Funny Face (1957)

I'm not sure there were many women who could have pulled off this film in such an amazing fashion (sorry for the pun). This was more a celebration of Audry, then anything else. And she was somehow simple and radiant at the same time. The story is familiar. The simple shop girl is discovered by simple happenstance. At first, she resists. And then she dives in, head first. But there's also the May - December story line between Fred Astaire and Audry. But, just looking at Audry in all the different settings and costumes is worth the price of admission. Of course with Fred Astaire, there are several dance numbers and songs. And they are a cheerful addition. But it all still comes down to Audry. And this is a great film for serious Audry fans. We get to see so many different images of Audry. The first costume we see her in after losing her bookstore duds, combined with her natural beauty. Is jaw-dropping. While watching this film of this amazing woman. It should be remembered that in spite of her natural attributes. She was carrying and unaffected human being. Her work with UNICEF. The work she did for that agency saved many lives. She genuinely cared for the people she was trying to help.

I didn't know a film could be this bad and also star Fred Astaire, I truly didn't think it was possible. As I've written about before, I am not a fan of Audrey Hepburn's. I'm more than not a fan of Audrey Hepburn's, actually, I don't like her at all. But I recently found out that I am in love with Fred Astaire, so I really thought this venture would work out--it didn't. Similarly, my love for Gregory Peck wasn't enough to yield an enjoyable experience from Roman Holiday. I've settled after this viewing that no matter how much I like her co-stars, I will never enjoy a film with Audrey Hepburn. Stanley Donen, who I will forever love for directing the wonderful Gene Wilder in The Little Prince, was behind Funny Face released in 1957. The film centers around a gorgeous Fred Astaire who works as a photographer for a fashion magazine who discovers a bookworm and is sanctioned to turn her into the next "it girl". I don't know how Audrey Hepburn films landed co-stars, as the camera is constantly on her throughout nearly the entire running time. They wouldn't even show me Fred Astaire long enough for him to salvage this viewing for me. What a disappointment.Dick Avery (Fred Astaire) a fashion photographer needing a change of scenery for a shoot he's working on, takes his models to a bookstore in hopes of passing them off as intellectuals. Filing into the bookstore without permission, they are interrupted by the mousy clerk, Jo Stockton (Audrey Hepburn) who would much rather they all leave. After a bit of back and forth with Avery, she "allows" them to stay while she waits outside for the photo shoot to finish. When she re-enters the bookstore she finds it in complete shambles, broken hearted that the most important things in the world-books- could be treated with such disrespect by a shallow group of models. While offering to help her clean, Avery sneaks in a picture of her and a kiss before he is curtly brushed out of the store by Jo. Upon developing the shots from the day, Dick realizes that Jo has a unique look and wants to photograph her again. Once he shows his photos to Maggie Prescott (Kay Thompson) she is eager to offer Jo a modeling contract. Jo is an intellectual, however, and is reluctant to be just another pretty face. The more time spent with her dashing photographer, however, brings a softness to Jo towards the job and her life.I really wanted to have an "Audrey who?" attitude toward this film; I thought my focus would be so strong on Astaire that I wouldn't notice her, little did I know that wouldn't be possible. The brief moments Astaire was on screen had me wondering through the first half of the film if he was going to even dance at all. Then, I was horrified to finally see him dance, but with Audrey Hepburn. Of course, I knew their characters were going to dance together at some point through the course of the film, but I didn't expect it to look like that. There was no chemistry between them, and I'm not sure there could ever be chemistry between her and anyone Audrey Hepburn would be paired with. She had no talent for movement whatsoever, and I only wish more work would have been put into her dancing so that when Fred was dancing I could have enjoyed it more. Luckily he had some (too brief) solo dance performances I could use to get my fix. This movie is just a whole lot of not for me, even though Fred looks incredible even saturated in red light. Again I ask the question, who is going to turn down a kiss from Fred Astaire?!?

I am a fan of Audrey Hepburn, but generally hate musicals (though there are a few exceptions - The Sound of Music, Across the Universe, amongst others), so this was always going to be interesting. Turns out even Audrey Hepburn can't overcome a lame plot, dull music, unimaginative direction and a unconvincing and wooden leading actor. More than boring, this film is irritating. The campy pretentiousness of the setting, the irritating fashion people, the songs which hardly have a tune. It all just seems so contrived and lame.Worst of all, Audrey Hepburn gets made to look bad thanks to the movie. Her character is overly nerdy, and the songs just don't suit her.A very bitter disappointment.

Audrey Hepburn rocketed to stardom in the 1950s, unwittingly becoming a style icon overnight. Stanley Donen's "Funny Face" finds her character, Jo Stockton, making a similar transformation. A bookish intellectual, Stockton is stumbled upon by Maggie Prescott (Kay Thompson) and Dick Avery (Fred Astaire), a pair of fashion magazine workers who are desperately searching for a face that is both "beautiful" and "intelligent". Stockton has such a face."Funny Face" attempts to satirise two worlds: the fashion industry and its pockets of "haute couture", and 1950s intellectualism, with its Beatniks, hipsters and trendy French existentialists. The film ends with a French philosopher revealing that he is infatuated with Stockton's body and not her mind. French philosophy, then, is as surface-obsessed as high street fashion, a pseudo-intellectual ploy used to achieve by dishonest means the same goal that American men achieve honestly. Though predominantly anti-intellectual as a whole, the film's climax finds the worlds of High Fashion and High Philosophy eventually empathising with one another, each sphere learning that it is as self-absorbed as the other."Funny Face" may not work as drama, satire or romance (Astaire and Hepburn never convince as a couple in love), but it is nevertheless stylistically interesting. Donen's location photography is impressive, his lighting, colour schemes and filters give the film an eye-popping look, and at least two musical interludes are memorable. Throw in the charismatic Astaire, the regal Hepburn, and some mildly interesting fashion by Edith Head and Hubert de Givenchy, and you have one of Donen's better pictures.6.5/10 - See Minnelli's "The Clock".