The Oscar Project #31: Gigi (1958)

by Chris Marshall:

Believe it or not, Gigi is a pretty good movie. When I see a period piece musical set in France, the last thing I expect is to like it, but here we are. 

Leslie Caron, who we last saw in An American in Paris, plays the title role so well that I completely forgot about how much I didn’t like her character in that film. It had nothing to do with her, but nothing happened to make me care. In Gigi, though, she’s charming, devious, mischievous, a sort of primordial Juno, if Juno were less abrasive.

Indeed, it is the performances as a whole, rather than the musical numbers themselves, that make this movie so effective. Alongside Caron, Louis Jordan is also tremendous as Gaston, the upper-class socialite/playboy who ultimately falls for Gigi. And Maurice Chevalier as the quasi-narrator Honoré is extremely enjoyable as well .

The Oscar Project #24: An American in Paris (1951)

by Chris Marshall:

Seven years ago (in Oscar Project time), I made the comment that Going My Way was a kinda sorta musical in that Bing Crosby sang a couple of songs, but it still didn’t feel like what I think of as a musical; I said similar things about The Broadway Melody and The Great Ziegfeld as well. Well, 1951’s An American in Paris fits all the criteria of a “real musical.” In fact, there was almost nothing but songs and dance numbers.

When I think about dancers in the movies, Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire are always the first names I think of. Kelly’s Singin’ in the Rain is usually considered the greatest example of this genre, but An American in Paris was the one that won the big prize. From what I understand, it was quite revolutionary; people had really never seen anything like it before.

But did I like it? I’d be hard pressed to say that I did. I appreciated the dancing (and some of the singing), but most of the time it was difficult to figure out what the dance numbers had to do with anything. Then again, I suppose the plot in these movies will always be of secondary importance; Marshall McLuhan famously said “the medium is the message,” but here the music is the message. People don’t watch this kind of movie for the story.