Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity

The movie runs out of plot and jokes well before the end of a two-hour running time, long for a light comedy.

One of those movie experiences that is so good it makes you realize you've been grading everything else on a curve.

Gigi2 Out Of 5Gigi is a plot driven musical feature focusing on a tale of self-created conflicts and love. The chemistry among the characters which becomes essential in such genre features, is surprisingly dull, off putting and way too textbook for it to breed any crisp through it.It is rich on technical aspects like art design, songs, production design and background score but is unfortunately lacks captivating cinematography and fine editing. The camera work is plausible and has an amazing choreography on its favor through which the makers seek attention being well aware of it. The adaptation by Alan Jay Lerner is smart if not gripping, catchy but scattered into bits and pieces as it lacks better and definite structure. Vincent Minnelli; the director, has done a tremendous work on executing the feature despite of possessing such a wafer thin script to work on. The performance by Leslie Caron, Maurice Chevalier and Louis Gordon is decent and convincing to the allotted part if not leaves the audience in awe of it. Gigi is an out-of-context and out-of-time portrayal of a textbook tale that may be entertaining but is more pretentious than it has the potential to.

Costumes to die for (the iconic white dress!), set design that transports you to another world, music that will stay with you long past the end and a romance for the ages. What more could you ask for?

Copyright 1958. A Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer picture. New York opening at the Royale: 15 May 1958. U.K. release: floating from July 1960. Australian release: 4 September 1958. 10,379 feet; 116 minutes.SYNOPSIS: A young girl in turn-of-the-century Paris aspires to marry a rich, handsome aristocrat.NOTES: Voting members of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences selected Gigi as Best Film of the Year. The movie also won awards for screenplay, direction, color cinematography, art direction, costumes, film editing, music scoring, and best song ("Gigi"). The Hollywood Foreign Press Association named Gigi the year's Best Musical, while Minnelli carried off the Best Director award and Gingold, Best Supporting Actress. The readers of Photoplay magazine voted Gigi the best film of 1958. The movie came in at 3rd position in the annual poll of American and Canadian film critics and commentators conducted by the trade newspaper, The Film Daily. M-G-M production number: 1723.COMMENT: Although the number one reason to see this film is, of course, Maurice Chevalier, please don't deprive yourself of a glorious entertainment experience by attempting to see Gigi in any other format but CinemaScope. Director Minnelli has used the full resources of the CinemaScope screen with flair, taste and imagination. The movie is nothing less than a charming, captivating triumph. Miss Caron's fans will not be disappointed, while Louis Jourdan, a much under-rated actor, is not only as stylishly persuasive as usual, but sings his own songs with the same degree of effortless charm that Chevalier brings to his. Gingold and Jeans are also perfectly cast.

and what passes for a plot is ridiculous. I'd love to provide spoilers for this overrated movie but there's nothing to spoil. The songs are trite at best, creepy at worst, and ineptly dubbed. The acting is adequate, but a 27 yo. Leslie Caron trying to pass for a coquette is a real stretch. Chevalier is entertaining playing himself, but he's absent for such long stretches you forget what he's doing there when he returns.Speaking of, what do any of these people do? Bored bachelor Gaston is evidently rich enough to rent out an opera house every night for his suarees (breathlessly and ludicrously reported in every newspaper in Paris) yet has time to cavort in complete anonymity whenever the plot feels like it. He has enough money to buy off his erstwhile girlfriend's beau, solely for the purpose of driving her to yet another suicide attempt? I can't believe any of this makes sense even for fin de siecle Paris. I also can't believe it won 9 Academy Awards.