Love Me Tonight: Silly Mimi

In Love Me Tonight the song “Mimi,” has a very playful and silly role within the movie. The song is very lighthearted and funny. While the song doesn’t have much meaning in itself, it really shows Maurice’s playful personality. It also introduces the story line of Maurice’s love for Jeanette.
The song is a verse-chorus song and the chorus follows an AABA pattern. The lyrics also follow that same pattern, but change the words slightly. There is only one verse shown in the movie and the chorus is sung through twice. The first time through he sings it, the second time through he speaks his way through the chorus.
When Maurice first meets Jeanette he decides that he will sing for her. When he first says “Mimi,” Jeanette seems to be thrown off because that is not her name. She obviously thinks that Maurice is extremely odd, she calls him “insane,” and “mad.” Also the fact that he has fallen in love with her in only a matter of minutes and feels the urge to sing for her seems to make her feel slightly uncomfortable with him. When he first begins to sing she seems to think the song is funny, she smiles and laughs. As he continues the song she seems to get more and more offended by it. After Maurice finishes the song Jeanette becomes so uneasy that she decides to hurry back to her home. The song gives the introduction of Maurice and Jeanette a very humorous feel to it, as well as gives us a conflict between Maurice and Jeanette.
The song seems to be both an expression of how Maurice feels, and a performance. Maurice clearly states that he wants to sing to her. This indicates that the song is a performance, but it also seems like he’s trying to express himself to her. So though this song may be an expressive song as to how Maurice feels, the song is still his performance to Jeanette.
Cinematically not much happens with the camera movements. There are only 3 different camera views that we see in the song. We see closeup shots of both Maurice and Jeanette, and we also get a medium shot of them both. This makes us focus on their facial expressions, especially her reaction to his song.
The song is then reprised by many of the people in the home. They all seem to know the song, which seems odd because Maurice only sang it for Jeanette. They also seem to be laughing and making fun of the song. Since the song is very silly, this type of reprise fits very well.
This song is very different from the other songs in the film because it doesn’t seem to fit as well with the story line as the others do. The song seems to clue us in to a little more of Maurice’s personality. It makes us understand that Maurice is very cheery and humorous. Though the lyrics are hard to understand, the silliness of the song is very clear. Maurice’s personality shines through in this song and adds his humor to it.