Funny Face (1957)

- December Musical Selection


A delightful musical romance. Dick Avery (Fred Astaire) is the photographer for the most popular fashion magazine in the country, Quality. On one of his shoots he and the editor, Maggie Prescott (Kay Thompson), walk into a small used bookstore in Greenwich Village. The young girl working in the store, Jo Stockton (Audrey Hepburn),is an intellectual who looks down on the fashion industry. However, she catches Dick's eye. When the magazine decides to run a contest where a regular woman is picked to be the next fashion model - the "Quality Woman" - Dick persuades Maggie that Jo is perfect. However, convincing Jo is more difficult until she realizes the shoot will be in Paris. She takes this as her chance to meet her hero Professor Emile Flostre - the founder of "empathicalism" which implores you to put yourself in someone else's shoes. Once she is in Paris Jo is torn between her new world and the old one. To make things even more complicated she and Dick start falling in love but can their different views ever come together?

I love this movie even though I found the relationship between Jo and Dick a bit creepy since Astaire was 30 years older than Hepburn. The musical numbers were light and fun like they should be in a musical. I was very impressed with Audrey Hepburn's performance and was surprised by her voice. All in all it was a nice movie to watch on a lazy day in.