A Few Words About A few words about...™ Gigi -- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[TJPC]

Shaw’s play ends with the two not together and with an epilogue telling what happened when she married Freddie.

 

[MatthewA]

No idea why the stills were ever used - unless it was something Warners' did to remind audiences "Hey guys, he's singing about Gigi"...

They wanted to make sure those who thought they were watching 1953's Lili weren't confused.

When was this film first released on video? My Fair Lady got an MGM-CBS Video release circa 1980 with the first 6 or 7 bars of the overture blacked out and the in-credit Warner Bros. logo gone! I first saw Gigi on the widescreen laserdisc in the 1990s, and those stills (seriously, what were they thinking?) were mercifully not there. Imagine having to recreate that bit in 2.35:1! But back then it was MGM proper who still owned the film that did that. Ted Turner had only recently gotten into the mix in 1986.*

Since Robert Harris rescued Fair Lady from the point of no return, perhaps Warners can invite him to do the same for Gigi?

*That's a closer rhyme than "chalk" and "New York." But at least Alan Jay Lerner can claim to have used the phrase "in the most delightful way" first and better, and sans carbs.

 

[PMF]

Gigi needs a proper restortion.

Amen, brother. It should and could look great.

Like the two BD versions of "My Fair Lady";
such a restoration would make the difference between one disc being a sham and the other a Shamroy.

ERRATA: Sometimes I get Leon Shamroy confused with Joseph Ruttenberg.
It's actually an understandable mistake, being that both are still the only DPs to have won four Oscars. Sorry 'bout that Mr. Ruttenberg. And now, back to our posts and hopes towards a restoration of "Gigi".

 

[PMF]

I'd personally prefer the teal The King and I being properly restored in al its glory before this mysoginist claptrap.

And what would you call a guy who had 39 wives?

 

[RobertSiegel]

Gigi was revived on Broadway a few years ago, and it failed. Now, listening to the cast CD they released when it came out (the newest revival) I can't understand how this didn't succeed. If anyone likes the score to GIGI I highly recommend the original cast CD that was released a few years ago, it's got great vocalists and superb orchestrations and just a beautifully recorded original cast CD. It has become my favorite Broadway cast CD of the last 5 years. This is the cast with Vanessa Hudgens. All of the music is included including the waltzes!

 

[Stephen PI]

The audio on Warner's new Blu-ray, which has finally been released months after it appeared elsewhere, is brilliantly rendered on this new disc. Andre Previn's work, which can be heard in all its crystalline clarity on the stereo tracks has stood the test of time, and I'm not at all certain that things have gotten any better half a century later. His work is extraordinary.
RAH

Probably a little late to bring this up and not having the blu ray on this to do an A-B comparison. I did the audio for the laserdisc release. At first I was supplied with a dupe stereo audio track , of which sounded lifeless, no high end so I rejected it. Fortunately the replacement, although not the original mag master, had all the high end and transparency that was missing and sounded as you described, which I assume what was used.
MGM's method on their stereo titles was to put the LCR and the mono surround track on separate magnetic reels. So one had to be careful to synchronize them perfectly using the head 'pops'.

 

[PMF]

Probably a little late to bring this up and not having the blu ray on this to do an A-B comparison. I did the audio for the laserdisc release. At first I was supplied with a dupe stereo audio track , of which sounded lifeless, no high end so I rejected it. Fortunately the replacement, although not the original mag master, had all the high end and transparency that was missing and sounded as you described, which I assume what was used.
MGM's method on their stereo titles was to put the LCR and the mono surround track on separate magnetic reels. So one had to be careful to synchronize them perfectly using the head 'pops'.

In all its venues, your career and expertise is part and parcel as to why we love motion pictures, home theater and having the gift of hearing.
Thank you, Stephen, for playing an integral part of these...our great, great pleasures.

