Funny Face (1957)
Overview
A shy Greenwich Village book clerk is discovered by a fashion photographer and whisked off to Paris where she becomes a reluctant model.
Cast
Audrey Hepburn
Jo Stockton
Fred Astaire
Dick Avery
Kay Thompson
Maggie Prescott
Michel Auclair
Prof. Emile Flostre
Robert Flemyng
Paul Duval
Dovima
Marion
Suzy Parker
Specialty Dancer (Think Pink Number)
Sunny Hartnett
Specialty Dancer (Think Pink Number)
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CinemaSerf
Despite the presence of Audrey Hepburn and Fred Astaire, I think this film actually belongs to Kay Thompson. She plays really well as the 1950s version of Dame Anna Wintour in this amiable, if a little thinly spread, musical comedy. Infuriated by the rather drab quality of her latest "Quality" magazine, she determines to revamp the whole thing. In pink! A bookshop being used for a photo shoot by "Avery" (Astaire) provides the unlikely source for her new model - "Jo" (Hepburn) who is to the fashion industry what Herod was to babies. "Avery" is clever, though, and he offers a trade off that sees her do a shoot in Paris in return for a meeting with "Prof. Flostre" (Michel Auclair). What now ensues is all fairly predictable, a love triangle with "Jo" in the middle vacillating. George & Ira Gerschwin provided the musical numbers, and though they are very well staged, the film lacks a killer song. That said, Thompson is on super form as the no-nonsense boss, the dance numbers are colourful and energetic and finally, Hepburn has a lovely vivacity and enthusiasm to her performance - she takes to the musical numbers very much like a duck to water. Astaire isn't at his best, and Robert Flemyng's accent isn't the best either - but at the end, the whole thing falls into place with an enjoyable certainty.
