 | ||||||
| ||||||
Audrey Hepburn was offered the lead role in Gigi but turned it down to make Funny Face.
I have no desire to prove anything by it [dancing]. I never used it as an outlet or as a means of expressing myself. I just dance.
-- Fred Astaire
Funny Face
Funny Face is an American musical film released in 1957 in VistaVision Technicolor, with assorted songs by George and Ira Gershwin. The film was written by Leonard Gershe and directed by Stanley Donen. It stars Audrey Hepburn, Fred Astaire, and Kay Thompson. Photographer Richard Avedon designed the opening title sequence and consulted on the film, and Astaire played Dick Avery, a still photographer. Contrary to common belief, only four of the songs are from the 1927 Broadway musical production of the same name.
| ||||||
| ||||||
| ||||||
| ||||||
| ||||||
Maggie Prescott (Kay Thompson) is a fashion magazine publisher and editor, for Quality magazine, who is looking for the next big fashion trend. She wants a new look for the magazine. Maggie wants the look to be both "beautiful" and "intellectual". She and famous fashion photographer Dick Avery (Fred Astaire) want models who can "think as well as they look." The two brainstorm and come up with the idea to find a "sinister" looking book store in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan. They subsequently locate a bookstore named "Embryo Concepts".
Maggie and Dick take over Embryo Concepts, which is being run by the shy bookshop clerk and amateur philosopher, Jo Stockton (Audrey Hepburn). Jo thinks the fashion and modeling industry is nonsense, saying: "it is chichi, and an unrealistic approach to self-impressions as well as economics". Maggie decides to use Jo in the first fashion shot, to give it a more intellectual look. After the first shot Maggie locks Jo out of the shop to shut her up.
Jo wants more than anything else in the world to go to Paris and attend the famous philosopher and professor Emile Flostre's (Michel Auclair) lectures about empathicalism. When Dick gets back to the dark room, he sees something in Jo's face which is "new" and "fresh", and which would be perfect for the campaign, giving it "character", "spirit", and "intelligence".
They send for Jo, pretending they want to order some books from her shop. Once she arrives, they start treating her like a doll, trying to make her over, pulling at her clothes and attempting to cut her hair. She is outraged and runs away, only to hide in the darkroom where Dick is working. When Dick mentions Paris, Jo becomes very interested in that she would get a chance to see Professor Flostre, and is finally convinced to model.
Soon Maggie, Dick, and Jo are off to Paris to prepare for a major fashion event, shooting photos at famous landmarks from the area. During the various photo shoots Jo and Dick develop feelings for each other, and they fall in love.
One night when Jo is getting ready for a gala, she learns that Professor Flostre is giving a lecture at a cafe nearby. She attends, forgetting the gala. Eventually Dick finds her and they get into an argument at the gala's opening, which results in Jo being publicly embarrassed and Maggie outraged.
Jo goes to talk to Professor Flostre at his home. Through some scheming, Maggie and Dick make it into Flostre's home. After performing an impromptu song and dance for Flostre's disciples, they confront Jo and Flostre. This eventually leads to Dick causing Flostre to fall and knock himself out. Jo urges them to leave. When Flostre wakes up, he tries to make a pass at Jo. Shocked at the behavior of her "idol", she smashes a vase over his head and runs out.
Before the group leaves for home, there is a final fashion show. Jo and Maggie try to get in touch with Dick, who has made plans to leave Paris. Jo does the runway show and before her wedding gown finale, she looks out the window and sees the plane Dick was supposed to be on, take off. Heartbroken, she runs off the runway in tears at the conclusion of the show.
Meanwhile, Dick is at the airport. He runs into Flostre and learns that Jo bashed him on the head with a vase. Dick, realizing how much he cares, goes back to find Jo. He goes back to the runway show, only to find that Jo is nowhere to be found. Finally, after a long search, Dick finds Jo (in the wedding gown) by a little church where they shared a romantic moment during the photo shoot. They embrace and kiss.
| ||||||
The plot of the film version is drastically different from that of the Broadway musical, and only four of the songs remain. Astaire also starred in the stage version alongside his sister, Adele Astaire. The choreography is by Eugene Loring. The movie plot is actually adapted from another Broadway musical, Wedding Bells, by Leonard Gershe. The original title for the film was Wedding Day.
Unlike her later film My Fair Lady, Hepburn sings the songs herself in this, her first musical. She performs one solo, "How Long Has This Been Going On?"; a duet with Astaire, "'S Wonderful"; a duet with Kay Thompson called "On How to Be Lovely"; and takes part in an ensemble performance of "Bonjour, Paris!". Her previous dance training is also called into play, not only in the two dance numbers she performs with Astaire but also for a Bohemian-style solo dance in a nightclub, which has since often been replayed in retrospectives of her career.
