Director Stanley Donen passed away just over a month ago at the age of 94. And while he will always be best known for his work on films like Singin’ in the Rain and On the Town, that’s just the beginning of his talents as a director of funny, heartfelt, visually stunning musicals. One of my favorites from Donen is 1957’s Funny Face.
Synopsis
Dick Avery (Fred Astaire) is a fashion magazine photographer who is tired of working with models who are all beauty and no brains. During a photoshoot at a Greenwich Village bookshop, he discovers Jo Stockton (Audrey Hepburn), a store clerk who loves philosophy and hates anything having to do with fashion. Avery persuades her to go with him to Paris to model for the magazine only by promising her a chance to meet her favorite philosopher Emile Flostre (Michel Auclair). Once she’s there, she begins to fall in love with the fashion world and with Dick.
Review
You’ll sometimes hear the word “fluff” being tossed around in modern reviews of Funny Face. And while I won’t call it Donen’s most innovative or progressive film, it still bears his unique touch. It’s well-worth watching for the performances of its leads and the sheer sumptuousness of its images. Legendary fashion photographer Richard Avedon is credited as a “special visual consultant” on the film, and the movie recreates many of his most famous photographs from Harper’s Bazaar. Overall, the film has a very glossy, magazine feel to it.
Then there’s Audrey. These days Audrey, like Frida Kahlo or Che Guevara before her, is becoming less an actual historical person and more of a consumer brand, a label for a certain kind of lifestyle, developed by the marketing world and sold to the public. Outside of the realm of cinephilia, it’s easy for the average person to forget amid the wash of Audrey Hepburn t-shirts, posters, purses, and sleeping masks that Audrey was not only a hardworking, talented actress, but that she also possessed a charm and a grace onscreen that can’t be taught. Her exuberance matches the colorful look and feel of the film perfectly. This is also one of the few films in which she got to put her classical dance training to use, most famously in the cabaret scene.
The casting of Fred Astaire might seem a little off: Astaire was a full thirty years older than his co-star. Even so, they’re delightful to watch together. It had long been a dream of Hepburn’s to work with Astaire, and Astaire admired her work as well. They make for a memorable pair, even if their onscreen romance is less than convincing.
Funny Face is also one of Kay Thompson’s very rare appearances in film. Though best known today as the author of the Eloise books, Thompson was also an accomplished singer, dancer, and actress. Sadly, she only made four appearances on film, most of them in bit parts. Playing Quality magazine editor Maggie Prescott, Thompson gets to show off the range of her skill for all time.
It’s not a perfect film, of course. Thematically, it can often be seen as lacking substance, though the potential was there. The story of the bookish Jo Stockton’s rise to the top of the Parisian fashion scene could have explored themes of femininity and the rigid strictures that society—and especially media and advertising—try to put around it. It could have made an effort to combat stereotypes, such as the one that says that a woman can be intellectual or stylish and not both, or that smart girls are inherently less attractive. We could have seen the two parts of Jo’s personality, her old love for philosophy and literature and her newfound love of fashion, coalesce into one whole. Alas, that may be a little too much to ask for in mainstream 1950s cinema.
But for sheer entertainment value, and for fans of Hepburn, Astaire, or Donen, Funny Face is not to be missed.
Language: English
Director: Stanley Donen
Producer: Roger Edens
Production Company: Paramount Pictures
Stars: Audrey Hepburn as Jo Stockton, Fred Astaire as Dick Avery, Kay Thompson as Maggie Prescott, Michel Auclair as Emile Flostre, Robert Flemyng as Paul Duval
Writer: Leonard Gershe
Score by: Adolph Deutsch (based on music by George and Ira Gershwin)
Runtime: 1 hour and 43 minutes
Color? Yes (Technicolor)
Hitchcock's Guide to the Galaxy 
Funny Face ! Wonderful romantic and sophisticated Parisian opera ballerina style of the 50s !
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