Irene212

Leslie Caron is a delight, and an exceptional actress. She is a true joy to watch as she transforms herself from a gangling schoolgirl to an elegant belle of Belle Époque Paris. She is one of the two reasons to watch "Gigi." The other is the money and talent MGM put into it.

It's a showcase for Paris, where much of it was filmed, and particularly for director Vincente Minnelli and designer Cecil Beaton who garnered two of the film's nine Oscars-- all of which were won by men, and it is entirely informed by masculine sensibilities. No wonder it goes off the rails.

Our hero Gaston (Louis Jourdan) is a wealthy young man who sings of his endless boredom to his uncle Honoré (Maurice Chevalier). Gaston is bored with everything-- Paris, beauty, wine, girls, horse racing, bullfights, Italy, picnics, lunches-- and I was bored with him in short order. The only place Gaston isn't bored is when he visits Mamita (Hermione Gingold), her daughter (whom we never see), and teen-age granddaughter, Gigi (Caron). Gigi is being taught by Mamita's sister, Aunt Alicia (Isabel Jeans), to become a courtesan, following in Alicia's silk slippers. Alicia looks back proudly on her life, having traded her body successfully enough with wealthy men to have her own handsome apartment and plenty of jewels and frocks. The life of a high-class wh**e is assumed by the elderly ladies to be the only life available to a pretty young woman of no means. So we get a series of etiquette lessons with Gigi learning to pour coffee and (alert Freud) light cigars for men.

As I said, it's a showcase for MGM, and was a roaring success, with more than a few charming scenes."The Night They Invented Champagne" is rollicking good fun, and Chevalier and Gingold have an exceptionally fine duet of "I Remember It Well" before a blood-red sunset.

However. As much as I admire Chevalier, I can't say I appreciated his big opening solo, "Thank Heaven for Little Girls." Innocent though it was meant to be, singing about their "little eyes, so helpless and appealing" is the wrong overture to a story about grooming schoolgirls on how to debase themselves. Sentiment was the wrong tone for Colette's original story, which was realistic and even scandalous when it was published in 1944. Her heroine, Gilberte a.k.a. Gigi, is not manipulated by others. She was witty and clever and self-aware, and ultimately accepts her fate as a courtesan, but on her own terms. Caron could have done that, too, with bells on. But, needless to say, that's not how Hollywood ends a musical.

James Bond movies are spectacles, I get it, and I like action pictures. Even so, "GoldenEye" needed to be shorter and wittier. James Bond (Pierce Brosnan) is given to wry quips, but the vast bulk involves him wrangling his way out of dangerous situations-- and kudos, because Brosnan controls his physical performance beautifully, with flowing movement interrupted by suddenly alert stops. (His actions remind me of the physical and mental balance required of athletes in biathalons). Alan Cumming is diverting as Boris, and Joe Don Baker provides comic relief. But Sean Bean is one of the lamest Bond villains, and Famke Janssen is over the top.

The action sequences are almost comical in themselves, or I should say farcical: the comedy of the absurd. Unfortunately, there's a fundamental problem common to all film franchises like 007's: we know the hero won't die. So instead of suspense, we are left with mere curiosity about how he'll escape, which he always does because fictional characters can be essentially immortal. "No Time To Die" was only the end of Daniel Craig's gig as Bond.

Then there are the Bond girls. The obligatory sex. The women in "GoldenEye," Famke Janssen and Izabella Scorupco, are gorgeous, of course. All Bond girls have to be because pulchritude is required when there is, again, no suspense in the romance. Actually, no romance, or very little. There is playful sexual tension with Miss Moneypenny, but I think Olga Kurylenko is the only real exception because she was Bond's respected ally in "Quantum of Solace," not a romantic partner until the chaste final kiss. "Quantum" was also one of the more realistic 007's, not all-out spectacle.

It all comes down to the writing, but that is a huge variable. So that leaves the lead actor, and I think Brosnan is second only to Sean Connery as tall, dark, and handsome 007, debonair but dangerous. My favorite Bond movie will probably always be the first, "Dr. No," because of Connery's indelible characterization of Bond, and his deft handling of the inaugural Bond movie, scripted by Richard Maibaum, who wrote (with collaborators) most of the first 16 Bond movies. Throwing more action at the screen is the easy way out.

Unlike any other movie I've ever seen, the plot is barely sufficient to sustain the interest of anybody who isn't besotted by Steve McQueen and/or Formula One racing. That's potentially a huge audience, and the film did well, but I can't imagine anybody who came just for McQueen would watch it again.

The movie must have been a dream for him, enamored as he was with high-speed vehicles. It's all about the cars and the drivers, many of whom were professionals, including Helmut Mark and Gijs van Lennep. You don't get to see much of France. All the footage is in and around Le Mans in the Pays de la Loire region, where a (roughly) 8.5-mile circuit of private and public roads is used in the annual 24-hour race. The movie has a strong documentary feel, with footage before, during, and after the race including shots of the actual crowd at the June 1970 staging, when filming took place. Cameras seem to be everywhere, and three editors did remarkable work to keep what is essentially turn left, turn left, turn left action lively and engaging. Two crashes are filmed, and both got me in the throat.

As for the plot, the widow, Lisa Belgetti (Elga Andersen), of a driver who was killed in the 1969 Le Mans race attends this year's, and crosses paths with Michael Delaney (McQueen), who bears tangential responsibility for her husband's death. In only a few encounters, Michael and Lisa convey a great deal of emotional content about how much blame she places on him for that crash; his regret for his inadvertent role; and, enhanced by that deep connection, a mutual attraction that will always be shadowed by Belgetti's death. Not much plot, as I said, but delicately and thoughtfully rendered enough to give the film real resonance.