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Funny Face
1957
This filmed version of the 1927 George Gershwin Broadway musical Funny Face utilizes the play's original star, Fred Astaire, and several of the original tunes, then goes merrily off on its own. Astaire is cast as as fashion photographer Dick Avery (a character based on Richard Avedon, the film's visual consultant), who is sent .. Read more
| Starring | Fred Astaire, Audrey Hepburn, Robert Flemyng, Michel Auclair |
|---|---|
| Director | Stanley Donen |
| Genres | Music/Musical |
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Funny Face
This filmed version of the 1927 George Gershwin Broadway musical Funny Face utilizes the play's original star, Fred Astaire, and several of the original tunes, then goes merrily off on its own. Astaire is cast as as fashion photographer Dick Avery (a character based on Richard Avedon, the film's visual consultant), who is sent out by his female boss Maggie Prescott (Kay Thompson) to find a new face. It doesn't take Dick long to discover Jo (Audrey Hepburn, who does her own singing), an owlish Greenwich Village bookstore clerk. Acting as Pygmalion to Jo's Galatea, Dick whisks the wide-eyed girl off to Paris and transforms her into the fashion world's hottest model. Along the way, he falls in love with Jo, and works overtime to wean her away from such phony-baloney intellectuals as Professor Emile Flostre (Michel Auclair). The Gershwin tunes include the title song, S'wonderful, How Long Has This Been Going On and He Loves and She Loves; among the newer numbers is Kay Thompson's energetic opener Think Pink. For years available only in washed-out, flat prints, Funny Face was eventually restored to its full Technicolor and VistaVision glory.~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
| Starring | Fred Astaire, Audrey Hepburn, Robert Flemyng, Michel Auclair, Suzy Parker, Kay Thompson |
|---|---|
| Director | Stanley Donen |
| Studio | PARAMOUNT HOME ENTERTAINMENT |
| Run time | DVD: 1 hr 43 mins |
| Certificate | |
| Genres | Music/Musical |
| Language | DVD: English |
| Dubbed | German |
| Hearing-impaired | English |
| Subtitles | DVD: Arabic, Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, German, Hungarian, Icelandic, Polish, Romanian, Swedish, Turkish, Norwegian |
| Released | DVD: 03 Sep 2001 Production year: 1957 |
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Critics' reviews (3)
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You'll be beguiled by the wit, style and sparkle of this MGM musical that wasn't. Director Stanley Donen decamped to Paramount to avail himself of that studio's house treasure, the one and only Audrey Hepburn, and with glowing Technicolor (photography by Ray June) and great Gershwin tunes created a film that looks as elegant today as it did when it first appeared. A satire on fashion magazines, the movie stars the fabulous Fred Astaire as one Dick Avery (photographer Richard Avedon was the film's consultant) who finds the face of his dreams (Hepburn) in a Greenwich Village bookstore. Kay Thompson stands out as an imperious magazine editor — it takes real style to compete with the likes of Hepburn and Astaire! The only questionable scenes are the ones in which the three leads end up in Paris and ridicule Emile Flostre (played by Michel Auclair), a dead ringer for Jean-Paul Sartre — the anti-intellectualism is unworthy of Donen. Otherwise it's scintillating, magical and above all romantic.
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Stylish, wistful musical with good numbers but drawn-out dialogue; finally a shade too sophisticated and a whole lot too fey.
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Most helpful member's review
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3 out of 3 people found this review helpful
[Highly rated reviewer]
Funny Face
Fashion magazine Quality is looking for a girl who can represent everything it stands for. Photographer Dick Avery (Astaire) thinks he has found her on a ... more
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Most recent members' review
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2 out of 3 people found this review helpful
Disappointing
'Funny Face' was a real letdown. I love Audrey Hepburn, and her dancing in this was quite impressive, but Fred Astaire looks very ill and old, making ... more
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News and features
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- 27 Jun 2007
'We'll always have Paris,' Humphrey Bogart assured Ingrid Bergman in Casablanca, and the movies make it so. The cinema preserves the present, recreates the past, and imagines the future. When a city inspires as many moviemakers as Paris has for over a century, films become as much a part of its character and charm as its buildings, its museums and galleries. That's a big claim when we're talking about a city as splendid as this, with so much history and such rich culture. But then that is why... Read more
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Funny Face
This filmed version of the 1927 George Gershwin Broadway musical Funny Face utilizes the play's original star, Fred Astaire, and several of the original tunes, then goes merrily off on its own. Astaire is cast as as fashion photographer Dick Avery (a character based on Richard Avedon, the film's ...
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