The cat in the movie reacted violently whenever it was in a scene with Leslie Caron, but director Vincente Minnelli insisted on having that particular cat, so it had to be heavily drugged. This is especially obvious during "Say a Prayer for Me Tonight".

The day after the movie won nine Oscars, MGM telephone operators were instructed to answer all phone calls with "Hello, M-Gigi-M."

When Alan Jay Lerner met Leslie Caron in London to discuss the film with her, he was surprised to discover that Caron, who was of French birth, had become so immersed in the English culture that she had lost her French accent.

By mid-July 1957, the songwriters had still not come up with the title song. One evening, Frederick Loewe was at a piano while Alan Jay Lerner was indisposed in the bathroom, and when Loewe began playing a particular melody, he later recalled Lerner jumped up, "his trousers still clinging to his ankles, and made his way to the living room. 'Play that again,' he said." That melody ended up as the film's title song.

The song "I'm Glad I'm Not Young Anymore" was inspired by a discussion from an aging Maurice Chevalier about his waning interest in wine and women in favor of performing for cabaret audiences.

The Broadway production of the stage play "Gigi" by Anita Loos opened at the Fulton Theater on November 24, 1951, ran for 219 performances and closed on May 31, 1952. The title role was portrayed by then unknown Audrey Hepburn who won the 1952 Theatre World Award for her performance.

The song "Say A Prayer for Me Tonight" was meant to be sung by the British Eliza Doolittle in "My Fair Lady." This can be seen in the verse: "Onto your Waterloo, whispers my heart / Pray I'll be Wellington, not Bonaparte." Being sung by a French girl, this is considered an arguably strange sentiment to express. However, the French lost at Waterloo, and Gigi is hoping to win this "epic battle," so to speak.

Leslie Caron enjoyed working with Louis Jourdan, though he could sometimes be a challenge. She recalled, "Louis Jourdan, one of the handsomest men in Hollywood, was not comfortable with his image, yet his wit and self-deprecating humour were rare and unique.... He tended to express his angst with constant negative comments about Minnelli's staging, but instead of having it out with Vincente, he poured his grudges out on me. I was quite exhausted to hear, every time the camera stopped, his litany of grievances."

After Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe had composed a few songs, they took them to Maurice Chevalier. He loved them, and immediately agreed to star in the film.

Gaston's walk through Paris while singing "Gigi" uses camera magic to make parts of Paris which are miles apart seem adjacent to each other. This technique, called "creative geography", was created and named by French filmmaker Jean Cocteau.

From 1954-56, Arthur Freed had to battle the Hays Code in order to bring Colette's tale of a courtesan-in-training to the cinema. He eventually convinced the film industry's Code Office to view the story as condemning rather than glorifying a system of mistresses.

The songs "She is Not Thinking of Me" and "I Remember It Well" were filmed by an uncredited Charles Walters, as Vincente Minnelli was overseas working on a new project. The first song had originally been shot in Maxim's, but Alan Jay Lerner was unhappy with the way it turned out and at great expense a Maxim's set was recreated on a soundstage and reshot.

Leslie Caron said of her female co-stars, Hermione Gingold was nothing like her stern character in the film. "Irreverent, naughty, and fun, she had a great appetite for life, like a cat lapping up a bowl of milk. Isabel Jeans was sweet and very disciplined. She never undid her corset at lunchtime like we all did, and she kept the straight back of a real pro from morning to night."

When the film was originally completed, Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe were unsatisfied; Lerner felt it was slow, and was twenty minutes too long. He proposed changes that would cost Arthur Freed an additional $300,000, which Arthur Freed was dead against spending. The songwriting team offered to buy 10% of the film for $300,000, and then offered $3 million for the print -- in order not to release it! Impressed with their conviction, MGM executives agreed to the changes, which included eleven days of considerable reshooting and put the project $400,000 over budget. However, the test screenings of the film changed from favourable (before the change) to affectionate (after the change), and Lerner felt the film was finally complete.

