DIRECTOR Stanley Donen
Funny Face (1957), Stanley Donen’s effervescent musical romantic comedy, contains Audrey Hepburn’s most charming screen performance. Looking impossibly chic in black during the film’s first half, she plays Jo Stockton, a shy Greenwich Village bookshop clerk who is discovered by Fred Astaire’s fashion photographer Dick Avery—a Richard Avedon-inspired figure—and whisked off to Paris for Fashion Week. (All the photographs in the film were shot by Avedon himself.)
Behind the scenes, writer Leonard Gershe and producer Roger Edens were one of Hollywood’s A‑list gay couples of the 1950s and ’60s, though Gershe liked to joke that he “didn’t have enough closet space”—literally or figuratively—for the relationship. Their sensibility permeates the film’s wit, sophistication, and queer-coded glamour.
George and Ira Gershwin’s songs include “How Long Has This Been Going On?” and “S Wonderful.” Audrey does all her own singing and has a lovely, natural voice—one that should have been heard far more prominently in My Fair Lady. The film also cemented her lifelong relationship with her favorite designer, Hubert de Givenchy – their first collaboration was on Billy Wilder’s Sabrina three years earlier – whose costumes helped define her screen persona.
The two major musical set pieces—both written specifically for the film by Edens (music) and Gershe (lyrics)—are unforgettable. “Think Pink” features Kay Thompson’s Maggie Prescott, the lesbian-coded doyenne of the New York fashion world, unveiling her vision for the year ahead with the immortal command: “Think pink… bury the beige!” And “Bonjour, Paris!” sends Audrey, Fred, and Kay dancing through the city in a joyous, witty celebration of their arrival—complete with Gershe’s immortal rhyme of Montmartre with Jean-Paul Sartre.
Cinematography: Ray June
Paramount
STREAMING: Amazon Prime Video, YouTube and Apple TV+
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