Members of a circus troupe "adopt" Lili Daurier when she finds herself stranded in a strange town. The magician who first comes to her rescue already has romantic entanglements and thinks of her as a little girl. Who can she turn to but the puppets, singing to them her troubles, forgetting that there are puppeteers? A crowd gathers around Lili as she sings. The circus has a new act. She now has a job. Will she get her heart's desire?
Leslie Caron Mel Ferrer Jean-Pierre Aumont Zsa Zsa Gabor Kurt Kasznar Amanda Blake Alex Gerry Ralph Dumke Wilton Graff George Baxter Eda Reiss Merin Reginald Simpson George Davis Mitchell Lewis Fred Walton Jeannine Ducasse Claude Guy Richard Grayson Charles Walters Dorothy Jarnac Dick Lerner Arthur Mendez Frank Radcliffe Lars Hensen Georgia Stark Gene Conklin Muzzy Marcellino
Lilí, Лили, 孤凤奇缘
USA
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USSR
USA
USSR
If a bunch of puppets started talking to me in the middle of MY suicide attempt, it wouldn't convince me to keep living, THAT'S for sure.
Pretty creepy. Don't get me wrong, I smile at the cute songs with the puppets, swoon whenever Leslie Caron dances, and generally get swept up in the magic realism of it all like I'm supposed to. But at its core, you're still dealing with a story about a grown man using puppets to trick a naive teenage girl into falling in love with him. I get that he's really a wounded soul who uses his puppets to communicate feelings he can't bare to express on his own. That's all well and good. All I'm saying is he's still pursuing a relationship with a sixteen year old kid who admits she's never even kissed a man before. Like I said: creepy. Charming. Sincere. Enchanting at times. But still creepy.
I don't know, in some ways maybe that even helps it. Certainly makes it feel less saccharine than it might have otherwise. Your mileage may vary.
Men will literally use puppets to manipulate a 16-year-old girl into liking them instead of going to therapy
New Gaslighting Tactic Unlocked.
Puppets.
There are some really lovely moments in the two dream sequences Leslie Caron has in this film, the first when she faces off in a dance with Zsa Zsa Gabor, who she thinks is a rival for the love of a magician (Jean-Pierre Aumont), and the second, when she copes with the idea of leaving a puppeteer (Mel Ferrer). She’s an orphan, you see, who has latched on to a carnival to avoid being homeless and on the streets. Her character is also quite young, just 16, and early on we get a dose of creepiness from a shopkeeper who tries to take advantage of her, as well as the magician, who in response to being told she’s very young,…
I knew from the first second that this movie was going to be freaky and weird! The color palette alone was a warning! And the casting was so wild, like MGM put together Mel Ferrer, puppets, and any European ex-pats who happened to be around the studio and called it a day.
It's truly troubling to watch the way all the 35+ year-old men relate to Leslie Caron, whose character is explicitly 16 (SIXTEEN) in the story. The creepiness of this barely registers though, because uhhh, Mel Ferrer can only express his "genuine" feelings via puppets (WUT) and the rest of the time he is verbally abusive and/or drunk. Jean-Pierre Aumont isn't any better, in fact he's actually somehow worse? He also was doubled for all his dancing and it is awkwardly obvious. I was legitimately never bored though, and I gotta admit I kind of had a great time?!
this is about a man who is so unable to tap into his deeper emotions and also doesnt know how to talk to girls so he uses creepy puppets it is a horror movie
Leslie Caron in a dreamy romance featuring various forms of puppeteers, learning the nature of men, while she herself possess the purest form of being. Absolutely adorable.
lol absolutely not
Basically if say Millie Bobby Brown fell in love with Jeff Dunham by singing duets with Walter.
Part of my 5 Directors x 5 Unseen Films (23) challenge.
Who doesn't recognize this film's theme song? "Hi-Lili, Hi-Lo"? Yet how many of us are familiar with Bronislau Kaper as the Oscar-winning composer for Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture, or the five other Academy Award nominations received by the film for Best Director (Charles Walters), Best Actress (Leslie Caron), Best Screenplay (Helen Deutsch), Best Cinematography, or Best Art Direction? Talk about an underrated gem of post-War cinema!
Caron plays the titular character, Lili Daurier, with such earnestness and sincerity, it brings tears to your eyes. She's an orphan, whose supposed benefactor has died. Alone in the world at age sixteen, she falls in with a…
This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.
One of those movies you watch from start to finish completely mesmerized. Just because the main character appears in a hat with a suitcase, and there are puppets, doesn't make this film naive, infantile, or creepy. It's about a girl growing up, but it's neither too childish nor too prude.
Yes, there are bad people in the world, and the film does not hide it at all, nor is it gentle in revealing it to young Lili, Caron's character.
But it is also unabashed in showing that there is hope, and purity, albeit packaged and delivered in an unlikely wrapper (by that I mean Ferrer's "Paul.") And Lili learns to grow up without losing her innocent wonder. There was nothing in this movie that I could not like.
No, not even the puppets.
P.s. Mr.Ferrer, you were so much more than "Mr.Hepburn."
