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Leslie Caron
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Leslie Caron was a sixteen-year old dancer with the Ballet des Champs-Elyseesin Paris when actor-dancer Gene Kelly first saw her perform and chose her tostar opposite him in the movie An American in Paris. The hit film, particularly the young dancer's performance in its climactic ballet, launched Caron's early career as the ingenue lead in a number of fifties musicals, including the popular Lili and Gigi. Caron's "elfin charm," according to some critics, lent itself well to playing adolescents or young women learning to deal with love and the adult world. Later in her motionpicture career, Caron gave up musicals to concentrate on straight dramatic roles. She has since won acclaim for her work in such films as The L-ShapedRoom.
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Charles Walters' Lili (1953) is the sweet, very special filling between the two extravagant Vincente Minnelli musicals its star Leslie Caron is best known for, An American in Paris (1951) and Gigi (1958). Filmed in bright, primal Technicolor, Lili is not really a musical per se; the only dancer in it is Caron, and the only song that gets sung is "Hi Lili, Hi Lo," an extremely catchy melody by Bronislau Kaper, with triste lyrics by Helen Deutsch, who ... wrote the screenplay (the verse is excerpted above). Considering that Walters' other movies are generally lightweight, pleasant diversions, the strong undertow of melancholy that suffuses every moment of Lili likely comes from Deutsch and the actors. The central situation, which involves Mel Ferrer's embittered puppeteer Paul expressing his feelings for Caron's waif Lili through his marionettes, should feel corny and saccharine, but it never does, mainly because Caron and Ferrer approach their roles with such honesty and insight into the misery of unrequited love.
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Left alone and impoverished when her father dies, naive country girl Lili (Leslie Caron) walks to a provincial town. There she meets and follows a smooth-talking, handsome magician (Jean-Pierre Aumont) who has an act in a local carnival. Not wanting to be separated from the man, Lili takes a job as a waitress in the carnival, but gets fired when she spends her time watching the magic act instead of waiting tables. Not knowing what to do, Lili consults the magician for advice, but he simply tells her to go back to where she came from. Homeless and heartbroken she contemplates suicide, unaware that she is being watched by the carnival's puppeteer (Mel Ferrer). He stops her by striking up a conversation with her through his puppets — a brash red-haired boy, a sly wolf, a vain ballerina, and a cowardly giant.
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Leslie Caron stars as Gigi, an avant-garde French waif being groomed as the fille de joie of affluent and handsome Gaston (Louis Jourdan). Soon Gigi metamorphoses into a stunning beauty, and the head-over-heels Gaston asks for her hand. But Gigi's courtesan grandmother is aghast: No one in the family has ever considered something as plebeian as matrimony! This 1958 gem won Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director (Vincente Minnelli).
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Leslie Caron is Gigi, a girl on the edge of womanhood and Louis Jourdan is the bored young playboy who falls in love with her. Maurice Chevalier sings the delightful Lerner-Lowe songs, "Thank Heaven for Little Girls," and "Gigi." Winner of nine Academy Awards® including Best Picture, GIGI is set in turn-of-the-century Paris.
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Caron counts more than 70 features, television films, series and appearances to her credit. Her noted film performances include: DAMAGE, THE MAN WHO LIVED AT THE RITZ, DADDY LONG LEGS with Fred Astaire, FATHER GOOSE with Cary Grant, IS PARIS BURNING?, MADRON, CHANDLER, CHANEL SOLITAIRE, DANGEROUS MOVES, THE SEALED TRAIN and FUNNY BONES. Her numerous television credits include: Murder on the Orient Express, Run Rabbit Run, The Blue Birds and the acclaimed HBO movie The Last of the Blonde Bombshells.
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Leslie Caron