Leslie Caron was dubbed by Betty Wand. According to Alan Jay Lerner, Caron made a point to be present at Wand's recording sessions. "She was there, she told André [Previn], to supervise the recording and to make certain that every line would be sung with her intention and her motivation," he said. Still, Caron was never pleased with Wand's interpretation. "To this day," she said, "the childish cuteness of Ms. Wand and her artificial French accent hurt my ears."

According to Vincente Minnelli, when shooting in the French restaurant Maxim's, the film crew felt that the restaurant's famous mirrored walls needed to be covered up because they would reflect the equipment. Minnelli contended that they had to be seen (and uncovered), as they were the hallmark of Maxim's. Eventually cinematographer Joseph Ruttenberg resolved the matter satisfactorily, by putting suction cups on photo flood lights.

Production was rushed to take advantage of the good weather in Paris, which resulted in the cast having to mouth the songs to piano accompaniment while filming, as the score was not yet recorded.

As he often did with his films, Vincente Minnelli looked toward the art world for inspiration on how each scene should look. He found inspiration in the work of French caricaturist Sem, whose sketches had been admired by Colette herself when she was writing the original characters in Gigi. For the opening sequence in the Bois du Boulogne he looked to the work of artist Constantin Guys. Boudin's work served as the inspiration for the beach sequences in Gigi. In addition, Minnelli also threw in some Art Nouveau to represent the character of Honoré Lachailles. Minelli recalled, "Our reasoning for using the influence in the settings was to show how avant garde Chevalier's character would be, using the brand-new style in his bachelor digs."

Cecil Beaton had to supply over 150 period costumes for the scene in the Bois, and 20 ornate gowns for the scene in Maxims. Beaton had difficulty procuring such a large number of costumes in Paris, but when the production moved to Hollywood, he found warehouses stuffed to bursting with period furniture and costumes.

Writers Colette and Alan Jay Lerner chose Audrey Hepburn for the title role, which she performed on stage in 1952. Unfortunately, in 1958 Hepburn was busy with other films and could not do this film.

Alan Jay Lerner's usual collaborator, Frederick Loewe, hated working in Hollywood, and had vowed not to work on another movie. However, he was sufficiently charmed by the original novel to rethink that promise, albeit under the condition that it be made in France.

The biggest money-maker for Vincente Minnelli from his years at MGM.

Several characters in Beauty and the Beast (1991) bear a similarity to characters in Gigi: Lumiere is a tribute to Maurice Chevalier, perfectly impersonated by Jerry Orbach. The main male protagonist's name is Gaston, with a similar air of confidence as Gaston from Gigi. Both Gigi and Belle are indifferent to the romantic intentions of the Gastons. Beauty and the Beast is itself an adaptation of the classic French novel La Belle et la Bete.

The entire film was written, cast and ready to shoot in four and a half months.

The film won all nine Academy Awards for which it was nominated, more than any other film at that point in Oscar history. As impressive as this was, the record was eclipsed just one year later when Ben-Hur (1959) won eleven.

The soundtrack album is on the front cover of the Pink Floyd album "Ummagumma".

Leslie Caron was dumbfounded when she found out that her singing would be dubbed.

When the stage production of 'My Fair Lady' was trying out in Philadelphia, producer Arthur Freed tackled songwriter Alan Jay Lerner about doing a film musical for him. Lerner had a pre-existing contract with MGM and owed Freed another musical. After reading Colette's novel, he knew he had found the right material to fulfill that contract.

Most of the film was shot on location in Paris, with the last few numbers being completed in an apartment that MGM constructed on their backlot.

The title song was Alan Jay Lerner's favorite of all his compositions. Also, in his semi-biography, "On the Street Where I Live" Lerner stated that in the song "She is Not Thinking of Me" the line "She's so ooh-la-la-la, so untrue-la-la-la" was the one line in his career that it took him the longest time to write.

