I have a shameful secret. Well, I have two. The first is that I have some serious holes in my movie knowledge, and the second is that I have a sweet spot for romantic comedies. I’ve been trying to rectify the former while indulging the latter these days. Though I’ve managed to sit through a Derek Jarman film or two and saw The Holy Mountain hosted by the director himself at the Film Society of Lincoln Center, I’ve never seen an Audrey Hepburn movie, anything with Gene Kelly, or any of the classic musicals.
Some friends and I decided to decompress a bit this weekend with Gigi, the story of a tomboy-ish gal (Leslie Caron) who is being groomed to become a courtesan by her grandmother (Hermione Gingold) and Aunt Alicia (Isabel Jeans). Her happy-go-lucky air is slowly crushed so that she may be fit for the eternally bored playboy Gaston (Louis Jourdan). Gigi has no idea what’s going on, except she’d rather go romp in the park than be taught how to pour coffee and choose the best cigars for future dates.
Make of that what you will, but the movie had literally just begun when I started feeling super creeped out. The opening song is ‘Thank Heaven for Little Girls,’ sung by Maurice Chevalier with denture-clacking lecherousness as he watches, yes, little girls in the park. I was familiar with the song but had never paid attention to the lyrics until then. Click here to listen to it and let us know if it raises the hairs on your neck!
–Jenni Miller
