Funny Face

A friend and I are (slowly, too slowly) working our way through all of Audrey Hepburn's oevre. Last year we watched Breakfast at Tiffanys. Oh dear, it was over a year ago! We'll have to step up the pace....

Last night we watched Funny Face (1957). A movie that neither of us really knew anything about. We picked it as it was short (99 minutes) and Audrey was wearing a killer suit and hat on the back cover. Sadly it only made a brief appearance in the film, but I discovered that Hepburn formed a lasting relationship, and personal friendship with Hubert de Givenchy starting with Sabrina in 1954. Miss Hepburn's Paris Wardrobe got it's own credit at the start- naturally it was by Givenchy.

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Paris was an unexpected but delightful character in Funny Face. Audrey Hepburn plays Jo Stockton who is discovered as the face of Quality Magazine whilst working in an intellectual, philosophical bookshop (Embryo Concepts) in Grenwich Village, New York. She is whisked away to Paris to showcase Givenchy's designs and Paris itself. Audrey and her major costars- Fred Astaire and Kay Thompson all burst into song on arriving in Paris. A response I can fully understand.

But I was quite astonished how dark and dirty Paris looked! Her iconic buildings are grimy. The Opera Garnier and the Statue of Joan of Arc are not shiny with gilt. She has clearly been cleaned up in the intervening decades, and looks the better for it I think.

Most of the locations are instantly recognisable to anyone who is familiar with Paris. Opera Garnier. The Winged Victory of Samothrace- I shall think of Audrey in that stunning red dress next visit, when I'm on those very stairs with 460 other people.

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The Eiffel Tower of course. Arc du Triomphe, and the Arc du Triomphe du Carrousel. One location had me stumped. A lovely little chateau, that forms a backdrop for the final scene. Naturally enough someone has done all the detective work for me. It is the Chateau de la Reine Blanche in the Coye-la-Foret, north of Paris, near Chantilly. A day trip to Chantilly is on the cards for the next visit to Paris actually, so you never know, I might visit here too.

Another discomforting aspect was the 30 year age difference between the major stars. Hepburn's Jo, is a sweet young ingenue, is courted by Fred Astaire's photographer Dick Avery. Hepburn here is 28, Astaire 58. The third main star was also a surprise to me, Kay Thompson, more famous to me for writing her series of Eloise books, it was great to see in action as the editor of Quality magazine, a fashion editor ruling things long before Anna Wintour and any devils wearing Prada.

The story itself is all a bit silly, but it was a great backdrop to a lovely evening. Homemade pumpkin soup. A bottle of Moscato. And some Fancypants Magic Bars. Lots of laughs. Great stuff.

Heidi- the Shirley Temple movie

Every Friday night we have a movie and pizza night as a family. It's a lovely tradition that we've been doing for a year or two. Of course it doesn't happen every week, but whenever we're all home it's on. This week was our first chance in ages, and it was my turn to pick. I'd been wanting to watch Heidi since I read the book earlier in the year. Tonight I had my chance, I passed up the endless stream of Dr Who, modern animated features and dinosaur movies that seem to fill our agenda, and picked Heidi.

I guess I had seen a Shirley Temple movie when I was a kid, but don't remember if I saw this particular one. It's astounding to realise that she made over 40 movies. This was certainly the first of her movies that I remember seeing as an adult. She was rather impossibly cute with those ringlets and dimples.

The quality of my DVD copy was rather poor, but it was still enjoyable. The movie followed the book reasonably closely on the whole. The major elements of the story are there at least. Heidi is taken to live with her grumpy, hermit grandfather who she has never met. They make a life in his simple, isolated Alpine cabin. I was actually hoping for more Alpine scenery. I'm not convinced that any of it was filmed in the Alps actually. Certainly we don't get to enjoy Heidi's idyllic time on the Alpine meadows with Peter and the goats as I hoped we would.

There is only really one song and dance sequence, this is slipped in as Grandfather is reading Heidi a story and she imagines herself dancing around as a little Dutch girl in wooden clogs. After the story moves to Frankfurt the plot diverges quite a bit from that of the book. It's all wrapped up at Christmas, a few months earlier than in the book. There must have been a fashion in the 1930s for horse carriage chases, as we have another one here, similar to the 1940 Pride and Prejudice.

Much to my surprise, after some initial grumblings from the boys about the lack of dinosaurs, aliens and disruptions to the space time continuum, we did all rather enjoy Heidi. Perhaps I'll try to slip some more old movies in to our schedule....