Samoin is an ice-skating instructor, but Jacques Bergerac couldn't skate. To deal with this unexpected twist, the crew quickly came up with a device for Bergerac to wear while he was on ice skates that would prevent him from falling. The device meant that Bergerac could only be shot from the waist up.

As the film went into post-production, Vincente Minnelli realized what a toll it had taken on him. "Gigi (1958) so involved me that when it was over I discovered I'd lost thirty-five pounds during the filming," he said. Sadly, the production of Gigi (1958) had also seen the end of his marriage to second wife Georgette.

Irene Dunne declined Vincente Minnelli's offer to play Aunt Alicia, preferring her retirement from acting and a new career as a special U.S. delegate to the United Nations. In addition, Dunne found the movie's subject matter distasteful.

The film had a sneak preview in Santa Barbara. Alan Jay Lerner was not happy with what he saw. "The picture was twenty minutes too long," he said, "the action was too slow, the music too creamy and ill-defined, and there must have been at least five minutes...of people walking up and down stairs. To Fritz and me it was a very far cry from all we had hoped for, far enough for us both to be desperate." While the feedback from the sneak preview audience was generally positive, Lerner felt strongly that many improvements could be made with the film. They felt at the very least that some re-writing would be necessary and the "I Remember It Well" number would have to be completely re-done. This led to reshoots.

Gaston's butler Henri (played by François Valorbe) and chauffeur Pierre (played by Roger Saget) both had their dialogue dubbed by Paul Frees.

Relationships among cast members were positive and professional, though some people found that Maurice Chevalier could be somber and demanding at times, while Leslie Caron found him to be aloof.

Leslie Caron's singing voice was dubbed by Betty Wand. However, original demo recordings of Caron singing "The Night They Invented Champagne" and ""Say A Prayer for Me Tonight" were retained, and have been released on CD.

The song "I Remember It Well" was adapted from writer Alan Jay Lerner's script for Kurt Weill's 1948 musical "Love Life".

While most of the shoot went smoothly, there were a few difficulties, beginning with the trouble associated with shooting on location. According to Leslie Caron, "The hazards of weather, traffic, sound pollution, and television antennas, added to the difficulty of obtaining police permits, were nearly insurmountable...the scenes in the Bois de Boulogne were hellishly difficult to film; there was so much traffic - carriages, promenading crowds, everything coming and going in complex motion. We had to repeat the shots many, many times."

Leslie Caron, Louis Jourdan and Maurice Chevalier are all French, just like the characters they play (Gigi, Gaston, Honore Lachaille).

Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe's 'My Fair Lady' had just opened on Broadway. Its sets and costumes were lavishly praised so Alan Jay Lerner insisted the play's production designer, Cecil Beaton, should be employed on the film.

Dirk Bogarde was considered for the role of Gaston and expressed interest, but he was unable to commit due to his having a contract with producer J. Arthur Rank.

Leslie Caron described filming inside Maxim's as a "nightmare." Vincente Minnelli was given only a few days to get the important shots he needed inside Paris' most famous restaurant. It was a beautiful but tight space, and it had the added challenge of its signature mirrors along the walls, which could easily reflect the cameras and lights if the crew wasn't careful. Caron recalled, "From the sidewalk entrance to the dining area, the space was crowded like an anthill full of technicians trying to set up the lamps, the black flags, the cables and sound equipment-a constant flow of ladies in evening dresses with hats bigger than the waiters' trays, makeup artists wiping the sweat off the gentlemen's brows, the blaring playback music drowning all else, adding to the confusion."

With only four letters in its title, this movie set the record for the shortest title of any film to win the Oscar for Best Picture. This record was tied by Argo (2012). The Best Picture winner with the longest title is Sõrmuste isand: Kuninga tagasitulek (2003) (10 words and 35 letters).

The role of Aunt Alicia was created on Broadway by venerable character actress Cathleen Nesbitt

Included among the American Film Institute's 1998 list of the 400 movies nominated for the Top 100 Greatest American Movies.

