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Funny Face on DVD (1957)

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Average rating: 62%
45266201317310
3.0
from 821 members
 
Starring: Fred Astaire, Audrey Hepburn, Robert Flemyng, Michel Auclair, Suzy Parker, Kay Thompson
Director: Stanley Donen
Studio: PARAMOUNT HOME ENTERTAINMENT
Run time: 103 mins
Certificate: U
Genres: Music/Musical
Languages: English
Dubbed: German
Hearing-impaired: English
Subtitles: Arabic, Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, German, Hungarian, Icelandic, Norweigan, Polish, Romanian, Swedish, Turkish
Released: 03/09/2001
Also Available on: Also Available on: DIGITAL

Brief synopsis of Funny Face

Splashes of vivid color light the way through Stanley Donen's very modern musical. 'Think pink!' commands Miss Prescott (Kay Thompson), head of Quality Woman fashion magazine, and American women obey--all except Jo (Audrey Hepburn), an intellectual young woman who tries to prevent Miss Prescott from staging a photo shoot in her bookshop. Photographer Dick Avery (Fred Astaire) sees something interesting in Jo's "funny face," and soon he's lured her to Paris to model during the day and discuss philosophy in smoky cafes at night. Modeling Givenchy clothes, Hepburn steals the color in every scene, and her funny face enchants all, including Dick and, unexpectedly, the dark and handsome philosophy master whose theories Jo adores.
The musical numbers are primarily duets--Jo and Dick glide together in each other's arms, Jo and Miss Prescott find unexpected solidarity in womanhood, and Dick and Miss Prescott cavort in the philosopher's salon--but the most engaging scene is when the three come to Paris, plead exhaustion to one another, then secretly race around the city, singing and dancing and reveling in being tourists.

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Critics Reviews

Rating of 4 stars out of 5 Radio Times

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.

Rating of 2 stars out of 4 Halliwell's Film Guide

Stylish, wistful musical with good numbers but drawn-out dialogue; finally a shade too sophisticated and a whole lot too fey.

Time Out

The musical that dares to rhyme Sartre with Montmartre, Funny Face - surprisingly from Paramount rather than MGM -... Read more on www.timeout.com

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Members Reviews

Reviews Voted Most Helpful

Rated - 4 starsFunny Face

SAI81 from Tonbridge [Highly rated reviewer] , 13/05/2007

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 location photo shoot in a bookstore. So store clerk Jo Stockton (Hepburn) becomes the 'Quality woman' and is whisked off to Paris to be a model. Unfortunately, while in Paris, she's more interested in hearing philosophers speak and in her burgeoning romance with Avery than in being a clothes horse.

Funny Face is a film unmistakably of its time and this is both a good and a bad thing. The satire of the then trendy philosophy (though I'm sure 'empathicalism' is made up) is often silly and wearing and takes away from the charm of the rest of the film much of the time but this is the only big problem with Funny Face and the philosophy is hardly the focus of the film

As a musical it's a bit of a mixed bag, with a few weak numbers like the opener 'Think Pink' but these pale in significance in comparison to the stronger songs like Hepburn's solo 'How Long Has This Been Going On?', the title number '(I Love Your) Funny Face', which is fantastically designed and lit with the red bulb in a darkroom by Donen. The standouts, though, are the wonderful 'Bonjour Paris' which cuts between Hepburn, Astaire and Thompson at various locations in Paris, often using split screen sequences of the three of them doing the same dance steps in perfect sync and 'On How To Be Charming' (As if Hepburn ever needed tips on this) which does exactly what it says on the tin.

The dancing is the strongest suit of the film. While Astaire (at 58!!) is still moving with all the grace he had in his younger days and has several amazing dance sequences it is Hepburn's lithe, sexy Basal Metabolism dance that makes the whole film worth watching.

Funny Face is, at it's heart, fluff and this means that there are a lot of implausibilities you have to reconcile to enjoy it. Hepburn and Astaire look odd as a romantic couple but their dance sequences are beautiful and do help you to buy the relationship somewhat. The other problem is that Hepburn isn't meant to be beautiful in the first half of the film which, frankly, is ridiculous as, if anything, she looks better with the minimal make up of her bookish character than she does painted up as a model (though the sequence in which Astaire is taking pictures of her around Paris has several moments where she's just jaw droppingly goregous.)

Funny Face isn't perfect, it's silly fluff but it's done with real style and it's never less than entertaining and can certainly be recommended.

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Rated - 3 starsWhat a funny face

A customer from london , 04/11/2004

This is a funny timeless movie. I am not sure you can describe Audrey Hepburns face as funny. Great Modern dancing scenes and a lot of old tap. A good inspiration of late fifties early sixties chic.

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Rated - 3 stars

A customer from ECCLES SALFORD , 11/11/2004

A musical with a proper story line. Not as much dancing as you'd expect from Fred Astaire but a very enjoyable film.

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Rated - 3 starsa classic

willhay from Leeds , 24/10/2003

I challenge anyone to find me a poor Hepburn movie, although the dancing fool (Astaire) does neither anything for me or the movie and could have been played by a chimp.

Hepburn is glorious and could star in a war movie and would still shine.

Superb.

Four stars (but only because of the idiot with the tap shoes).

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Most Recent Reviews

Rated - 2 starsannoyin

nikki28 from Whitby [Highly rated reviewer] , 11/07/2008

this film really annoyed more even more than eliza dolittle in my fair lady !!! and thts sayin something lol i love me oldies and musicals but this just didnt do it for me im afraid try it and c what u think .

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Rated - 3 starsWhat a funny face

A customer from london , 04/11/2004

This is a funny timeless movie. I am not sure you can describe Audrey Hepburns face as funny. Great Modern dancing scenes and a lot of old tap. A good inspiration of late fifties early sixties chic.

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