Joao rodrigues

A very free film about trapped people. Funny that this film takes place during Michel’s homecoming, despite the fact we only see him in the very beggining and then the end (and one shot in the middle). The characters all confine theirselves to their situations, mostly due to love and a burning desire to escape Nantes, and very few directors in history are as talented at capturing heartbreak, melancholia and regret as Jacques. In the end, they all free theirselves in one way or another, yet you could argue they just locked theirselves in a prettier jail. Also, chills during that slow motion scene.

What a pleasant surprise. Went in to this film knowing nothing of its plot, to the point I had no idea what a debutante even was, and I just let it take me for a real ride. This has got to be one of the all-time great ensemble movies, there’s a good 25 minutes of it where it’s just the 4 main characters going in and out of one room, and it’s magnificently staged by Minelli, who really pops off here. He makes every funny moment in the script and turns them up to the max with some wonderful montage and longer takes. His taste for the color red was more apparent than ever before in 1958, between this and Gigi (and presumably Some Came Running too). This might be Minelli’s funniest film, but it is also quite lovely, I love all the 4 main characters, Sheila’s want to proportionate for her stepdaughter the ball she couldn’t have, Jane’s desire to not partake in Sheila’s antics and live for herself, Jimmy’s laid back attitude and David’s pure charisma make for some amazing drama and conflicts. I have to say though, the ending of this has two characters end up together who absolutely shouldn’t and it bothered me (specially since of one them is a serial harasser). I suppose that’s my only complaint. Overall, easily Minelli’s most underrated and one of his very best.

Gaston walks in to Gigi’s apartment, the one he had said he’d never come back to the last evening. He came due to having received a note from Gigi, the girl he had said he’d never answer to again. He greets her grandmother and great aunt. Suddenly, Gigi strides out of her room. He looks at her, and she looks at him. And she simply utters the words “Gaston, I’ve been thinking. I’d rather be miserable with you than without you”. They trade simpathetic looks, she retreats back into her room, and he leaves afterwards, without saying a word to Gigi’s elders. This is the scene when the film really won me over, it is so beautifully staged and shot and acted out. Minelli’s close-ups are gentle and all-encompassing, and so are his wide shot compositions, he’s always using scope to its fullest potential. At this point, it’s basically pointless to reiterate the movie’s more controversial shit, but honestly? There’s nothing I could care about less the moment we see Gigi’s apartment for the first time. God, it’s so wonderful, and those reds are otherworldly. And the songs in this are phenomenal too. Aside from the scene I narrated, I love the “I remember well” musical number/conversation, such a great translation of the feeling of melancholia and looking back into the medium of film, there’s a difference between the way you remember something and the way it actually happened -  a reflection on the romanticism of Minelli’s earlier work (Meet Me in St. Louis). Gigi is certainly not a film without its own flaws, but it flows amazingly and is just so lovely.