While considered an unqualified triumph upon its release, and much beloved for several decades afterward, in recent years, the film's reputation has begun to tarnish with changing times. What was once considered a sumptuous homage to the Belle Époque is now condemned as promoting pedophilia, which is utterly untrue. Modern-day audiences forget that courtesans were in fact groomed in Paris at the turn of the twentieth century, and that a girl of sixteen was considered of age by European standards. Most importantly, Gigi denounces the life being planned for her. Thus, the film is really an affectionate depiction of a girl's maturation process that builds toward, as Gaston sings, "that unexpected hour when [she] blossoms like a flower." And she arrives at adulthood with a firm sense of who she is. In short, the film is actually the exact opposite of that which its current detractors believe it to be.

Leslie Caron said of Maurice Chevalier, "His attitude seemed to be, 'You know me on the screen, but you don't really know me at all,'". One crew member added, "He was grumpy. He made his demands - whether for a chair in the shade, a sandwich, or a glass of water - imperiously. He never acknowledged the existence of the crew." But others on the set found Chevalier to be a charming man who was conscientious, worked hard and took his role very seriously. "Maurice was the infinite professional: always punctual, always courteous, always frank, always encouraging, always working header than everyone else," said Alan Jay Lerner.

The film was originally going to be produced by Gilbert Miller, and would be based on Anita Loos's 1954 non-musical stage adaptation. However, producer Arthur Freed had developed an interest in Colette's story in 1953. It took Freed $125,000 to get the rights from Colette's widower, and $87,000 to get the rights from Anita Loos (both had held on to the rights and the film could not be made without them).

One of the rare films to receive multiple Academy Award nominations and win every single one of them. Viimane keiser (1987) is another notable example.

In 1957, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer lost money for the first time in over three decades. When this film began to have cost overruns the studio ordered the main unit back from location shooting in Paris to complete the film on the back lot.

Gigi (1958) is one of very few films to have dominated at the Oscars despite having garnered no nominations in the acting categories. Other films in this niche include An American in Paris (1951) with eight nominations, The Greatest Show on Earth (1952) with five, and Around the World in 80 Days (1956) with eight. Gigi (1958) holds the record with nine nominations (and nine wins).

One of 11 American Music/als to win Best Picture: 1)The Broadway Melody (1929), 2)The Great Ziegfeld (1936), 3)Going My Way (1944), 4)An American in Paris (1951), 5)Gigi (1958), 6)West Side'i lugu (1961), 7)Minu veetlev leedi (1964), 8)Helisev muusika (1965), 9)Oliver! (1968), 10)Amadeus (1984), 11)Chicago (2002).

During Gigi's lessons, her Aunt Alicia instructs her in gourmet dining, including consumption of ortolans. Referred to only as "delightful little birds", they may have been all the rage in 1900, but, apart from eating them bones and all ( as Gigi does in the film ) the audience is spared any further description of how they're prepared which, historically, is so unsettling and distasteful as to put anyone off the notion of actually trying them. Killing and cooking ortolans is now banned across much of the EU.

Included among the "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die," edited by Steven Schneider.

In the summer of 1957 the cast and crew gathered in Paris to begin principal photography. The launch party was held at one of Paris' most famous restaurants, Maxim's, where Vincente Minnelli would later shoot some of the film's most memorable scenes.

Adding to its record of winning every Oscar it was nominated for, Gigi (1958) holds the record for the movie with the fewest letters in the title to win the Best Picture Academy Award. It shares with Argo the fewest total letters in the title, but is alone in fewest different letters (2) used.

The "I Remember It Well" number was reshot by Charles Walters, as Vincente Minnelli was already busy with his next film, The Reluctant Debutante (1958).

The total mutilation of the wide screen composition that was inflicted upon this film when it converted to the standard ratio pan/scan version for television broadcast, was a major factor in wide screen films eventually being telecast in their original ratios in what is now widely known as "letterbox". The "I Remember It Well" sequence, in particular, was virtually destroyed because of the merciless cropping.

