Read full article


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Quotes from Gigi:

Gaston Lachaille: [Gaston speculates on the unfaithfulness of his mistress Liane] She's so gay tonight / She's like spring tonight / She's a rollicking, frolicking thing tonight / So disarming, soft and charming / She is not thinking of me / No, she's not thinking of me! In her eyes tonight / There's a glow tonight / They're so bright they could light Fountainbleu tonight / She's so gracious, so vivacious / She is not thinking of me! Bless her little heart / Crooked to the core / Acting out a part / What a rollicking, frolicking bore! She's such fun tonight / She's a treat tonight / You could spread her on bread, she's so sweet tonight / So devoted, sugar-coated / That it's heart-warming to see / Oh, she's simmering with love / Oh, she's shimmering with love / Oh, she's not thinking of me! She is not thinking of me! / Someone has set her on fire / Is it Jacques? Is it Paul or Leon? / Who's turning her furnace up higher? / Oh she's hot, but it's not for Gaston! Oh, she's gay tonight / Oh, so gay tonight / A gigantic, romantic cliché tonight / How she blushes, how she gushes / How she fills me with ennui! / She's so ooh-la-la-la-la, so UNTRUE-la-la-la-la / Oh, she's not thinking of me!


Aunt Alicia: Without knowledge of jewelery, my dear Gigi, a woman is lost.


Aunt Alicia: Liane d'Exelmans has commited suicide... again!


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Facts about Gigi:

By mid-July 1957, the songwriters had still not come up with the title song. One evening, Frederick Loewe was at a piano while Alan Jay Lerner was indisposed in the bathroom, and when Loewe began playing a particular melody, he later recalled Lerner jumped up, "his trousers still clinging to his ankles, and made his way to the living room. 'Play that again,' he said." That melody ended up as the film's title song.
When the stage production of 'My Fair Lady' was trying out in Philadelphia, producer Arthur Freed tackled songwriter Alan Jay Lerner about doing a film musical for him. Lerner had a pre-existing contract with MGM and owed Freed another musical. After reading Colette's novel, he knew he had found the right material to fulfill that contract.
Gaston's walk through Paris while singing "Gigi" uses camera magic to make parts of Paris which are miles apart seem adjacent to each other. This technique, called "creative geography", was created and named by French filmmaker Jean Cocteau.
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Gigi: book or play


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Best Picture Oscar 1958






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National Film Registry

Gigi

Released 1958
Inducted 1991
(Sound)




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Also directed by Vincente Minnelli




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Also produced by Arthur Freed




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