Gigi

....to shield her eyes from the klieg lights ,and dramatically pointed at Audrey (Hepburn) "Voilà ,she said.That's my Gigi! (Diana Maychicks ,A.H.,an intimate portrait) It was not to be ;Hepburn told writer Colette she could not act,could never play a leading act and finally they cast new-comer Danielle Delorme as Gigi .

Jacqueline Audry was the first real female French director in history;some will argue and say the Germaine Dulac and Alice Guy came before;but it was in the silent age and Audry was the first modern woman Metteuse En Scene ,ten years before Agnes Varda;both Audry and Varda were interested in woman 's psychology;both were sometimes ambiguous though.

You can hardly call "Gigi" woman's lib: a young girl trained by her aunt to be a courtezan ,two men who are not particularly handsome,even French buck Frank Villard Audry will be used with better results in Sartre 's "Huis Clos" .I must confess I do not like Gigi's story ,I cannot feel "the coquettish child who develops into a warm ,loving woman";this is old hat stuff ,straight from the Ark.

It is somewhat better than Minnelli's remake : a musical,none of the songs is memorable and Maurice Chevalier is as unbearable as Jean Tissier.

There are fine lines by Colette though "we 're not ordinary people!-Who are they? -They are married " and a funny "lesson in jewels" .