2016 Blind Spot Series: Funny Face

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What I knew going in: The premise.

 Admittedly, I haven't seen a lot of Audrey Hepburn's movies and this may seem like a weird place to start, but Funny Face is one that a good friend of mine frequently raves about. I had to see it for her.

 Jo (Audrey Hepburn) works at a book store that is spontaneously ransacked during a modeling photoshoot by an ambitious editor, Maggie Prescott (Kay Thompson) and a photographer, Dick Avery. (Fre Astaire) When Dick stays behind to help Jo clean up, he's intrigued with her. Then when sees her in the background of one of his photos, both he and Maggie are taken in by her appearance and convince her to join them on a trip to Paris for a modeling show. Jo only accepts to see the city, but soon realizes there's a lot more to modeling than she thought.

 For a musical, the numbers in this film strangely fell flat. What's actually the most memorable part was the dancing. Hepburn has this lovely ballerina body and she looked so graceful, particularly in the scenes where she dances in a wedding dress. The cinematography and costumes are stunning and make up for the lackluster music numbers. I like Hepburn and Astaire, but I didn't think they had any chemistry as leads. It's Kay Thompson that absolutely stole the show for me. 

 It's a gorgeous film with a decent story, but as a musical I felt it could've been so much better. The songs shouldn't be the weakest link, but they were here. 

 Recommended: Yes

 Grade: B-

 Memorable Quote: "This must be the place." - Dick Avery (Fred Astaire)

Comments

  1. thevoid99May 21, 2016 at 3:28 PM

    There's a lot of films that Audrey Hepburn is in that I haven't seen as one of them is a Blind Spot for this year as I hope it comes to TCM this year.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamMay 24, 2016 at 6:39 AM

      I noticed while looking for this that quite a few of her movies seem to be uploaded to youtube. Not the best quality, but they're there.

      Delete
  2. KatyMay 21, 2016 at 11:00 PM

    Lovely review! But I must admit I sorta hate this movie. Not for the movie itself but because there was a time when TCM only played this and two other movies. My mom always put Funny Face on to torture me. lol Yes, I agree, it's a very nice movie....that I loathe.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamMay 24, 2016 at 6:38 AM

      lol that's okay. I feel similar about the Goonies. It's not a bad one, but I babysat kids one summer that watched it every single day.

      Delete
  3. Optimistic ExistentialistMay 23, 2016 at 4:43 AM

    Crazily, I have not seen this classic..but I want to!

    ReplyDelete
  4. DanielMay 26, 2016 at 8:29 AM

    This is FAR from my favorite Audrey film (or Astaire film, for that matter), but individual scenes are LOTS of fun - Kay Thompson's "Think Pink" being the obvious highlight next to Audrey's dance in the black outfit.

    ReplyDelete

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