Gigi Alvarez

Gilberte "Gigi" Alvarez
Appearances
First Appearance	Literature: Gigi (1944 novella) Film: Gigi (1958 film)
Biographical information
Related to	Gaston Lachaille (husband) Honoré Lachaille (uncle-in-law) Inez Alvarez (grandmother) Alicia Alvarez (great-aunt) Andrée Alvarez (mother)
AKA	Gigi
Marital status	Married
Physical description
Species	Human
Gender	Female
Voice actors
English	Leslie Caron

Gilberte "Gigi" Alvarez is the titular protagonist of the 1944 novella Gigi, as well as its 1958 film adaptation of the same name. She's a free-spirited young girl in turn-of-the-century Paris, groomed by her grandmother and great-aunt to be a courtesan to a wealthy man.

In the 1958 film, she was portrayed by Leslie Caron.

Why She Rocks

1. Leslie Caron really shines in her performance as the Parisian girl and really serves as the heart of the film.
2. During some of her music numbers, she's shown to have a great natural singing voice that partially defines her.
3. A lot of scenes in the film show Gigi as a warm, energetic, fun-loving kid, and even as she's being trained into being a wealthy man's mistress, she's still not very easily persuaded and doesn't always see the point.
4. In addition to that, part of her charm is how genuine and unpretentious she is. As a student in her aunt's lessons for being a proper woman, she's pretty clumsy and not a very good student. She's not afraid to show her true self, and her lack of refinement is what Gaston likes about her as he as had it with society types.
5. Being the next in line for potential marriage has quite a bit of drawbacks. She's isolated because all her schoolmate's parents are probably respectable married folks who probably don't want their daughters to hang out with the children of courtesans -- like her. This is why she's so excited when she's able to hang out with Gaston in the park and during visits as he's the only friend she has
6. She's fairly feisty and not afraid to stand her ground. When she initially realizes Gaston was trying to go on a date with her and she'd have to end up in her high life with Gaston in marriage only to eventually get left behind, she tells him in no uncertain terms that she wouldn't get married to him. She's perfectly willing to have some say in her own future. Though she ends up caving in and having to be with him anyway, it was something as she's still able to tell it like it is.