SpunkySelfTwitter
It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.
Jonah Abbott
There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.
Kinley
This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows
JohnHowardReid
Songs: "Funny Face" (Astaire, reprized Astaire), "'S Wonderful" (chorus, reprized Astaire and Hepburn), "How Long Has This Been Going On?" (Hepburn), "Let's Kiss and Make Up" (Astaire), "Clap Yo' Hands" (Astaire, Thompson), "He Loves and She Loves" (Astaire), — all music by George Gershwin, lyrics by Ira Gershwin. "Think Pink" (Thompson), "Bonjour Paris!" (Astaire, Thompson, Hepburn), "On How To Be Lovely" (Hepburn, Thompson), bridge for "Clap Yo Hands", — all music by Roger Edens, lyrics by Leonard Gershe. "Marche Funebre" (Slifer), music by Roger Edens, lyrics by Lela Simone. "Bullfight Dance", music by Alexander Courage. "Clap Yo' Hands", dance music by Skip Martin. "Basal Matabolism", music by Alexander Courage. Music directed, adapted and conducted by Adolph Deutsch. Choreography: Eugene Loring, Fred Astaire. Songs staged by Stanley Donen. Dance assistants: Dave Robel, Pat Denise. Music arrangements and orchestrations: Conrad Salinger, Mason Van Cleave, Alexander Courage, Skip Martin. Copyright 1957 by Paramount Pictures Corp. New York opening at the Radio City Music Hall: 28 March 1957. U.S. release: April 1957. U.K. release: 27 May 1957. Australian release: 15 August 1957. Sydney opening at the Prince Edward: 16 August 1957 (ran six weeks). 9,302 feet. 103 minutes. SYNOPSIS: Fashion photographer introduces bookshop beatnik into the world of Parisian couture. NOTES: Here's a breakdown of the orchestrations. Van Cleave did "Bonjour Paris!" Courage handled "Let's Kiss and Make Up", Salinger was assigned "He Loves and She Loves", Skip Martin worked on "Clap Yo' Hands", Deutsch did both "Think Pink" and "On How To Be Lovely". Background music was orchestrated by Deutsch, Courage and Van Cleave. Nominated for the following Academy Awards: Best Original screenplay (won by Designing Woman), Best Cinematography (won by The Bridge on the River Kwai), Best Art Direction (won by Sayonara), Best Costumes (won by Les Girls). One of Bosley Crowther's Ten Best Pictures of 1957. Sixth on the National Board of Review's list. Special Citation for "photographic innovations" from the National Board of Review.COMMENT: Top-billed Audrey Hepburn is perfectly cast in this inventively staged and most stylishly photographed musical. Fred is no slacker either, and it's good to see Kay Thompson in such an excellent role (her only previous film appearance was a brief singing spot with her radio choir in "Manhattan Merry-Go-Round" way back in 1937). Following Hollywood custom, one of France's top stars, Michel Auclair, is inappropriately dubbed (though he does get to speak his own opening lines in French), whilst normally reliable British "other man" Robert Flemyng is likewise inexplicably miscast as a Parisian fashion designer. However, Dovima is fine as a Bronx- accented model, and keen fans will have no trouble recognizing Suzy Parker in the "Think Pink" number. OTHER VIEWS: Actually lensed on real Paris locations with Fred and company dancing through the main streets and boulevards and on to the Eiffel Tower, Funny Face is both a visual and musical treat. The story is engaging too, with wit and satire directed against the cleverly contrasted worlds of high fashion and beatnik intellectualism. True the romantic complication with a bearded Michel Auclair is rather old- hat. But with songs like these, who's complaining? Fred, Audrey and Kay are all in marvelous form, production values are appropriately super-glossy, and the photography contrives to be amusing and clever in its own right. Funny Face has so many stylish elements, I'm surprised it has never been adopted as a cult movie. Perhaps its expose of the phony, pretentious claptrap underlying undergraduate philosophy strikes too close to home. Whatever, Funny Face is still an absolute delight. — JHR writing as George Addison.
tbuckley-824-450569
Audrey was so beautiful that it seems Hollywood felt all that was needed was to give her some wonderful costumes and project her on to the screen. This movie doesn't even do that very well. Amazingly, although the film is called Funny Face, there are practically no close ups and her fabulous visage is lost in far too many long shots. Compare the photography with that in Charade for example. What do we get instead? An extraordinarily shallow plot, dialogue that might have been written by a five year old, two wonderful Gershwin songs and more than a few uninspiring ones, an uncomfortable dose of ham from Kay Thompson, and Fred doing what he did in the thirties and forties, but unconvincingly.Audrey was wonderful, as always, carrying the rest of the cast single handed. She showed off her singing chops, and she had a wonderful dance scene in the beat café. But her talent and pretty costumes were not enough to save this movie for me.
oOoBarracuda
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?!?
secondtake
Funny Face (1957)I was prepared to love this movie and it let me down even though it has two fabulous leads, the classic musical dance man Fred Astaire and the new star Audrey Hepburn. It even has its photography based on the work of Richard Avedon, and Astaire's character is based on him in his fashion work. I enjoyed it, but it depends too much on common formulas, which I normally don't mind, and it lacks cohesion, flow, and what you might just call magic.That it's partly shot in New York and then Paris (a famously rainy Paris during the shoot) you would think you could hardly go wrong. And in a way it doesn't go wrong overall. But the plot lacks energy, the romantic chemistry is missing (the two are really more like father and daughter), and the series of dance numbers is choppy and uneven. Because of all this, each song goes on too long and you itch for the next scene, and then that scene merely takes us back to the weak plot.If you focus on these weaknesses the movie starts to look almost terrible. Hepburn's transformation from a tweedy intellectual in a bookshop in Manhattan to the premiere runway in Paris sounds like dream come true stuff, but it isn't really convincing (or surprising, of course). The French counter-culture intellectual scene is fun idea but it doesn't push it very far, and the leading voice is played by an actor with no presence at all. Hepburn's interactions in this whole world are forced. Even the opening twenty minutes, which sets the tone, is rough sledding before out two leading actors appear.But focus on the strengths and there are some great moments. Like the series of photo shoots, one after another quickly spreading across the highlights of the city, is fun and stylish. A few of the dance numbers, though short of classic, are great fun, like the modern one in the French smokey bar and the one in the darkroom with the safelights on. In both of these, again, director Stanley Donen (a consummate pro at this stuff) let things drag on just a minute too long, which is a long time in a fast moving movie like this.Then there is Fred Astaire, at ease and warm and really wonderful. He doesn't get a chance to quite blow the doors off any of the dances, but he's still a joy to watch, dancing or just being his warm self. (He was initially a reluctant actor at this point in his life, but was still very active. For a sense of his truer self, perhaps, behind the scenes, see "On the Beach" two years later.)Then there is Audrey Hepburn, by now a stellar and unique star trying to spread her wings into musicals (this was her first). She, as usual in her career, rose above her part and like Astaire was "herself" with such charm she keeps even weaker scenes going. When she's in them, which luckily she is in most of them by the second half. Hepburn also comes across as a superb model (appropriately thin, but not especially tall), and Avedon's photographs of her taken in conjunction with filming are iconic. They get incorporated into the movie directly, both in the scenes where Astaire creates some photos in his role, and in some of the cinematography which imitates Avedon's style (white backdrops, modern styling). In the end it's a great seeming movie with such huge flaws it's just another musical. But that's not fair, quite, so think of it as an up and down ride with some very very fine high points which make it worth watching.
