Funny Face (1957)
Directed by Stanley Donen

Film Review

Funny Face sees the improbable pairing of two great Hollywood icons, Fred Astaire and Audrey Hepburn, the former nearing the end of his career, the latter making her big breakthrough into the lavish Hollywood musical.  The film was loosely inspired by a 1927 Broadway production in which Fred Astaire had starred, alongside his sister Adele.  The stage musical and film have little in common, other than four of the original numbers.  Fans of Hepburn will be glad to know that here she sings all of her own songs, unlike in her best-known musical, My Fair Lady (1964), in which she was dubbed.

Whilst it may be somewhat lacking in the plot department and slightly over-long, Funny Face is a captivating film that delights with its uplifting musical numbers (supplied by the great George and Ira Gershwin) and some imaginatively choreographed dance routines.  The film takes a wickedly satirical broadside to two diametrically opposed aspects of Parisian life - haute couture and beatnik intellectuals - and yet it still feels like an affectionate billet doux from Hollywood to the City of Lights.  Lightweight, frothy and shamelessly decadent, Funny Face is the cinematic equivalent of a glass of champagne - refreshing, exhilarating and unexpectedly satisfying.

Film Synopsis

Fashion magazine editor Maggie Prescott is convinced that the next glamour look will combine beauty with intellect.  Dissatisfied with her leading model, she arranges a photo-shoot in a Greenwich Village bookshop with her faithful photographer Dick Avery.  Even here, the model fails to impress, but Dick cannot help noticing the young bookish shop assistant, Jo Stockton.  Dick persuades Maggie that Jo is just the woman she is looking for and Jo, learning that she is to be flown to Paris to promote the work of a grand couturier, willingly accepts the job of a professional model.  Unfortunately, Jo's intellectual side gets the better of her as soon as she sets foot in Paris's Latin Quarter.  To the horror of her employers, she becomes more interested in existentialist philosophy than in modelling for a fashion house...