(Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures)If you binge watched “Gilmore Girls” a few months back when it made its Netflix debut, you adored the main character Lorelai and her romantic escapades. Well, most of them. Toward the end when she’s dating Christopher again he takes her to a private drive-in movie in the country side (how quaint!). This episode, “'S Wonderful, 'S Marvelous,” is what inspired my movie of choice this week. Christopher played one of Lorelai’s favorites, “Funny Face," and hinted at the romantic closing lyrics of the picture.
It’s easy to see why this movie earned this pop culture reference. Audrey Hepburn is coined with all of the qualities a women dreams of possessing: poise, elegance, intelligence and strength. Sure, we’ve all heard that and seen the pictures of her, but it isn’t until you see her in this film that you realize these depictions don’t fall flat. Hepburn is all of these qualities and more, and her character in “Funny Face” is a testament to just that.
Hepburn plays Jo Stockton, a bookish woman with an aptitude for philosophy. As she is working at a bookstore in New York City, her space is invaded by a team of models and photographers, all from a major fashion magazine. It is here that the main photographer, Dick Avery (Fred Astaire) discovers Jo. After seeing her in a background shot, he soon convinces Jo she should be his next model, even though she only agrees to the whole affair in order to go to Paris.
It is refreshing seeing Hepburn acting like a modern-day woman, which I didn’t expect to see in a movie from 1957. In the beginning of the film, the magazine editor expresses that she wants a model that is beautiful as well as an intellectual.
Enter Hepburn: When she first enters the scene, she is riddling off words of great magnitude and is a vision even in a long brown smock. This version of her, before they put her in all of the glitz and glamour, feels like a daydream. I fell in love with Hepburn instantly and evermore as the film went on. Her intellectual mind, and her ability to speak it never wavered, which were the two traits I found most enjoyable.
Just when you think she’s already perfect enough, Hepburn sings and dances quite well. All these years I thought she was just a simple yet elegant actress, when in reality Hepburn has far more to show. Julia Roberts has nothing on Hepburn’s smile.
Her co-star, Fred Astaire, kept up brilliantly and helped choreograph the numbers in the film, showcasing his own particular talent. Hepburn becomes his muse of sorts, but of course we can’t blame him for lusting after her.
With Hepburn’s impressionable persona, coupled with the film’s moderately intriguing storyline this movie earns the title of timeless, even if it doesn’t get as much hype as “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.”
Have a movie suggestion? Any comments? Reach the reporter at dpharias@asu.edu or follow @dpharias on Twitter.
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