Gigi (1958)

  After the heaviness of Gandhi, I had to take a break and watch something happy.  This effervescent little musical won Best Picture in 1958, along with eight other Oscars, for Warner Bros. 

Gigi (Leslie Caron) is a carefree Parisian schoolgirl whose grandmother (Hermione Gingold) has a family friendship with an extremely wealthy sugar baron named Gaston (Louis Jourdan).  Gaston often escapes to their house to get away from the boring rituals of upper class society.  He and Gigi have a playful brother-sister relationship but her grandmother worries about the future.  Gigi is being trained by her Aunt Alicia (Isabel Jeans) to be a respectable courtesan and Grandmother warns Gaston that his attentions may soon conflict with the path laid out for the young woman.  This forces him to reexamine his feelings for her.

Can you love a musical and still disagree with everything it stands for?  Gigi is fun, lighthearted, and entertaining but I cannot ignore the fact that it is still about a family training a girl to be a professional mistress.  And coldly roping in a family friend to be her first meal ticket.  That's hardcore.  It's also extremely catty in its depictions of how the women of Paris handle gossip about their peers.  That part is in the Pro column.  I'm not gonna lie, I laughed hysterically when Aunt Alicia and Gigi's grandmother are discussing the "suicide" of one of Gaston's exes.  That is some quality black humor in an otherwise schmaltzy musical.