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Gigi | 
| Director: Vincente Minnelli
Actors: John Abbott, Richard Bean, Jacques Bergerac, Leslie Caron, Maurice Chevalier
Studio: Warner Home Video
Category: DVD
List Price: CDN$ 24.96
Buy New: CDN$ 18.10
You Save: CDN$ 6.86 (27%)
New (14) Used (2) from CDN$ 17.85
Rating:  44 reviews
Format: Import, Ntsc
Language: English (Original Language)
Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: WARD035633D
UPC: 883929002429
EAN: 0883929002429
ASIN: B0010DRYOG
Theatrical Release Date: 1958
Release Date: January 8, 2008
Availability: Usually ships within 1 - 2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand new Item, factory Sealed. Buy direct from the U.S. and save! We only ship airmail to Canada (7-15 days).Caiman, les prix qu'on aime! Tous nos produits sont neufs. Envoi par avion des Etats-Unis
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| Editorial Reviews:
From Amazon.co.uk
Vincente Minnelli's 1958 adaptation of Colette's story about a girl (Leslie Caron) groomed as a courtesan--but desired as a wife by a Parisian playboy (Louis Jordan)--won a lot of Oscars, but it also has the unusual distinction of being an MGM musical shot on location in the City of Lights. What a musical it is (by Lerner and Loewe): Maurice Chevalier and Hermione Gingold crooning "Ah, Yes, I Remember It Well", plus the songs "Thank Heaven for Little Girls", "Gigi", "I'm a Bore", and "She's Not Thinking of Me". Director Vincente Minnelli (ISome Came Running/I, IMeet Me in St Louis/I) makes a sumptuous, dreamy, almost laid-back affair of it all and the indispensable cast is forever etched into memory. Hollywood's long-running infatuation with continental grace and manners, the memory of a much earlier time imported to American movies through such immigrant directors as Ernst Lubitsch, may have finally come to a gentle end with this film. I--Tom Keogh/I
Amazon.com essential video
Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe's 1958 direct-to-screen follow-up to their IMy Fair Lady/I was--miraculously--every bit as memorable as that stage smash. Set in fin-de-siecle Paris and based on a Colette story, IGigi/I also is about a girl (Leslie Caron) on a lower rung of society who blossoms into Cinderellahood before our eyes and ears. Thank heaven for Hermione Gingold and Maurice Chevalier as her mentors, and Louis Jourdan as her prince. The screenplay writer and lyricist Lerner always said that Gigi's title song was his favorite of all he'd written, and it's easy to see why--"Gigi" is a transcendent anthem to being transformed by love from an unexpected source. The entire score, including "Say a Prayer" (which had been cut from IMy Fair Lady/I), "I Remember It Well," "The Night They Invented Champagne," and "Thank Heaven for Little Girls," comprise a sparkling, rare soundtrack recording that stands alone and can be enjoyed and understood by those who have not yet seen the movie, deprived souls that they are. The winner of nine Academy Awards (plus a special Oscar for Chevalier), including Best Picture, IGigi/I was the last great MGM movie musical and one of the best. I--Robert Windeler/I
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| Customer Reviews: Read 39 more reviews...
