Tag: Audrey Hepburn

BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY’S (1961) movie review

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Audrey had a way with people. She wooed them. She still does. So many of her films are almost travel-bios advertising the towns they tour – each city becoming a character of sorts in the film.Roman Holiday (1953) sweeps her up into Gregory Peck’s arms for a guided tour of Rome offering an overworked Princess a rare holiday for a day.In Funny Face (1957), Audrey tours Paris and transforms from bookish to bombshell. Bonjour Pari!Breakfast at Tiffany’s catches cabs all around NYC with George Peppard.  Their iconic day of firsts is a perfect city glance. Set in the well-sauced sixties, the story surrounds the nightlife loving New York model escort who befriends the young and beautiful writer George Peppard, who has similar secrets of his own.tumblr_mq71b4a2iH1r5yygpo1_500Despite Mickey Rooney’s unfortunately racist caricature, much of this film still holds up.  It’s a Pretty Woman story of sorts, in which Audrey Hepburn gets to play against type as Holly Golightly. Breakfast-at-Tiffanys_Audrey-Hepburn_black-hat-bandNo longer the little girl, wistful and tender hopping about Rome, this role created by author Truman Capote is much darker: a girl, full of sorrow, running from her past. The mask she wears just happens to have thick fake lashes and a perfect wardrobe dripping with tasteful jewels.audrey-as-holly-in-sleep-mask_with-cat-on-backHonest and safe in each other’s presence, the two main characters grow more comfortable together and slowly more cognizant the fact that to true love requires vulnerability, dependence, and exclusivity – all of the relational holds she’s been running from her whole life.She shows him her Sunday afternoon side, singing on the fire escapes and feeding the cat. Henry Mancini wrote the famous song “Moon River” for this film. Studios weren’t going to let Audrey sing it because of her whispey vocals, but Mancini stood up and said if she didn’t sing it they wouldn’t get to use it.Peppard quickly becomes the one man in New York who is privy to her past as a young girl on the farm, married off to a widow at fourteen. She seeks freedom in the Big Apple but finds only a new sort of slavery. She calls herself a wild thing who can’t be held down. She won’t even give the cat a name because he doesn’t really belong to her. To belong to somebody would give them power over her that she can’t allow – it hurts too much.Breakfast at Tiffany’s, now iconic in both fashion and film, is truly one of the saddest stories, but it teaches its audiences that to love is to allow someone else in, for better or worse, and that that can be beautiful.breakfast-at-tiffany-s-audrey-hepburn-g-p-found-cat

ROMAN HOLIDAY (1953) movie review

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Audrey Hepburn, Roman Holiday (1953) starring Gregory Peck

This is it. If I have to choose a favorite film. I think this is it. Top 5 at least.

Audrey’s first starring role as the illustrious Princess Ann proved her perfect for the post in posture, eloquence, and manners. She was born to play a princess. Annex-Hepburn-Audrey-Roman-Holiday_01-230x300In this story, her life takes a drastic turn the night her daunting schedule full of royal duties becomes too much for her and she decides to run away.  Her rescuer is the soak-em-for-a-buck fast-talking journalist Gregory Peck. He knows who she is and decides to take advantage of the opportunity for an inside scoop. Their adventure around the city of Rome tours the best of all sites: the Trevi Fountain, gelato on the Spanish Steps,220px-Audrey_Hepburn_and_Gregory_Peck_on_Vespa_in_Roman_Holiday_trailer scootering past the Coliseum and Vatican City, a walk through the forum, a ride past the wall of memories, a boat dance in the evening, and best of all a trip to the “Mouth of Truth.” Watch for Audrey’s real reaction to Peck’s joke there.
220px-Audrey_Hepburn_and_Gregory_Peck_at_the_Mouth_of_Truth_Roman_Holiday_trailerI’ve been to Rome, and other than the newer scooters and larger crowds it is all the same. Go. Visit Rome today via this film. Ride along with Joe and Anna, the one they call Smitty. Get to know the city with their good pal Irving the photographer. 220px-Gregory_Peck,_Audrey_Hepburn_and_Eddie_Albert_in_Roman_Holiday_trailerIt is well worth the few hours away and the lessons you’ll learn about love and duty will always haunt you.

