Funny Face (1957)

Funny Face (1957), directed by Stanley Donen.

Amiable, whimsical Gershwin musical with rather fine Paris locations, better than the average travelog. It's about fashion photography, which is a big "who cares?" for most people, but they also satirize the fashion world and we like them better for that. You see it for the stars, not the story.

I always feel an unexpected electric shock when Audrey Hepburn smiles and turns up the wattage: such amazing star power in that pixie frame. She does her own singing here and that girl can dance.

She has relaxed chemistry with Fred Astaire, 30 years her senior. More than with Bogart in Sabrina (1954) but not as much as with Gregory Peck in Roman Holiday (1953). She's prettier before they transform her into a supermodel.

Would you call that a funny face?

Tending toward the painful: the satires on the intellectualoids of New York and Paris, and the "Clap Yo' Hands" number, which sounds like a reject from Porgy and Bess.

And I have it on good authority that redheads should not wear pink.

http://watershade.net/public/funny-face.jpg