The ones that look pretty and use the camera in the best way possible will get the most recognition. After all, the camera is ultimately what separates film from theatre. It is not that story itself, but how it is told. The story could be a total mess, but get plenty of good shots, have a strong visual language, have a decent director, and make sure at least your lead actor is believable, then you may get your Oscar.
Enter this movie, Gigi.
Gigi is based on a French novella that was released in 1944. After a movie in France premiered there came a stage play with Audrey Hepburn as the titled heroine. In 1958, a musical film based on the play premiered to the whole world. It dominated the Academy Awards, winning every of its nine nominations including Best Picture. The only other film in Oscar history to win that many is The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. So it should be good, right?
If you just take a glimpse at the movie, it seems to deserve the praise. The film is bright, colorful, and decadent without being garish. It doesn’t recreate what Paris actually was at the time, but what we wish 20th century Paris was so that we could visit it. It creates this world of rich white people being rich white people to provide some escapism to the audience. But occasional escapism not a bad thing. Some of the cinematography is incredible to look at for its color and detail. The shots chosen for the movie all reflect the characters and the moods of the scenes, which is what good shots should do.
So what about the story?
This is where the movie fails.
It sings the tale of a girl named Gigi training to be a courtesan in early 20th century France. They never explicitly say it in the film due to the Hays Code censorship policies, but the film tries its best to communicate that to you. The key word being “try”. Without that context, it just looks like she’s training to be a high-class lady. But Gigi hates these lessons and she prefers to do other things. Her aunt and grandmother scheme for her first customer to be Gaston, a rich dude who just lost his previous mistress to suicide. (Which the film apparently finds hilarious) Gaston spends most of the movie seeing her as a little sister. But once he realizes that the puberty train has struck her, they fall in love and get married. That’s it. That’s the story.
Do you see something wrong here?
The story is weak and flimsy. It lacks a strong action, conflict, and event. It lacks all of the things that build up to make plot and characters. Some of the characters have objectives. Gigi wants to be free, for example. However, she doesn’t fight it throughout the whole thing. She rebels at first, but then she is back to just playing, training, and wearing fabulous dresses. After that she has little to no real objective, she just twirls around, giggles, sings, and sometimes cries. The older women have objectives and get them. But I am still lost on what Gaston himself wants. It appears that he has more conflict: he is torn between two different views of Gigi. If that’s his conflict, then why isn’t the film more about that? It would have given it something to work off of! There could be other women vying for his attention, there could be people telling him otherwise…but all we get is one three minute song and that is all.
There are not any real cause and effect events that happen in the story once it gets going, things just occur and then go away without any real consequence. The characters have basic personalities, but they are somewhat stock characters. We have the grandma, the spirited young girl, the hunky rich guy, the mega-French guy to out-French them all, and the fabulous old lady, but they are not developed enough to be interesting characters. They are okay actors and bearable singers, but they are stuck with under-written, cardboard characters to play.
But what about the music? It was written by Musical Theatre duo Lerner and Lowe, the same guys behind My Fair Lady and Camelot. Although the lyrics are sometimes clever, most of the music ranges from just okay to catchy (“The Night They Invented Champagne” being the best one with its joyful melody and playful rhythm).
The point of this film is not to be fulfilling as a story to its audience. It is not a sandwich, but a good-looking, bland-tasting dessert. It is insert-yourself escapism. Just imagine yourself riding horses on the beach in the 19th century with a rich stud beside you. Just swap your face on Gigi and, yes, you will wear jewelry and gorgeous dresses and go to balls, and dinners, and so on. However, once you really savor it, you will realize that it has no real taste, so why even ingest the unnecessary calories.
In short, Gigi could have been better, but it is not. It has a pretty look, but a bad story, and that makes any musical, movie, or musical movie pretty bad.
