Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

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And the Academy Award Goes To...

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media: Arts

Paul Gambaccini traces the history of the Oscars and tells the story behind winning films

Paul Gambaccini traces the history of the Oscars and tells the story behind award-winning films

And The Academy Award goes to...Gigi

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And the Academy Award Goes To...: Series 3: Gigi

Gigi

Series 3

BBC Radio 4 - And the Academy Award Goes To..., Series 3, Gigi

Paul Gambaccini discovers how Gallic charm won Gigi the Best Picture Oscar in 1959

4 Extra Debut. Paul Gambaccini tells how the Gallic charm of Gigi, starring Maurice Chevalier, won 1959's Best Picture Oscar. From 2010.

In April 1959, the musical Gigi broke the previous record of eight Oscar awards which went to Gone With The Wind in 1940.  

Paul Gambaccini discovers how the combination of Gallic charm and memorable songs, including The Night They Invented Champagne, Gigi and I Remember It Well, sanitised Colette's risque novella for the big screen.

Considered to be the last of MGM's great musicals, Gigi tells the story of a young girl being groomed as a courtesan and the movie's producers battled with the censors to get it made.  

Director Vincente Minnelli's lavish film, which was shot mostly in Paris, sugar-coated the subject matter and Caron's gamine performance melted Hollywood cinema goers.

Paul also explores how Gigi represented the passionate early days of the on-off American love affair with France - a relationship that has come under strain in recent years following the war in Iraq. 

Producer: Paula McGinley

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 2010.

And the Academy Award Goes To...: Series 3

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Paul Gambaccini tells the story behind award-winning films

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