Gigi [IMPORT] [Blu-ray]

Gigi (1958) is set--and mostly shot--in Paris, France, and appears in the form of an impressionist painting. The film is adapted from a French, 1945 novel by Colette, a French and female author. The American-produced film's English-speaking leads are played by French actors. It features the lyrics and music of Lerner and Loewe, and a screenplay by Lerner. It stars Leslie Caron, who had performed the title role for the stage play in London, in Audrey Hepburn's 1951 title role from Broadway. Vincente Minnelli of An American in Paris and Brigadoon directs. The film received all nine Academy Award Oscars for its nine nominations, including Best Picture: a perfect nomination-to-win ratio. Yet, it is one of only a few films to have won the Best Picture Oscar without receiving a single acting nomination. One other film to have also received a Best Picture Oscar and not receive any acting nominations is another Vincente Minnelli film, An American in Paris, both films having Leslie Caron as leading actress. Gigi maintained the Academy Award record of having the highest Oscar count of films winning awards in every category for which it was nominated, including a tie in 1987 by The Last Emperor, until it had been broken in 2003 by the film The Lord of the Rings: the Return of the King, which won all eleven of its eleven nominations. Gigi therefore held the number one spot in this record for 45 years, and it held the record by itself for 29 of those years. Gigi enjoyed this Oscar record longer than any other film--45 years--and this fact is an Oscar record within itself. MGM and Warner released a DVD of Gigi merely a year apart. The first release by MGM came on 4 May 1999 and has a plastic case with an 8-page booklet inside. The second release by Warner came on 2 May 2000 and has a white cardboard case with no booklet. Yet, the DVDs inside of them are exactly the same: the second Warner release is a re-issue with only the case changed, and without the booklet. I have placed a scanned photo of the MGM booklet's cover--pages 1 and 8--under the MGM release, as well as an image of the front cover which had been missing, here on Amazon. If one looks to buy a DVD of this award-winning film Gigi, he should opt for the first MGM release of May 1999, because it comes in a plastic case with the 8-page booklet containing essays on the film, its music and lyrics, its actors, and its art direction. Also, its box cover art matches the DVD interactive menu as it should. Because the newer Warner release DVD has different box art with the disc being exactly the same, the box cover art doesn't match the DVD menu screens. So, again, one should opt for the original MGM DVD release of May 1999. There's some digitized appearance to the DVD feature. Also, the film's condition warrants a restoration because of minor scratches and worn film. The movie, itself, is a very good-looking film, and so film decay hurts the intent of the original presentation in some scenes. But mostly, the DVD looks quite pristine. There's some slight film fade and fluctuations in color, and some DVD pixelization. As far as the DVD sound, it only spans the front three tracks and is likely matrix-encoded. Overall, the DVD presentation is good for a film so old that hasn't been restored. A beautiful film such as this should be marked by film historians Harris and Katz for restoration, although I'm sure they have a lot of other work to attend to first, since a single film takes them around two years to restore. Harris and Katz are the preservationists who restored My Fair Lady, Vertigo, Lawrence of Arabia, and a few other important classics.