Gigi
Gigi is a novel by the French sentimental romance writer Colette about a wealthy cultured man of fashion who discovers that he is in love with a young Parisian girl who is being groomed for a career as a grande cocotte, and eventually marries her. It became a 1948 French non-musical film, a 1951 Broadway play, a 1958 Hollywood musical film, and a 1973 musical play.
The Broadway version of the play, adapted by Anita Loos, opened on November 24, 1951 starring little known actress Audrey Hepburn playing the lead character (the play ran for six months and lead to Hepburn's film debut in Roman Holiday).
The 1958 movie starred Leslie Caron and Maurice Chevalier with support from Louis Jourdan, Hermione Gingold and Eva Gabor.
The film was nominated for an Oscar in nine categories, and won all nine. None of them, however, was for any of the acting awards.
- Academy Award for Best Picture - Arthur Freed, producer
- Academy Award for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White or Color - E. Preston Ames, F. Keogh Gleason, Henry Grace, and William A. Horning
- Academy Award for Best Cinematography, Color - Joseph Ruttenberg
- Academy Award for Costume Design, Black-and-White or Color - Cecil Beaton
- Academy Award for Directing - Vincente Minnelli
- Best Film Editing - Adrienne Fazan
- Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture - André Previn
- Best Music, Song - Alan Jay Lerner (lyrics), Frederick Loewe (music) - For the song "Gigi"
- Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium - Alan Jay Lerner
The film also has been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.
The 1973 musical comedy starred Alfred Drake, Daniel Massey, Agnes Moorehead, and Karin Wolfe.
Gigi is also a name used by Luigino Longo, a Norwegian-Italian socialist activist. He is currently serving jail time in Sweden following a controversial trial in which he was convicted of assaulting the police during the 2001 Gothenburg demonstrations against George W. Bush and the EU.
