Funny Face

“Funny Face is a contender for the short list of classics in the musical genre. The script concerns a New York fashion magazine editress (Kay Thompson) and her top photographer (Fred Astaire), who encounter a gamine-style salesgirl in a Greenwich Village bookshop (Audrey Hepburn), who aspires to study under Professor Flostre on the Left Bank of Paris. The editress and the photographer take the girl to Paris as a model, where she discovers that Flostre is a philanderer and falls in love with the photographer. The screenplay, however, isn't a principal factor in the brilliance of Funny Face. The principal factors (apart, of course, from Donen), are Astaire, Hepburn, and Thompson; the score, which (together with three Leonard Gershe-Roger Edens items) features several immortal numbers with lyrics by Ira and tunes by George Gershwin. The result is not merely one of the most melodious and rhythmically exciting of all film musicals, but arguably the most pictorially ravishing of all Hollywood musicals - and all American pictures.”

This page may by only partially complete. For additional information about this film, view the original entry on our archived site.