 Thank Heaven for Little Girls April 11, 2007
B. Chandler (Arlington, Texas)
This is a fun musical that is worth rewatching. Apologies to readers as with out comparing to the book this film is first rate. And for those viewers that poses large high definition devices it is also fun to watch the background from clouds to furniture. br / br /The year 1900. The place Paris. The story of the coming of age of a little girl, Gigi (Leslie Caron.) And the coming of age of those (Maurice Chevalier, Louis Jourdan, and Hermione Gingold) interested in Gigi's coming of age. Mixed throughout in the appropriate places are relevant songs and visual filters. br / br /Directed by Vincente Minnelli who is well known for Brigadoon (1954), and On a Clear Day You Can See Forever (1970). Original music by Frederick Loewe Camelot (1967) (music: "I Wonder What The King Is Doing Tonight"), and Brigadoon (1966) (TV) (music: "I'll Go Home With Bonnie Jean"). br /
GIGI IS EYE CANDY May 22, 2005
A. Munnik (Brazeau Tower, Alberta)
It is ironic that GIGI, set in the year 1900, was shot on location in Paris while the contemporary An American in Paris was filmed on a sound stage. Minnelli wasn't exactly given an open cheque book by a budget conscious Studio and some scenes had to be shot later in California, such as the Trouville sea side episode, under the direction of Charles Walters no less, since Minnelli was already committed to his next film project. The effects of the time limits imposed on Minnelli are evident in some of the street scenes involving Chevalier and Jourdan where the camera is positioned at such an angle as to catch only the upper stories of the Parisian boulevards, thus avoiding all the trappings of the modern age at ground level.br Footage not shot under the direction of Minnelli also strikes a discordant note. The Trouville episode somehow does not blend in with the whole. If Minnelli had been a more forceful character in his dealings with MGM a more suitable arrangement may have been arrived at.br Nevertheless, GIGI is a sensual feast. Minnelli's genius for colour schemes and arrangements are evident in every frame under his direction. No one surpassed him in his lavish use of floral arrangements. He truly was the Renoir of directors and no doubt his heart belonged to the Impressionists.br Minnelli was lucky in his Gallic cast. Leslie Caron was one of the finest actresses of the Musicals genre and Maurice Chevalier epitomized the American image of the civilized and ageless French dandy. Louis Jourdan's character was a perfect fit for his somewhat limited talents. Although GIGI won all nine Oscars for which it was nominated, not a single one was in any of the acting categories. Minnelli had a reputation for indifferent character direction and his actors had to fall back on their own individual thespian resources.br GIGI also features some fine songs and singing and they blend in seemlessly with the story line.br GIGI was not the last great musical. Four Musicals won the Best Picture Oscar during the 1960's but tellingly not one was made by MGM. With GIGI ,the era in which MGM set the standard in the realm of movie musicals, dating back to 1929's Broadway Melody came to a spectacular end.
Bravo! Bravo! July 14, 2004
Pamela Reid (Los Angeles, Ca)
I think that GIGI is the best musical ever. I just love Aunt Alicia and her sister. Hermoine Gingold is fabulous. This movie takes you into a world that you don't want to come out of. If only they would make more movies like this today. My grandaughter absolutely adores it. I want to watch Gigi over and over and does not want it to end. I get lost in the movie and wish I could stay there forever. It is absolutely fantastic.!!!!! More young people should be able to see this movie. Whomever have not seen this movie they are missing out on life itself. Julia Reid
Watch it for Leslie Caron! March 29, 2004
S. Smith (Dayton, Ohio, USA)
I had never seen the Best Picture of 1958, the year of my birth. Turner Classic Movies (possibly the best channel of all available televison channels) provided many of the Best Picture winners during the month of February so I finally got to see it.brAlthough quite dated and politically incorrect (I challenge you to see/hear Maurice Chevalier sing Thank Heavens for Little Girls and not think it so) this movie is a perfect vehicle for Leslie Caron. She is funny, charming and winsome. Effective as both a young girl and then convincingly blossoming into a young lady, Miss Caron is entirely believable in her role. Hermione Gingold plays her guardian aunt with Maurice Chevalier the uncle of her suitor. Louis Jourdan is charming but I found Monsieur Chevalier to be what my mother used to call a professional Frenchman. Laughing off the suicide of one of his nephew's mistresses is totally unacceptable and I also found Chevalier's mannerisms tedious. pOn the whole I found that by watching the movie strictly for the performances of Caron, Gingold and Jourdan it was very enjoyable. Paris was lovely, the costumes gorgeous and Vincente Minelli's direction superb.
