Much of the acting is on point - as is the singing - and the visuals are stunning. Gigi is not a bad movie, on the contrary, it’s very entertaining. Then again, Fifty Shades Freed came out this year, so maybe not. Here’s to hoping women who grew up thinking this was how it happens eventually learned otherwise. Instead, he comes to the home Gigi and her grandmother share, and asks Grandma for Gigi’s hand in marriage.Ī “happy ending” that certainly took a long and troubling journey to get to. It’s almost a Fifty Shades situation, where an unhealthy relationship suddenly leads to love and marriage. The escort arrangement is called off when Gaston realizes he loves Gigi (after he suddenly finds his uncle’s sexist commentaries offensive). She then sings a song to a cat, about preparing to reluctantly lose her virginity. She eventually agrees by telling Gaston she’d rather be miserable with him than without him (aww, so romantic, right?). ![]() It’s troubling how much Gigi is treated like a non-person in this matter. Gaston is part of high society, and needs to have affairs that end dramatically in public. Gigi is being groomed to be a… well, it’s a bit convoluted, but basically a courtesan. Despite “Grandmama/Mamita” being pretty cool, she switches between being delightfully progressive, and disturbingly controlling. She basically tells him he’s a womanizer, and being seen out with him will give Gigi a reputation. It seems the two were once quite an item, but he was unfaithful. She also takes Gaston aside and voices her objections to his taking Gigi out. The poor treatment of women is at times addressed as such. Gigi’s grandmother (played absolutely perfectly by Hermione Gingold), in the scene where she sings “I Remember It Well” with Honoré, calls him out on his womanizing. Much in the way that characters in Forrest Gump use profanity to highlight how clean-cut Forrest is, vapid women are here to show Gigi is not. To play devil’s advocate, one might argue that the way other female characters act (and are thought of/treated) is simply for contrast. She doesn’t do the stereotypically “feminine” things her peers do, and would rather play cards with Gaston than pay attention to her finishing lessons. She is intelligent (if a bit naive), has her own opinions, and is what we might have called “a tomboy” at the time. However, Gigi is clearly different from the other women and girls in the story. Honestly, Gigi is not even the main focus of her self-titled movie, Gaston is. Gigi herself is even referred to as “little idiot,” and “brat” by Gaston, and is initially treated as much younger (her exact age is not revealed, but in the book she was 16). They are seen as property, gossips, uppity bores, and the like. Gigi’s first song is even about how unappealing she finds the way of life expected of her - much like Belle’s first song. Apparently, the similarities are fairly obvious, as a quick Internet search yields several references to this.įor a movie released in 1958, with a story set in 1900, it’s no surprise that the attitude toward women isn’t enlightened by 2018 standards. Wait… exactly how many times did the people at Disney watch Gigi while creating the original Beauty and the Beast? Gigi herself is similar to Belle, in that she is unaffected, and more freethinking than others wish she was. Gaston also wasn’t a character’s name in the original Beauty and the Beast story. Gaston is quite pompous, and has women falling at his feet. Speaking of Beauty and The Beast connections, Chevalier’s character, Honoré, is the uncle to the main male character Gaston. It is also said that “Be Our Guest” was written intentionally to resemble “Thank Heaven For Little Girls.” ![]() Let’s start with the first song we hear in Gigi, “Thank Heaven For Little Girls,” which starts off, “when I see a girl of six or seven….” Umm… that’s creepy, no? It does make one smile, however, thinking of Lumiere from Beauty and the Beast.Jerry Orbach based his performance (and accent) as Lumiere on Maurice Chevalier in Gigi, and it shows. ![]() Image via MGM Gigi Was Clearly Influential
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