i've seen this movie several times...and i love it. there is only one thing i don't understand. why does Gaston get upset at the end and drag Gigi home when they go out for the first time? is he mad because everyone thinks she's just another one of his "women"?
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Yes, I've wondered about that too, and I think it must be that-yes-he doesn't want her to be a part of that world-weary milieu from which she had already asked him to spare her. It's all too clear that she could fit in to the demi-mondaine society and everything would turn out as she predicted.
Also I think he has to consider very carefully the idea that he is really as bored as he says he is with it all and will commit to marriage.
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Yes, I agree with ivmeer. She's artificial the evening he takes her out - she's lost all the distinctive charm, the willingness to tell him that he's a terrible card player or hopeless at this or that - that he loved about her. Instead, she has just become a coquette (as her great aunt believes any man such as Gaston would want).
And he realizes that he doesn't want that at all - he wants the real Gigi - and he's only going to get it if they marry.
Actually, it seemed to me that Gigi, though in ways fitting in as a courtesan, was still Gigi. Mainly when they were dancing and she noticed the box in his pocket. He seemed confused that she didnt' want to see it right away, but would rather keep dancing with him. It was like he was trying to mesh two things that just didn't belong together: Gigi, and the world of courtesans and casual affairs. He was obviously and increasingly anxious as the scene went on.
Definitly agree with the previous post about his uncles lewd conversation. Even Gaston told him not to be vulgar. He didn't want Gigi to be talked about that way.
At least he finally figured out that he coudln't subject his closest friend to the kind of gossip and cruelty being his mistress would result in. Note: I say friend because they were friends first. That's the basis of their relationship, and in my personal opinion, one of the best ways to start.
Yes - absolutely Gigi was still Gigi when she was settling to be his mistress - & that's why Gaston was upset: because he realized that Gigi was too precious to be dragged into the sewer that he had made his private life.
When I was younger, I actually thought that Honore' was needling Gaston w/vulgar references just to Gaston could recognize what he/the audience had seen all along, but, upon closer examination, I see his shocked face when Gaston snaps at him, & have to admit that perhaps I was being too kind to his character. Oh well :-)
(I still fantasize about a sequel where Honore' & Mme Alvarez get together (-: )
Those who study history are doomed to watch others repeat it.
For some reason, I too, thought Honore was being excessively vulgar to knock some sense into Gaston, perhaps that was the actor's choice and not the actual intent of the script, because, as you say, later he puts on a shocked face. I had mixed feelings over Honore, at times I felt he was the puppeteer and at other times, I felt he really had no clue what was going on and he was just a playboy and that fact alone, watching and observing Honore, an old man, sitll a playboy, helps Gaston realize he doesn't want to end up like Honore, gets up and leaves.
But I also still have an inkling that Honore, being that he is the "narrator" afterall, that he knows exactly what going on, and I think the actor's choices reflect that knowledge, he knows that Gaston doesn't want this life and that Gigi is the perfect girl for him and he inadvertently pushes them together in the most subtle way. Perhaps he really was just putting on a "shocked" face to keep up with his character, but inside had other intentions. I think the story as told by Honore is what makes Gigi so interesting, Honore's intentions aren't always 100 percent clear. And doesn't he try to slip Gigi a note while they are on vacation? Or did he mistake her for Mamita? He is just one strange dude. Who knows what's going on up there, Maurice played him to perfection.
Never knew the "thank heaven for little girls' song was from Gigi until I watched it.
(I still fantasize about a sequel where Honore' & Mme Alvarez get together (-: )
So do I ;)
He'd have some growing up to do first, though, and a few more wild oats to get out of his system. But doesn't the fact that the very sound of her voice stops him in his tracks and makes him send his young light o' love away suggest that he's nearly reached that point?
I agree, Gigi was still making her usual cheeky comments in that final Maxim's scene. She talked about cheating in cards, joked about Gaston's taste in clothes, preferring to dance with him instead of seeing his present immediately...she showed that she was still very much herself.
Of course, as forest-nymph pointed out, the "dipped" comments and cigar part - Gaston was becoming more confused about what he thought he wanted Gigi to be.
I love the little subtleties in that scene. The way he seemed to hold back giving her the present in front of everybody, the understated manner in which he slid it to her on the table, and the way he obviously felt uncomfortable with the way Gigi was "showing off" her bracelet.
The above answers are so on the mark that I have very little to add.
When I was a kid, I was flummoxed by the sudden change, too, and outburst. I certainly didn't understand just what Gigi was being trained to be. But I did understand the artificiality of Gigi in her public debut as a courtesan.
We see the wheels in Gaston's head begin to turn when his Uncle Honore bluntly asks if he had to "improve the arrangement" to get Gigi to be his mistress. Then Honore also remarks on Gigi's freshness and eagerness. This brief conversation makes the whole situation so absolutely lewd and vulgar that Gaston begins to register revulsion.
wow! thanks for finally answering this for me. every time i have watched this movie that has baffled me. i watched it just a few nights ago on tcm and was still confused. all of your answers make perfect sense.
shareMy 22 yr old son came in as the movie was wrapping up .. from when Gigi says no to Gaston and then when she says yes and then to Maxim's .... and as we were watching I am trying to explain what is going on and in the end it is clear that Gaston hates how he is treating Gigi as his courtesan du jour, he see the disrespect, sees that she is a "commodity" in that world, he is ashamed of the gift and does not want to make a big show of it as it further tells all present that she is bought and paid for --- he has told her he loves her, we believe he does - he cannot reconcile this cognitive dissonance which is why he gets so angry and storms out and as he walks around realizes the only way to solve the problem is to marry her and give her that respectful position in his life, problem solved.
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