Three Coins in the Fountain

Ah Rome, there’s something about that timeless city that brings romance to the heart.  For Maria (Maggie McNamara), Anita (Jean Peters) and Frances (Dorothy McGuire), love cannot come so easily. Maria has just arrived to be the secretary replacing Anita at the USDA, where there is an office rule against any of the secretaries dating.  Frances is the secretary to John Frederick Shadwell (Clifton Webb), a successful American novelist.  Being a secretary seems to become a stigma reaching further than the office.  Perhaps an American secretary woman is just missing some sort of Italian class, but it is never fully explained.

To introduce Maria to Rome, the trio first shows her the famed Trevi Fountain.  Maria and Frances each throw a coin in, wishing to stay in Rome for a long while, but Anita holds back since she is headed back to the states soon, telling everyone she is to be married.  The truth is, Anita has no fiance, she just wants a chance to find love back home.  In the office, Maria sees the obvious attraction between Anita and Georgio (Rossano Brazzi) and urges Anita to pursue him.  But that love is forbidden, which makes it all the more delicious.

At an office cocktail party, Maria meets Prince Dino di Cessi (Louis Jourdan), and the other girls warn her that he’s a playboy.  Suddenly there’s a struggle for Maria to keep a respectful reputation or to seek love and happiness with a real prince.  As Maria lets Dino take her to Venice in his private plane and other high class adventures, she realizes she may not be sophisticated enough for him.  So she goes around asking what sort of interests Dino has, everything from his taste in wine, to art and she pretends to be knowledgeable of all his enjoyments.  She pretends to be learning the piccolo.  With Dino thinking they have so much in common, Maria is quickly and dishonestly winning his heart.

For Frances, her heart has grown fond of John for the past fifteen year she’s worked for him, but John has trouble picking up on emotions that don’t come from a page.  He’s a smart but mysterious man who does not realize the strain he can put on her heart.  When he sees Frances all broken up about Anita leaving Georgio and Maria about to lose her prince, John starts to understand the romance that has been building between them and sets out to make everything right.

What this film excels in is capturing the beauty of Italy on film.  The new wide-screen invention of CinemaScope was put to wonderful use, showing panoramic aerial views of both Rome and Venice.  We are taken down to the canals of Venice on a gondola ride, under bridges and looking down secret corridors.  During a picnic scene with Anita and Georgio, we’re shown beautiful green hills with a quaint village below.  And of course, all the picturesque landmarks of Rome are put to good use throughout the film.  Three Coins in the Fountain won the award for best cinematography in a color film.

I would suggest this film for a girls-night-in.  The story is light, cute, fun and charged with girl-talk.  It’s all about getting the guy and having your girlfriends for support.  And enjoying the sights of Italy.  Might I suggest grapes, hummus, wine and/or Greek yogurt as snacks?

“Meeting mama in Italy is the first step to the alter.”

Gigi

Gigi is a Cinderella-type story set in Paris at the turn of the twentieth century.  In wealthy Parisian society, Gigi (Leslie Caron) is a school girl training to be a courtesan.  Gaston (Louis Jourdan) is a young, wealthy playboy who despises the superficial lifestyle of high society and seeks refuge in his friendship with Gigi.  She’s just a playful little girl, no harm, right?  But Gaston starts to realize that Gigi is coming of age and turning into a lovely young woman.  Society expects Gaston to have a pretty young thing on his arm, why not Gigi for a while?

In this film, everything is so colorful and beautifully detailed.  The sets, the costumes, props, everything was visually lovely and justly photographed.  Gigi deservingly won for Art Design, Costume Design and Cinematography.

Now, if you love Gigi (or other “princess” movies) and it holds a special place in your heart, please stop reading here.  I do not want to ruin any beautiful, idealistic fantasies you have created about this film.  My following negative views on Gigi were no doubt the product of my very disenchanted and cynical outlook on “princess” films.

The acting sucked.  These people and their flat lines didn’t match the beauty around them.  When they tried to, it just felt like they were hamming it up.  Not halfway through the film, I got an idea.  What if Gigi had been an animated film?  I’m not joking.  I imagined stylized cartoon people, like in 101 Dalmatians.  They could still sing and dance, but better, with the expressive quality that could match their beautifully colorful setting.  These real actors were not cutting it for me, they literally need to be more animated.

Perhaps it shouldn’t matter so much, but Gigi’s age was really starting to bother me.  Her demeanor says fifteen but Caron’s face says mid twenties.  Top it off with the song “Thank Heaven for Little Girls” and the Parisian school girl uniform, that I associate mostly with the sweet little cartoon Madeline, and I was really getting creeped out.  Maybe in 1958 this was all sweet, innocent and wholesome, but if you’re over the age of eleven and have ever attended a public school, you can easily make a dozen pedophile jokes over Gigi.  Sorry I had to go there, but part of critiquing is blunt honesty.  The way Gigi is pulled between innocent girlhood, possible romance with an older man and learning how to be a gold digging mistress is very unsettling in my eyes.

If age is of no concern, the entire premise is still horrifying to modern women.  Teaching girls to “wait for the high-class jewels” and become snooty women on the arm of a rich man is terrible.  Sure, Gigi has her slight rebellions, but she is still trying to go with it and when she does get a taste of the exquisitely superficial lifestyle, she loves it.  Little girls tend to emulate the “princess” character, do we need our girls ogling over jewelry pretending to inspect it and make sure it’s a quality gift?  If you want to teach little girls they have the choice of being either superficial gold diggers or wives, by all means, pop Gigi in for them.

If I made any aspiring princesses cry, sorry, I warned you not to read any further.  How’s the tiara holding up?

“Thank Heaven for little girls.  They grow up in the most delightful way.  Those little eyes, so helpless and appealing…”