The Grandmother and her sister have taken it upon themselves to develop Gigi into a true Lady. Gaston keeps going out with other spoiled and rich women, but the only thing he truly enjoys to do is visit Honore’s ex-mistress (Hermione Gingold) and her tomboyish granddaughter Gigi (Leslie Caron in an adorable performance). “Gigi”, The film revolves around the rich, non-working elite of Paris in the beginning of the 19th century where sugar magnate Honore Lachaille (the irresistible Maurice Chevalier) tries to pass his bachelor, non-committal philosophy of life to his bored and not less rich nephew Gaston (Louise Jourdan who’s Laissez-faire performance of being spoiled, rich and doing nothing was attractive to thousands of woman). Then if you add good commercial songs to this formula, the viewer is sure to have a good time. Lovable characters and eye warming locations. I find that there are two main aspects of a successful musical. Gigi is a prime example of the Hollywood musical with its story of love and fantasy laced with pretty hummable songs and filled with sumptuous locations. Watching the 1959 award winning musical, “Gigi”, reminded me on what it is like to just have fun at the movies. Vincent Minnelli was a great Hollywood director who never lost sight of this fact and for the most part his films are greatly entertaining. If a movie does not entertain us then we are bored and the skill of the filmmaker or message of the story gets lost in translation. Now that I am well into my reviews of all of the movies found in, “1001 movies you must see before you die”, I find that my observations of the art and philosophy of some of these great films sometime allows me to forget the number one goal of all filmmakers.
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