Breakfast at Tiffany's

It's a strange experience watching such a famous movie as Breakfast at Tiffany's. The images of Audrey Hepburn/Holly Golightly are so iconic, that all her outfits look familiar. Holly's gorgeous LBD from the opening scene.

That fabulous hat that Holly wears to visit Sing Sing.

Although mercifully, images of this hat appear to be not so commonplace.

It's like she ran into one of those fancy chickens while rushing around a corner and somehow the poor creature got impaled on her forehead.

These images are all so commonplace, so absolutely iconic, that it makes you think you have seen the movie, when in fact you haven't seen it at all. You know it's set in New York. You know that she has a thing for Tiffany's. You know that there's something vaguely unseemly about it all. The familiarity makes you think that you know the story. And then it starts, and clearly, you've never seen the movie, and in fact have absolutely no idea what it is about. 

You have no idea that it is associated with Moon River. You have no idea that Holly Golightly is quite loopy, and refuses to name her cat (who plays more than a minor role in the movie) because of the possible impermanence. And then it was so exciting to later discover that Orangey the talented cat actor, won two feline Oscars for his work. 

As a long term shiftworker I can't but help but coveting her alluring eyemask and ear plugs with tassels.

Breakfast at Tiffany's is a great movie to watch, and an excellent way for my friend and I to kick off our Audrey Hepburn phase, watching Movies Made Before We Were Born. There is an intriguing morality to this movie, which belies the Truman Capote novella I suspect- a novella that I now most definitely want to read. 

Pride and Prejudice (well, sort of)

I came late to Pride and Prejudice. I think I was in my late 30s when I first read it. Older than most I suspect. Naturally I was aware of the myth and aura surrounding this book. Actually I don't think I was all that bowled over by my first reading. It took me a while to get into, but eventually I did get the felicity of her language, and enjoyed it well enough. I've reread it twice I believe since then, and like it more each time. I'm not usually one to reread so this is a rather new experience for me. The story is becoming more familiar and more comforting with each rereading.

My local library held a Jane Austen bookgroup for a while, inspired by the book and film of the same name, and I got to read all of her major works except for Sense and Sensibility ( a gap that I must rectify at some stage, hopefully in 2011 as it is the bicentenary of publication), and many of the minor works. I've watched most movie versions that are available (again except S&S) of her works, and enjoyed them, even up to modern remakings such as Clueless , which, dare I say it? I enjoy more than the original Emma! Like every woman of a certain age I sat there agog, captivated by the small screen as Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle brought Jane Austen's most famous tale to life in the mid 1990s.

I was then greatly interested in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies when it came out in 2009. Which is odd. I'm not into the zombie movie genre at all, but for some reason I loved the cover, even whilst being vaguely disturbed by it. I was compelled to buy the book the first time I saw it in a shop. No pondering, no reading back covers- just snatch and grab.

It seems the perfect mix of Austen and Zombie. Even now I can't help but think how wrong that sentence is. It's a completely ridiculous pairing. So why is it that it works? I don't know that I'll ever be able to explain why I like this book. Why I so  enjoyed the experience of reading this book. I didn't expect to. But I did. It is funny what pulls you up though. I can suspend disbelief and imagine that the Bennet girls have all been trained in the deadly arts in China, and that they revel in the beheading of the undead. But that Lady Catherine de Bourgh is equally famed for her deadly combat skills? Well, that just seems wrong! And certainly Seth Grahame-Smith has done a fabulous job with this homage to Austen's most famous work. It was to become a publishing sensation, and rightly so. I don't know that I'll read any of the other zombie works, but this one taste was certainly rewarding and fun.

My other recent P&P experience was watching the original 1940 movie version with Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier.

Interesting to read that Aldous Huxley was the scriptwriter. What an interesting experience. Of course there has been widespread condemnation over the costumes, which are not right at all for the regency period, although it would be intriguing to see the colours of the frocks.

There are also major discrepancies from the plot of the book of course. There is what amounts to a car chase scene early on between Mrs Bennet and Mrs Lucas. Mustard plasters (sinapisms) whilst fascinating aren't true to Austen. A garden party that never existed. And gross liberties have been taken with the dialogue. Such as Darcy's remarkable comment that "Every Hottentot can dance."

It's funny but I don't remember Mr Bennet saying "They're all silly and ignorant like most girls." But, on checking he certainly does.

And the ending! What a shocker. It is a fun movie to watch though (even if I did fall asleep through most of it the first time, and have to watch it again- without wine- to see the movie through), and is one that easily counts as a Movie Made Before I was Born.