60's soft-core movie actress Gigi Darlene took the first name of her acting pseudonym from this film.

Ina Claire was offered the role of Aunt Alicia but declined.

In Australia "GIGI" was named as one of "THE ten films of 1958" by "The Australian Women's Weekly" published on Wednesday 31st December 1958 on Page 52.

Leslie Caron was one of few performers in the MGM stock company who graduated to greater heights through studio training and her own innate gifts: When she arrived in 1950, she was a ballet dancer, barely fluent in English, who had never before spoken dialogue or appeared on camera. After only four films, she earned a Best Actress Academy Award nomination for Lili (1953). By the time of Gigi (1958), Caron has grown into a seasoned actress -- indeed, she does not dance a step in the film -- and she would leave musicals behind her entirely, giving brilliant performances in Fanny (1961), The L-Shaped Room (1962) and Is Paris Burning? (1966).

This film was selected into the National Film Registry in 1991 for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Much has been made of the fact that Gigi (1958) holds a record for having achieved the most Academy Award wins without having garnered any nominations for its performances. In any other year, Louis Jourdan would undoubtedly have earned a Best Actor nod for his career high-water mark turn as Gaston, and Maurice Chevalier, Hermione Gingold and Isabel Jeans would likely have been recognized in their respective supporting categories, but 1958 was a highly competitive awards season. Leslie Caron's failure to be nominated was largely due to the film's well documented sound issues while filming on location in Paris, causing much of the dialogue to be looped in post-production, Caron's in particular. Between the canned sound of her dialogue and the fact that her vocals were dubbed by a trained singer, the performance carries a distractedly artificial air to it, through no fault of her own.

The song "A Toujours" is heard only as an instrumental in the film, during the Palais de Glacé sequence. It was released in lyric form along with rest of the movie's sheet music and was duly recorded by Vic Damone, among others. When Gigi (1958) was adapted for the stage in 1973, "A Toujours" was given a completely new lyric and served as the basis for "The Contract," a comic tour de force for Grandmama, Aunt Alicia and Gaston's solicitors as they try to bat out the terms of the courtesan agreement.

Louis Jourdan's screen bow as a singer. Much of his ease and confidence in this regard was due to the precedent of 'speak-singing' popularized by Rex Harrison two years earlier in Broadway's "My Fair Lady." Lerner and Loewe wrote both scores and were thus well-positioned to pave the way for Jourdan (although the role of Gaston was originally written for Dirk Bogarde). Jourdan took to singing so effortlessly that he would go on to make two more musical appearances in Can-Can (1960) and Made in Paris (1966).

One of several influential films that ultimately led to the toppling of Hollywood's Production Code. Producer Arthur Freed was forced to walk a fine line with the story's delicate subject matter, with smaller battles sacrificed in order to win the war, which in this case was the climactic scene wherein Gigi rejects a courtesan lifestyle because of her realization that, once her affair with Gaston had run its course, all that would be left for her would be to "go into another gentleman's bed." When the censors grudgingly conceded to this, screenwriter Alan Jay Lerner was forced to be more covert in other, similarly risqué scenes, particularly the harsh confrontation between Aunt Alicia and Grandmama -- beautifully executed by Isabel Jeans and Hermione Gingold -- in which the two guardians realize that Gigi has reached the age of consent. The entire exchange is written in unfinished sentences, leaving the actresses to complete their thoughts and intentions with facial expressions that make it perfectly clear that they are about to ready Gigi to become Gaston's courtesan.

The film's musical scoring was famously redone from scratch following the first lackluster preview, based on musical director Andre Previn's decision that it was too heavily orchestrated. This was easier said than done, as much of Lerner and Loewe's score was conceived so that singing and dialogue overlapped with one another. Maurice Chevalier had to overdub the entire prologue sequence leading into "Thank Heaven for Little Girls," and Louis Jourdan was faced with the arduous task of overdubbing his extended soliloquy leading into the title song, which was one of the few Paris location scenes that had been captured without incident and which did not require looping in post-production. In the end, realizing that there was no way Jourdan could match the level of intensity he had so admirably achieved during filming, Previn salvaged the integrity of the performance by conducting the orchestra in time with Jourdan's monologue, which flashed on the screen as guidance for the musicians, much like a conductor follows a performer on stage from the pit.

