Gigi (1958 film) most French. The winner is Chevalier, in a performance that makes one feel as if you're gagging on pastry… Perhaps if the sweetness of "Gigi" was contrasted with elements of honest vulgarity, the picture could balance itself out… Ten minutes into the movie, you've resolved the plot and are left to wallow in lovely frou-frou. [The film] makes wonderful use of the usual Parisian landmarks, and benefits from extraordinary period costumes and sets." "Gigi" won a record-breaking nine Academy Awards (at the 1959 Oscars ceremony); however, this record only lasted for one year, as "Ben-Hur" broke this record the following
Shadows (1959 film) change his ways in the first version. In his December 1959 manifesto "A Call for a New Generation of Film Makers", Mekas said that "Shadows" was the start of a new movement which would inspire independent filmmakers, energize the flagging avant-garde film scene, and triumph over the commercial Hollywood film industry. Even so, he was upset that the film had been reworked. In January 1960 he wrote in his movie review column in "The Village Voice" that the 1959 version was commercialized, "just another Hollywood film", and that everything he had praised in the first version had been "completely destroyed."