Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, known mononymously as Colette, was a French author and woman of letters. She was also a mime, actress, and journalist. Colette is best known in the English-speaking world for her 1944 novella Gigi, which was the basis for the 1958 film and the 1973 stage production of the same name. Her short story collection The Tendrils of the Vine is also famous in France.
Colette, possibly in the 1910s
Colette and Mathilde “Max” de Morny
Portrait of Colette by Jacques-Émile Blanche, 1905, Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya
Colette, painted c. 1896 by Jacques Humbert
Gigi is a 1958 American musical romantic comedy film directed by Vincente Minnelli and processed using Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's Eastmancolor film process Metrocolor. The screenplay by Alan Jay Lerner is based on the 1944 novella of the same name by Colette. The film features songs with lyrics by Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe, arranged and conducted by André Previn. Costume design was done by Cecil Beaton.
Theatrical release poster
Leslie Caron and Louis Jourdan
Drive-in advertisement from 1959