As was the case with many of her leading men, Astaire was much older than Hepburn. At 58, 30 years Hepburn's senior, he was approaching the end of his musical film career, in this, the second in a consecutive series of three French-themed musicals he made in the 1950s. He performs a song and dance solo with umbrella and cape to Gershwin's "Let's Kiss and Make Up." According to Hepburn, she insisted on Astaire as a precondition for her participation. Thompson, who usually worked behind the scenes as a musical director for films, makes a rare appearance on camera as Maggie Prescott, a fashion magazine editor. Besides her duet with Hepburn, she performs the solo number "Think Pink!" in the presence of a dance chorus, and Thompson and Astaire perform a comic dance duet to "Clap Yo' Hands." Thompson is perhaps best known today as the author of the popular series of books concerning the spoiled rich girl, "Eloise".
Astaire's character was loosely based on the career of Richard Avedon, who provided a number of the photographs seen in the film, including the stills for the opening credits, which were also used in the halls of Quality magazine. Probably the most famous single image from the film is the intentionally overexposed close-up of Hepburn's face in which only her facial features—her eyes, eyebrows, nose and mouth—are visible. This image is seen briefly in black-and-white at the very beginning of the opening title sequence, during the "Funny Face" musical number which takes place in a darkroom, and when Dick (Astaire) presents it to Maggie (Thompson).
| ||||||
Fred Astaire's character is based on photographer Richard Avedon. In fact, it is Avedon who set up most of the photography for this film, including the famous face portrait of Audrey Hepburn unveiled during the dark room sequence.
Audrey Hepburn filmed this back-to-back with Love in the Afternoon.
The soggy weather played havoc with the shooting of the wedding dress dance scene. Fred Astaire and Audrey Hepburn were continually slipping in the muddy and slippery grass. Hepburn sings several songs. Her next full musical, My Fair Lady, would see her voice overdubbed, much to her disappointment.
Audrey Hepburn did not want to be separated from her husband Mel Ferrer, so filming of the Paris scenes was timed to coincide with Ferrer's filming of Elena et les hommes (USA title: "Paris Does Strange Things") with Ingrid Bergman. Paris' unseasonably rainy weather had to be worked into the script, particularly during the balloons photo shoot scene. During filming of the Paris scenes, much of the crew and cast were on edge because of riots and political violence that were gripping the city.
Ditzy model Marion is played by Dovima, who was one of the top fashion models of the day and often worked with Richard Avedon.
Fred Astaire also starred in the original 1927 Broadway version of "Funny Face" with his sister Adele Astaire. However, the storylines of the play and movie are entirely different; the film only uses some of the play's songs. Coincidentally, the exact same thing had occurred earlier with The Band Wagon, which had also starred both Astaire and his sister on Broadway in 1931; the film had a different storyline but used some of the play's songs. The only opportunity Astaire had to recreate a role he originated on Broadway was in The Gay Divorcee, from Broadway's "Gay Divorce".
Audrey Hepburn's terrier appears as the dog in the basket during the "Anna Karenia" train shot.
Ditzy model Marion's interest in comic books was inserted into the film to reflect actress-model Dovima's real life passion for them.
Cyd Charisse was offered the lead role, but declined. Audrey Hepburn's agent initially rejected the film, but Hepburn overrode the decision after reading the script.
The plot of this movie is actually that of Leonard Gershe's unsuccessful Broadway musical "Wedding Bells" - apparently the studio bought the rights to the title just so they could use the song. The original plot of the musical was scrapped, and Gershwin songs from other musicals replaced several numbers originally written by Gershe himself for "Wedding Bells". These numbers were tweaked so that they could fit into the main storyline, and one of them - of course - was "Funny Face". The studio may have felt that the original plot of "Funny Face" could not be properly adapted into a movie as it was an "ensemble" musical with people dropping out and parts changing all the time.
Much has been written about the crew having to contend with rainy weather in Paris during production. For a comparison of how the film might have looked if the sun hadn't appeared from time to time, compare the "Bonjour, Paris!" number from the film - mostly shot in brilliant sunshine - with alternate footage shot on a rainy day that is featured in the trailer.
Many of the production staff usually associated with MGM musicals went to Paramount especially to work on this film, so it is, essentially, an MGM musical made at Paramount.
The little white car that Dick and Maggie drive to the beatnik club is called a VELAM Isetta. They were made between 1955 and 1958. VELAM (Vehicule Leger a Moteur light vehicle with motor) was a French company. The French nicknamed the car the "yoghurt pot" because of its looks. It was also known as the "bubblecar", "rolling egg", "little egg" and even "trouser fly" since you could get into the car from the front.
The Audrey Hepburn character was inspired by Suzy Parker, who made a fashionable cameo appearance in the film (her first film) in the "Think Pink" sequence.
In order to secure Audrey Hepburn and Fred Astaire on the cast, producers told each the other was already signed, figuring they would not pass up the opportunity to work together.
In August 1957, this film was being shown on a double bill with Disney's Johnny Tremain.
The term 'Empathicalism' is mistranslated as 'Enfaticalismo' ('Emphathicalism') in the Spanish (Spain) dubbed version of the film, making the connection between 'empathy' and the name of invented philosophy completely absurd when it gets explained during the movie.
