So it's ok for adult men to fantasize about young girls?

Under all the singing and dancing, the film is actually a disturbing tale of a young girl's grandmother, and mostly her aunt, trying to force her into a lifestle that would be considered by today's standards, gossiping and sleeping around with the players (playboys.) Gaston and his uncle are both players, they sleep around with various women, and Gigi's aunt can't wait to get Gigi involved with them. It isn't until Gaston sees Gigi acting in the manor that her Aunt has taught her, that he is forced to realize that he is introducing an innocent girl he loves into an emotionally and self destructive lifestyle.

And yeah, she is quite young, there's no real transition, she goes from wearing the school girl outfit, to wearing the white dress. But no time frame is given so it's not clear.

I'm glad it has a happy ending, it would be interesting to see this story done not as a musical, and to delve a little more into what I just mentioned.

I think comparing a courtesan to a hooker is very much reaching.

Courtesans were respected women who sought out a mutually beneficial relationship. The man had a partner, both physically and mentally, a hostess, someone to show to the right people - even introduce to the family with no shame.

In return, she was given lodging, clothes, gifts, a standing in society, etc.

I'd say it's no different than couples getting married for the sake of marriage/financial stability rather than love and love alone. I don't see many people raising an eyebrow at pre-nups to-day...this is simply an arrangement akin to a pre-nup that favoured BOTH parties.

Calling it next to a hooker is very wooly. I doubt many men would give hookers great gifts, introduce them to everyone they know, etc. etc. etc.

As for innocent child - the story says very much otherwise. At any rate, it's certain that the entire courtesan relationship is something entered into mutually. Given how doting her family is, I'm certain they'd never force Gigi into society/maturity before she was mentally ready. And at the beginning we hear specifically that Gigi is "backward" according to her Aunt; this is heavily implying that Gigi is chronologically the right age, but in terms of both maturity and training they had to rush things. Courtesan or not, women in these times had a very small window of opportunity to find a man.

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It's me....Bara...it's always bloody Bara!

I remember seeing this film as a young girl and was only slightly worried about it. The main problem was that she was "being trained" to marry a rich man or at least be the mistress of one. The fact that she goes "from a schoolgirl" to "a woman" is a trick of clothing, which I found interesting.

I have always thought that she was 16 - not legal in the US but I would bet legal in France. A big difference compared to being 12 or 13. To me Leslie Caron looks like Judy Garland in the Wizard of Oz - flattened down on purpose in the schoolgirl scenes.

This is a story of manipulation. I see Gaston as a gigolo who fell for a "female gigolo" - one an escort and the other soon to be an escort.

It is creepy, but we see so many films glorifying other types of crime, Gigi and Lolita (the latter which is considered a "classic" but I find EXTREMELY creepy - on the level of Lolita being severely mentally ill and Humbert being at least somewhat so - what a sick relationship) are just one example of the criminal film (on paper in the US, the grandmother pimping Gigi and a 16 year old assumedly sleeping with a 25 year old). "Everything works out in the end" for Gigi, and soon enough she will be 18 and no questions. It is like the teacher who bonked a 12 year old and had his kid. Eventually he was old enough to legally marry her and she got let out of jail, and everyone says "aw, what a love story" instead of "OMG, what a NASTY situation!!".

Kind of like what Woody Allen's biological child thinks of his father's marriage to his sister...