Gigi is a 1958 musical film directed by Vincente Minnelli. 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; music by Frederick Loewe, arranged and conducted by André Previn. In 1991, Gigi was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." The American Film Institute ranked it #35 in AFI's 100 Years...100 Passions. The film is considered the last great MGM musical and the final great achievement of the Freed Unit, headed by producer Arthur Freed, although he would go on to produce several more films, including the musical Bells Are Ringing in 1960. The film was the basis for an unsuccessful stage musical produced on Broadway in 1973. Set in turn-of-the-20th century Paris, the film opens with Honoré Lachaille (Maurice Chevalier) among high society in the Bois de Boulogne. A charming old roué, he cynically remarks that "Like everywhere else, most people in Paris get married, but not all. There are some who will not marry, and some who do not marry.