Substance, not sparkle -- the triumph of innocence in "Gigi" March 28, 2004
Robert E. Henry (Hopewell, NJ USA)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
When Yeats mourned, "The ceremony of innocence is drowned," he was prophesying the loss of all that is decent in the coming 20th century - and he was crying out for us to fight for all we are worth to prize the innocence of the young, to put aside all self-indulgent pursuits in the face of innocence. "Gigi" is set against all the magnificence the world can offer as a backdrop for the test of innocence against the cunning and the carnal. The movie's real appeal comes not from its lush setting, costumes and flight from our crass age into the Impressionist gentility of fin-de-siecle Paris, but ultimately from Aristotle's pet component of any literary work of merit: the plot. And "Gigi" has a plot that never fades for an instant. In truly entertaining fashion we watch as the fate of the heroine's innocence comes to hang on the edge of a knife from the movie's sunny beginning to its climactic end. For lovely, irresistible Paris is, in reality, a turbulent arena where the innocent are thrown to all the well-tailored wolves of Society, to fend for themselves with nothing but their hearts and their integrity as protection against a life-lived-hollow.pThe watchword for "Gigi" is paradox, that steady companion of reality. Look for it everywhere, in the boredom that pervades the intricate lives of the rich elite versus the interest and charm that young Gigi exudes when she simply enters a room. The simple, the "straight of heart," are the enviable ones, while the titans gnash their teeth (and one another's) in their futile pursuit of a remedy for an ennui that becomes downright pathological. Leisure becomes the hardest work of all for the upper classes; titillation requires higher and higher doses, until no amount of frivolity - France's special export to the world - will give joy. Where, the movie asks, is all this legendary Gallic joie-de-vivre? The wealthiest of them all, Gaston (played to perfection by Louis Jordan), is so far past the pursuit of money that he alone of his class has the composure to look around himself, take his life's bearings, and realize that the Emperor is quite naked. And so he is driven on his strange, unconscious heroic quest to live an authentic life. It begins when, on an impulse, he hops out of a carriage ride with his uncle, Paris's veteran joie-de-vivre mentor (played to sheer magnificence by Maurice Chevalier), and seeks refuge in the simple house of Hermione Gingold, who plays Gigi's grandmother.pChevalier represents the Parisian romantic idol of his age. One gets the feeling in watching him in "Gigi" that he was almost spending his entire movie career simply in apprenticeship for this seminal role. For I do not think we could really understand the frantic romanticizing of the 19th century French without his incredibly compelling, appealing performance - it flows so naturally from his every pore that it seems less like acting than living the bon vivant code he preaches. And yet, having reached the pinnacle of self-interest, Parisian style, he is still touched by Gigi's grandmother, just as his nephew is ultimately won over to real love by the innocent one, Gigi herself. We are, in fact, educable! And the undercurrent of joy that pervades this masterpiece of filmmaking is centered around this buoyant theme: we can all be taught to realize virtue.pGigi is Gaston's soulmate, though neither knows what that means at the movie's start. He is too emotionally stunted to realize she is a woman - and wouldn't know what to do with a woman besides woo her - and she is unaware that she is leaving childhood. The movie chronicles the maturing of both partners-to-be: Gigi from physical and emotional adolescence to womanhood, Gaston from the emotional adolescence that Society has demanded, to manhood. There is realism in the depiction of all this gaiety, as we watch Gaston try desperately to follow his uncle's "sage" advice, clinging sulkingly to his boorish, feckless bachelorhood and blaming Gigi for being "unreasonable" in wanting marriage over a high-priced affair. His antics make him the more likeable, as we identify with whatever false ideal we might have clung to long after it had outlived its usefulness. In the case of "the Parisians" that Gigi rants against in her early soliloquy, it is the puerile, incessant pursuit of romantic adventure long after grown adults should have found their mate that has gone stale ... and made their lives atrophy as pathetic parodies of eternal 17-year olds. The victim of all this pursuing is innocence - in this case, the innocent love that a young woman can bring to her mate only once, not in the absurd repetition of romantic pursuit that characterized adulterous Paris.pDoes Gigi conquer this silly, dangerous sensuality alone? No, again paradox moves to the forefront, and Gaston discovers for himself the infinite spiritual beauty of true love that Gigi has been trying to express to him. In her moment of weakness, he finds the need to become strong - and so useful to his mate. And thus in the end, love conquers its counterfeit, amorousness.p"Gigi" is a warning to our own age that has set itself on its own reckless pursuit of loving relationships, turning nature on its head in the process and life into a cosmic game of trivial pursuit. In raising before us the challenge to love, no less relevant to us now, the artist's value to Society rises above mere diversion. The challenge is whether we even now can listen to the message of "Gigi," whether we in our own jaded Society can pull back from the abyss of terminal, self-centered sensuality and rediscover the God-given joy of our heart's true desire ... innocent love become mature through fidelity.
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