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Funny Face
Movie Stats & Links |
| Starring: |
Audrey Hepburn, Fred Astaire, Kay Thompson |
| MPAA Rated: |
Unrated |
| Released By: |
Paramount Home Entertainment |
| Kiddie Movie: |
Only if you might want them to dance like Fred Astaire. |
| Date Movie: |
If she likes singing and dancing musicals. |
| Gratuitous Sex: |
Nope. |
| Gratuitous
Violence: |
Nope. |
| Action: |
Nope. |
| Laughs: |
Some. |
| Memorable
Scene: |
Nah. |
| Memorable
Quote: |
Nope. |
| Directed By: |
Stanley Donen |
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Cool Things About the DVD |
| Learn French! |
French, Spanish, and English options are there for you. |
| Buy a New TV! |
It's not VistaVision, but it looks better in widescreen. |
| Buy a New
Stereo! |
If you like singing and dancing, a new sound system will help. |
| Anything Else! |
If you are a geek you will like the "This is VistaVision" feature, and if you like musicals, it's got an abundance of music and fashion. |
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Funny Face
A Movie/DVD Review |
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I hate to say it, or maybe you might want to know this fact, but if you don’t like musicals, or at least musicals with extensive dance numbers, you can actually watch the movie “Funny Face,” and just enjoy the romantic comedy of it all, in about and hour and fifteen minutes if you fast forward through all of the singing and dancing. I know that sounds wrong, especially for a Fred Astaire film, but I learned I like a good romantic comedy but not all of Fred Astaire’s dancing, and still wonder how a dude who is heading on 60 can pick up a sweetie heading on 30.
Anyway, “Funny Face” gives us the story of Jo (Audrey Hepburn). She’s a philosophizer, working in a bookstore, when her life gets turned upside down when Dick Avery (Fred Astaire) and Maggie Prescott (Kay Thompson) invade said bookstore for a photo shoot for Maggie’s magazine. But Maggie is also looking for a new model, Dick believes he has found her in Jo, and they are all off to Paris where Jo can see her philosophy guru if she agrees to model. Wouldn’t you know it, Jo likes the modeling thing, realizes her guru is a prude, and falls for Dick (I guess suave, debonair, and being Fred Astaire goes a long way). In the middle of all of this we get a nice romantic comedy, with a lot of singing and dancing.
Okay, you can probably guess by now that I didn’t really like the singing and dancing parts of this movie, but I’m going to do my best not to hold that against my review because, beneath it all, there is a love story, and in the land of innocence into becoming a woman of fancy, Audrey Hepburn shows that she can make that transformation for all of us to believe. She shows she can be sweet as the bookstore clerk, she shows she can be brainy when interacting with the philosophy folk, and then she is uber-class when she is modeling and showing she can wear beauty to the hilt. The thing is, for me, I liked her most as the bookstore clerk.
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I would like to say that “Funny Face” holds up to viewing in the 2000’s, but unless there is a comeback of singing and dancing, and I know this might be sacrilege, might it be possible to re-cut the movie, maybe insert other footage, and get rid of a lot of the singing and dancing? That’s not saying I didn’t like the movie, hell, I’m going to give the story 4 stars out of 5, the movie 2 ½ stars out of five with the dancing, and average stuff out with 3 stars out of 5. The love story is great, the singing and dancing just makes it seem dated.
Now, with the Centennial Collection DVD, there are a boatload of Special Features on the 2nd disc, and as much as I am respecting Kay Thompson during her feature and her musical ability, I’m a nerd and loved more the “This is VistaVision” feature and how it impacts filmmaking, even today (sort of). And yes, I did watch the feature on fashion photographers (as a photographer I liked it), understand how some might like the look at fashion, and Paris, during those features, but for me, this DVD set is really for those of you who like old-style musicals with a lot of singing and dancing. If that’s the case you will love “Funny Face,” and if not, keep your finger on the fast-forward button to enjoy a nice romantic-comedy.
That’s it for this one! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!! |
