And unfortunately, no, not creepy in a good horror movie way. Creepy in a skeeved-me-out and left-me-wanting-a-shower way. Oh, Netflix recommendations, you have let me down. So down.
What film are we referencing? Gigi. I don't know what I rented and rated highly that convinced the Netflix computers that I'd like this movie, but I know that if I had been paying better attention and realized it was a musical, I'd never had had a chance to get skeeved by it. I live in a strict No Musicals Zone. There are ordinances against them here at The Adventures. But, be that as it may, apparently they caught me on a day my reading comprehension skills had deserted me. And then the Netflix description, which my reading comprehension tackled *just fine*, totally misrepresented the plot, musical or not. I thought this was going to be a comedy about a young woman whose family were grooming her to be a whore and who were scandalized when one of her paramours wanted to marry her. That film would be worth a couple hours of my time, right? Theoretically.
Well, you know, no. That isn't exactly the plot or the point of the movie. It's a "love" story about a girl who appears to be about sixteen--and a very young, immature, innocent 16, despite the fact that her family really are grooming her to be a whore--and a guy who appears to be over thirty. Now, this all takes place in Paris, circa 1900, and yes, I realize that was a different time and culture. I mean, yes, my own grandmother got married at age 16 in the early 1920s, but my grandmother also left her home and parents at age 13 and emigrated by herself to a new country to live with a brother, and by age 16 had been working in factories for a couple years. At 16, my grandmother was a woman, not the childish schoolgirl naif Gigi is portrayed as. Add to that Gaston's dirty old man uncle advising him throughout the entire movie that he ought to go for the girls who are "young and fresh", the younger the better, and you know, ewwww. Gross.
And then there's the whole musical number where Gaston wonders in song just when Gigi suddenly "blossomed" without his noticing, how one day she was a child and the next not. WTF is that supposed to be a euphemism for? Growing boobs? Getting her period? Sorry, but if you're a 30 year old guy the women you should be banging should have been boobful and menstruating for a good five to ten years. At least. So, again, gross.
Then, leaving aside the whole veiled semi-pedophilia angle, there's the sexual politics. We, the audience, are supposed to find this a charming romance because Gaston, instead of setting Gigi up as his mistress with a house and money and the freedom to go her own way when he gets sick of her (or she gets sick of him), marries her. So that when he gets sick of her--when she's no longer "young and fresh"--she'll be trapped in a loveless relationship with no freedom, no power, and no ability to leave. That's our happy ending. Instead of a whore in control of her own destiny, she's married. Woo fucking hoo.
This won Academy Awards in 1958. Really? Has the world changed so completely in fifty years that this really was a charming romance then?
xoxo
5 comments:
Yeah, I think the world really has changed that much.
I've started watching Gigi on TCM and found it pretty damn creepy too. I actually feel weird that it creeped me out (different time, different mores, both the film's setting and the actual time of the film) but it sure did.
However "a comedy about a young woman whose family were grooming her to be a whore and who were scandalized when one of her paramours wanted to marry her" sure sounds like Pretty Baby to me (or at least what I remember of Pretty Baby having only seen it once 30 years ago).
Except it's not a comedy.
Oh, glad it's not just me then. After I wrote the post I toddled over to Netflix to give it one star (so as to straighten those recommendation computers *right* out) and then I read the viewers' reviews. For every person who was as skeeved as me, there was another (or three) who loves that film to pieces and thinks that if you see anything untoward in it, you need therapy.
No one, on either side, seems however to be advocating my point, that the poor girl would have been better off as a whore. Go figure.
I've never seen Pretty Baby. The pedophilia isn't exactly *veiled* in that one, is it?
I'll have to go get that one. It's been a fave amongst female relations of mine for ages. I was just thinking how popular I could become if I plunked myself down in the midst of the Gigi-fest and began ticking off all these perfectly true talking points.
Yes, I think the world has changed a lot in 50 years.
My teenage recollection is that in Pretty Baby the whoring is explicit and the pedophilia is kind of the point. But those were different times: both the 1970s and turn of the last century New Orleans.
However, as creepy as Gigi might be, you'll have to search pretty hard to find those who'd publically say that the life of a prostitute is preferable to marrying a rich and romantic older man. Sexist cultural stereotypes die hard.
Uncle, your Gigi-loving relatives will just advise you to get therapy, because obviously if you see any disturbing undertones in this wholesome, romantic film, it's because you are a sick pervert or Have Issues.
Mr Indemnity, that's because being married means you live happily ever after. My blog readers will endorse that one, right? RIGHT???? hahaha Oh, I forgot, welcome to the refuge of the semi-bitter divorced people.
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