 

[KPmusmag]

Probably a little late to bring this up and not having the blu ray on this to do an A-B comparison. I did the audio for the laserdisc release. At first I was supplied with a dupe stereo audio track , of which sounded lifeless, no high end so I rejected it. Fortunately the replacement, although not the original mag master, had all the high end and transparency that was missing and sounded as you described, which I assume what was used.
MGM's method on their stereo titles was to put the LCR and the mono surround track on separate magnetic reels. So one had to be careful to synchronize them perfectly using the head 'pops'.

When that laserdisc of Gigi first came out, I had just installed my first ever Dolby Surround Pro Logic sound system and that disc sounded glorious. It took my breath away in fact.

 

[Stephen PI]

When that laserdisc of Gigi first came out, I had just installed my first ever Dolby Surround Pro Logic sound system and that disc sounded glorious. It took my breath away in fact.

I hope you realized that the audio was a Dolby Digital 4.0 discrete track?

 

[Stephen PI]

In all its venues, your career and expertise is part and parcel as to why we love motion pictures, home theater and having the gift of hearing.
Thank you, Stephen, for playing an integral part of these...our great, great pleasures.

Thanks PMF.

 

[KPmusmag]

I hope you realized that the audio was a Dolby Digital 4.0 discrete track?

Probably. That was so long ago now my memory is fuzzy, but what is not fuzzy is that it sounded fantastic and I was thrilled.

 

[Stephen PI]

In all its venues, your career and expertise is part and parcel as to why we love motion pictures, home theater and having the gift of hearing.
Thank you, Stephen, for playing an integral part of these...our great, great pleasures.

Another title I was associated with (Dolby Digital LD of "West-Side Story") had a most satisfying review in the laserdisc review newsletter:

 

[Stephen PI]

Probably. That was so long ago now my memory is fuzzy, but what is not fuzzy is that it sounded fantastic and I was thrilled.

Thanks KPmusmag. I always believed in optimizing the track without any kind of processing.

 

[MatthewA]

Another title I was associated with (Dolby Digital LD of "West-Side Story") had a most satisfying review in the laserdisc review newsletter:

View attachment 46397

Well, when laserdisc died, it didn't go out without a fight.

DVD has the capacity for uncompressed sound, but it was and is rarely used because they went for quantity over quality. Blu-ray and UHD managed to strike a balance…most of the time.

 

[Dick]

Shaw’s play ends with the two not together and with an epilogue telling what happened when she married Freddie.

I'd love to seen this ending in the film, as Freddie was so devoted to her and Higgins was such a misogynistic cad. The pair recede happily down the street. Perhaps the last the very last shot could be a paraphrase of the one that actually appears: Higgins is in his chair and Pickering approaches from behind him. Without looking over his shoulder to see who just entered, he says, presumptuously, "Eliza, where the devil are my slippers?"

 

[PMF]

“Gigi” as a BD is currently 12 years old.

I wonder if the restorative tools are now at a place where “Gigi” might excel towards a finer image quality.

At this point, I bet it would cost a pretty penny to achieve.

 

[Robert Harris]

“Gigi” as a BD is currently 12 years old.

I wonder if the restorative tools are now at a place where “Gigi” might excel towards a finer image quality.

At this point, I bet it would cost a pretty penny to achieve.

Not really. Costs are generally down, while digital tools continue to arrive.

 

[TJPC]

This is one of my favourite movies, which I had to stop showing in class however. My media students invariably told me it opened with a song sung by some " dirty old pedophile.!

 

[PMF]

This is one of my favourite movies, which I had to stop showing in class however. My media students invariably told me it opened with a song sung by some " dirty old pedophile.!

And yet, if we are to view and interpret “Gigi” with today’s jaded point of view, it’s the women in Gigi’s life who could be deemed as the true corrupters of her innocence.

 

[RichMurphy]

And yet, if we are to view and interpret “Gigi” with today’s jaded point of view, it’s the women in Gigi’s life who could be deemed as the true corrupters of her innocence.

So true. In the 2015 revival of the Broadway version, they took away "Thank Heaven for Little Girls" from Honore and gave the song to Mamita and Aunt Alicia. Hearing those two sing those lyrics made it worse, at least in my opinion.