To watch the trailer : Roman Holiday  (1953)

SABRINA (1954) movie review

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Audrey Hepburn wears the crown as golden age actress of class from her era. In every role, she carries herself with the ethereal grace of a princess. Even in her quintessential black leggings and flats, she remains the icon of fashion, elegance, and simplicity.
In Sabrina, she plays the innocent chauffeur’s daughter in love with the son of the rich family for whom her father works. What begins as a rags to riches tale becomes more cat and mouse as the older brother seeks to dissuade the girls affections for the younger to maintain a business relationship. Playful and fun seeming on the outset, this story bridges more moral conundrums than seem common in a rom com, even one in black and white. You can always trust a Billy Wilder film to tell a simple seeming story with heart and complexity. Genius. Humphrey Bogart, of course, plays the much-too-old-for-her love interest who saves a young Sabrina from attempting to take her own life.Such tragedies pursue the hopeless romantics cursed with unrequited love. We weep. We waiver. We wander. And she wanders all the way to Paris, to a cooking school, where an odd friendship helps her see her own value before she returns home as an independent woman. Or does she?Will she allow her heart to swell as it once did for the fabulous playboy brother David, played by William Holden? Or will she fall for the one person in the world who listens as she speaks her mind and is surprisingly teachable, despite his foreboding manner. Bogart proves as lovable in Sabrina as in Casablanca, despite the less believable winter/spring fling potential.He is charming and she is mature. He is lonely and she is in the way of his big business merger. He has to risk something, even his own heart. It becomes less a question of how than why ever not?It’s a lovely princess story and a nice follow up to her treasured Roman Holiday performance.
The 1995 remake with Harrison Ford, Julia Ormond, and Greg Kinnear proves equally as endearing, if justly a bit more aware of the darker tones and painstakingly fearful endeavor that those first steps into love truly are. Harrison and Humphrey, two charming loves who will always have my heart.
Here is the original trailer:  Sabrina (1954)

And Sabrina (1995) 

CHARADE (1963) movie review

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audrey-hepburn-charade-1963Audrey month continues with Stanley Donen’s film Charade. It may look like a Hitchcock film, but it isn’t. Though suspenseful (and way too scary for children), it keeps the conversation light and romantic. And don’t miss the perfect score by Henry Mancini. Charade-Movie-Audrey-Hepburn-Pictures-5-HD-Wallpapers-500x271

Charade-Movie-Quotes-04-202x300Watch it for the sensational screen love between Audrey and Cary Grant. Their lines are shockingly modern, more “New Girl” than silver screen. Audrey’s delivery slices comedic, and Cary Grant is equally quick and savvy. Despite their age gap (which made Cary Grant almost refuse the role), they use playful banter for excellent on-screen allure.
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FUNNY FACE (1957) movie review

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Funny-FaceIt opens as the first Devil Wears Prada as scene-stealer Kay Thompson entices the world to “Think Pink.”
These filmmakers were way ahead of their time in creating art films. A visual collage in each scene, and this a backdrop for Givenchy’s designs including the classic “Audrey look” debuting in this film.

From New York’s quaint village bookstores to the picturesque streets and sights of Paris, each scene sets the stage for this film to show off the visual allure of the fashion industry while simultaneously preaching a unique feminism that attempts to promote brains before beauty.Funny-Face-audrey-hepburn-maginifying-glass-close-up

While that non-traditional perspective for that era surfaced, Audrey played the girl with the “funny face” which made her eternally iconic.

Under the flattering pink glow of Parisian city lights, a romance with fashion and more so with the city itself flourishes.

It’s entertaining and lovely, classic and pure. Where the music fails to fit, Audrey’s class fulfills. Don’t miss this dip into Paris in the 50’s and catch all of its sights with the goddess of fashion. Audrey at the Eiffel Tower. Audrey fishing on the Seine. Audrey at the Louvre in that gorgeous red gown.tumblr_lplb5hEhRH1qir469o1_500“I don’t want to stop I like it. Take the picture. Take the picture!”

What Audrey and her famous dancing counterpart lack in romantic chemistry they somehow make up for in breathy swooning endearing moments which turn out rather “swonderful” in the end.

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