Youthful Dreams. Vincent Minnelli. Gigi

presentation by Corry Shores
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[The following is quotation. My own notes are bracketed in red.]

Youthful Dreams
Vincent Minnelli
Gigi

Gilles Deleuze

Cinema I
Cinéma I

Ch.7
The Affection-image: Qualities, Powers, Any-space-whatevers
L'image-affection : qualités, puissances, espaces quelconques

3d
Colour and Absorption(Minnelli)
La couleur et absorption (Minnelli)

[...] from the beginning of a total cinema of colour, Minnelli had made absorption the properly cinematographic power of this new dimension of the image. This is the source of the role of the dream in his work: the dream is only the absorbent form of colour. His work in musical comedy, but also in all other genres, follows the obsessive theme of characters literally absorbed by their own dream, and above all by the dream of others and the past of others (Yoldanda and the Thief, The Pirate, Gigi, Melinda [sic: English title, On a Clear Day You Can See Forever]) by the dream of power of an Other (Les Ensorcelés [sic: English title: The Bad and the Beautiful]). [Deleuze Cinema 1, 1986: 122a.b]

[…] dés le début d’un cinéma total de la couleur, Minnelli avait fait de l’absorption la puissance proprement cinématographique de cette nouvelle dimension de l’image. D’où chez lui le rôle du rêve : le rêve n’est que la forme absorbante de la couleur. Son œuvre, de comédie musicale mais aussi de tout autre genre, allait poursuivre le thème lancinant de personnages littéralement absorbés par leur propre rêve, et surtout par le rêve d’autrui et le passé d’autrui («Yolanda », « Le pirate », « Gigi », « Melinda »), par le rêve de puissance d’un Autre (« Les ensorcelés »). [Deleuze Cinéma 1, 1985: 167b]

[Gaston is a wealthy and socially prominent bachelor. He has had a friendship with Gigi while she was a child, and now that she has grown, he has fallen in love with her. Gigi's grandmother and great-aunt 'dream' of Gigi marrying into Gaston's fortune and fame. In these clips we see Gaston partly inclined toward Gigi, and guided a little bit into the marriage, as a result of him being absorbed by the dreams of Gigi's caretakers.]

Deleuze, Gilles. Cinema 1: The Movement-Image. Transl. Hugh Tomlinson & Barbara Habberjam, London: Continuum, 1986.

Deleuze, Gilles. Cinéma 1: L'image-mouvement. Paris: Les éditions de minuit, 1983.