Gigi

This is one of those years when you wish a movie from the previous year cam out this year. Apparently 1958 was not a good year for movies. After 1957 when so many good movies were nominated that lost like "12 Angry Men" this year there were not very many great movies nominated. Besides for "Cat on the Hot Tin Roof" and "The Defiant Ones" I have not heard of the other movies nominated for Best Picture and I have not seen any of them. I would think one of them would be better then Gigi.

Gigi is a musical about a girl growing up in Paris in the early 1900's.  Her Grandmother and Aunt are raising her to be a mistress to a wealthy man figuring that's all she could hope for coming from a poor background. Meanwhile this rich man Gaston who hangs out at the poor family's home to be with some regular folk and get away from the banal lifestyle of his upper class existence takes a liking to little Gigi. Gigi's grandmother and aunt try to work out a deal where Gigi would become Gaston's lover and she will have a lovely existence but that is not what Gigi wants. She realizes that she is in love with Gaston and wants to be his wife not just his mistress.

One of the problems I have with the movie is not just the bad acting, the bad songs, the silly dancing it is the disturbing nature of the plot. From the first songs "Thank Heaven for Little Girls" the movie seem like a pedophiles dream. Here is this girl that they are grooming to be someones sex partner. They never say how old Gigi is but she is still in school and not yet old enough for boys. I guess my biggest issue is who they make it seem like everything is ok like it's fine for old men like Gaston's uncle to go around lusting after young girls and singing songs about it. Just a little disturbing to me. I am not sure how this movie won so many awards. I won all 9 of the awards it was nominated for. Making it at the time the most any movie had won(it would lose that record the following year when Ben-Hur would win 11) and also only the third movie at the time to win every award it was nominated for(Grand Hotel and It Happened One Night were the two previous films to get a clean sweep The Last Emperor and Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King are the only two that has done it since Gigi). Also Gigi has the honor of the shortest title to ever win best picture.