![]() ![]() He proposed to eliminate completely Gigis mother, who was redundant in the play, from the script. Minnelli helped Lerner restored the delicate tone and subtlety that were missing from Anita Loos’ version. ![]() Indeed, the Code administrators protested that the films man-mistress relationship was considered in the story as perfectly normal.” Under pressure, Freed urged Minnelli to stress the innate virtue of Gigi’s heroine and the moral lesson, conveyed in the films ending. Gigi concerns a schoolgirl raised by courtesans to assume her place in society as a kept woman. Collette’s sophisticated vision didn’t conform to the Code’s old-fashioned strictures. Minnelli knew that Gigi would not be approved in the moralistic climate of Hollywood of the 1950s. The stage production starred the then unknown Audrey Hepburn, whom Colette herself had discovered while vacationing in Southern France. Minnelli was familiar with the 1948 French film of Colette’s controversial novel, as well as with Anita Loos’ 1951 Broadway adaptation. ![]() And it was set in Minnellis favorite city, Paris, in his favorite era, turn of the century. Like many of Minnellis musicals, Gigi had a winning combination of ingredients: original score, nuanced characters, a bittersweet love story that balances sentiment and irony. Yet it was made in an atmosphere of suspicion and pessimism, initially undermined by threats of censorship, squeezed budgets, and skepticism. Gigi reflects the technical powers of high-gloss Hollywood, a summation of the classical era. A morally ambiguous story, staged in a sumptuous style, Gigi is also the biggest commercial hit of Minnelli-Freed’s long and productive collaboration. The MGM Oscar-winning musical may not be Minnelli’s best picture but it certainly is his best-known movie. ![]()
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