Modern-day appraisals of this film as a proponent of child abuse have not considered Gaston's six-minute soliloquy that leads into the soaring title song. Through it, screenwriter and lyricist Alan Jay Lerner is very careful to allow the character to come to the understanding that Gigi has come of age, the entire soliloquy focusing on the gradual changes in her that he's been "too blind to realize" with the passing of time.

The charm of this tale, which has largely been lost on modern-day audiences, is captured in one telling scene, in which Gaston (Louis Jourdan) commiserates with Honore (Maurice Chevalier) after Gigi has repudiated Gaston's offer to become his mistress. "They're a very peculiar family," Honore replies, "with peculiar ideas. I negotiated with them myself once. With me, one casual bit of grazing in another pasture and the gate was slammed behind me." This points to the fact that, despite many generations of fatherless ancestry, Gigi's family has a tradition of demanding monogamy from men despite the women's lax attitude toward marriage, which actually paints them as burgeoning feminists.

One generation of Alvarez women is noticeably absent from the proceedings -- Gigi's mother, forever "slaving away at the Opera Comique," who is never seen and only heard, practicing her off-pitch scales in an adjacent room of the apartment before someone closes the door to block out the noise.

Vincente Minnelli effected the stunning transformation scene by costuming Leslie Caron in a formless, childlike nightgown during her performance of "Say a Prayer for Me Tonight," then using a segue to reveal her in the iconic, form-fitting Cecil Beaton gown she wears to Maxim's.

The inspired direction of Vincente Minnelli has led Gigi (1958) to be widely considered his masterpiece. A large part of this was due to MGM allowing him to film the story on location in France, a permission that had been denied him seven years earlier with An American in Paris (1951). Minnelli's gift for merging colors and textures indeed reached its zenith with Gigi (1958). One image in particular -- Gaston's final wrestle with his conscience played against a stunning moonlit shot of the Place de la Concorde fountain -- became so iconic that it was used over a decade later to coincide with Louis Jourdan's vocal of the title song -- in place of the original footage -- when it was excerpted in That's Entertainment! (1974).

This was Maurice Chevalier's first appearance in an American musical since Folies Bergere (1935). Following a twenty-year period as persona non grata in the U.S. because of his perceived political leanings, Chevalier made his comeback one year before Gigi (1958) in Billy Wilder's Love in the Afternoon (1957). That film opened up a new career for him in Hollywood, and after Gigi (1958) he was kept busy with screen appearances in films such as Count Your Blessings (1959), Can-Can (1960), Pepe (1960), A Breath of Scandal (1960), Fanny (1961), Jessica (1962), In Search of the Castaways (1962), A New Kind of Love (1963), Panic Burton (1964) and I'd Rather Be Rich (1964). With rare exceptions, his roles in these films were patterned after the character of Honore in Gigi (1958) -- wise, charming, and off to the side of the main plot.

While the entire episode involving Liane d'Exelmans (Eva Gabor) appears ancillary at first glance, it is actually integral to the plot, as it is the memory of this sordid breakup, among many others, that colors Gaston's discomfort with Gigi's courtesan know-how in the climax at Maxim's and powers his decision to marry her. Gigi is essentially reprising all of the stage business Liane performed in the earlier scenes, which is more than Gaston can bear.

Gigi (Leslie Caron) arrives at her own decision to become Gaston's (Louis Jourdan) courtesan based on her realization that "I'd rather be miserable with you than without you." This, again, refutes modern-day audiences' insistence that Gigi (1958) is a tale of an underage girl being sold into prostitution. It is inarguably Gigi's depth of feeling toward him that inspires Gaston to turn the tables and request her hand in marriage.