''Funny Face'' is a 1957 American
musical
Musical is the adjective of music.
Musical may also refer to:
* Musical theatre, a performance art that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance
* Musical film
Musical film is a film genre in which songs by the Character (arts), charac ...
romantic comedy
Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a sub-genre of comedy and Romance novel, romance fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount all obstacles. Ro ...
film directed by
Stanley Donen
Stanley Donen ( ; April 13, 1924 – February 21, 2019) was an American film director and choreographer. He received the Honorary Academy Award in 70th Academy Awards, 1998, and the Golden Lion#Golden Lion – Honorary Award, Career Golden Lion ...
and written by
Leonard Gershe, containing assorted songs by
George and
Ira Gershwin
Ira Gershwin (born Israel Gershovitz; December 6, 1896 – August 17, 1983) was an American lyricist who collaborated with his younger brother, composer George Gershwin, to create some of the most memorable songs in the English language of the ...
. Although having the same title as the 1927 Broadway musical
''Funny Face'' by the Gershwin brothers, and featuring the same male star (
Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire (born Frederick Austerlitz, May 10, 1899 – June 22, 1987) was an American dancer, actor, singer, musician, choreographer, and presenter, whose career in stage, film, and television spanned 76 years. He is widely regarded as the "g ...
), the plot is completely different and only four of the songs from the stage musical are included. Alongside Astaire, the film stars
Audrey Hepburn
Audrey Kathleen Hepburn ( Ruston; 4 May 1929 – 20 January 1993) was a British actress. Recognised as a film and fashion icon, she was ranked by the American Film Institute as the third-greatest female screen legend from the Classical Holly ...
and
Kay Thompson.
Plot
Maggie Prescott, a
fashion magazine
Fashion journalism is a component of fashion media, with a focus on journalism, writing and photojournalism. Fashion journalists write about and critique fashion events and trends as well as cultivate and maintain relationships with stylists and ...
publisher and editor for ''Quality'' magazine, is looking for the next big fashion trend. She wants a new look which is to be both "beautiful" and "intellectual". She and top fashion photographer Dick Avery want models who can "think as well as they look." The two brainstorm and come up with the idea to use a book store in
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village, or simply the Village, is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street (Manhattan), 14th Street to the north, Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the s ...
as backdrop.
They find what they want in "Embryo Concepts", which is being run by the shy shop assistant and amateur philosopher, Jo Stockton. Jo thinks the fashion and modelling industry is nonsense, calling it "
chichi, and an unrealistic approach to self-impressions as well as economics". Maggie decides to use Jo but after the first shot Jo is locked outside to keep her from interrupting Maggie’s take-over of the shop. The crew leaves the store in a shambles; Dick stays behind to help clean up and apologizes to Jo, then kisses her impulsively. Jo dismisses him, but her song "
How Long Has This Been Going On?" shows that she feels the stirrings of romance.
What Jo wants above all is to go to
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
and attend the famous Professor Émile Flostre's philosophy lectures about empathicalism. When Dick gets back to the darkroom, he sees something in Jo's face which is new and fresh and 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 try to make her over and attempt 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 interested in the chance to see Professor Flostre and is finally persuaded to model for the magazine. Dick sings "
Funny Face".
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 shoots, Jo and Dick fall in love ("
He Loves and She Loves"). One night, when Jo is getting ready for a gala, she learns Flostre is giving a lecture at a cafe nearby, which she attends. Eventually, Dick brings her back 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 Flostre at his home. Through some scheming, Maggie and Dick gain entrance to the soirée there. After performing an impromptu song and dance (“Clap Yo’ Hands” from the Gershwins’ 1926 musical ''Oh, Kay!'') for Flostre's disciples, they confront Jo and Flostre. This leads to Dick causing Flostre to fall and knock himself out. Jo urges them to leave but when Flostre comes round, he tries to seduce her. Shocked at the behavior of her "idol", she smashes a vase over his head and runs out, returning just in time to take part in the final fashion show. During this, Maggie tries to get in touch with Dick, who has made plans to leave Paris. Before her wedding gown finale, Jo looks out the window and sees the plane Dick was supposed to be on flying over the city. Believing that he has refused to return to her, she runs off the runway in tears at the conclusion of the show.
Meanwhile, Dick is still at the airport. He runs into Flostre and learns how Jo had attacked him. Realizing how much Jo cares, Dick returns to the fashion show, but Jo is nowhere to be found. Finally, after applying the insights of empathicalism at Maggie's behest, Dick guesses that Jo would return to the church where he had photographed her in a wedding dress and they shared their first romantic moment. On his arrival there himself, he finds Jo (in the wedding gown) by a little brook. They join in the duet "
'S Wonderful" and embrace.
Cast
*
Audrey Hepburn
Audrey Kathleen Hepburn ( Ruston; 4 May 1929 – 20 January 1993) was a British actress. Recognised as a film and fashion icon, she was ranked by the American Film Institute as the third-greatest female screen legend from the Classical Holly ...
as Jo Stockton
*
Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire (born Frederick Austerlitz, May 10, 1899 – June 22, 1987) was an American dancer, actor, singer, musician, choreographer, and presenter, whose career in stage, film, and television spanned 76 years. He is widely regarded as the "g ...
as Dick Avery
*
Kay Thompson as Maggie Prescott
*
Michel Auclair
Michel Auclair (born Vladimir Vujović, sr-cyr, Владимир Вујовић; 14 September 1922 – 7 January 1988) was an actor of Serbian and French ancestry, known best for his roles in French cinema.
Auclair was born to a Serbian fat ...
as Professor Émile Flostre
*
Robert Flemyng as Paul Duval
*
Dovima as Marion
*
Jean Del Val as Hairdresser
*
Virginia Gibson as Babs
*
Sue England as Laura
*
Ruta Lee as Lettie
* Alex Gerry as Dovitch
*
Suzy Parker as Specialty Dancer (Pink Number)
*
Sunny Harnett as Specialty Dancer (Pink Number)
Musical numbers
* "Think Pink!"
* "
How Long Has This Been Going On?" - originally composed for the musical ''Funny Face'', but not used
* "How Long Has This Been Going On? (Reprise)"
* "
Funny Face" - from ''
Funny Face'' (1927 musical)
* "Bonjour, Paris!"
* "Basal Metabolism"
* "Let's Kiss and Make Up" - from ''Funny Face''
* "
He Loves and She Loves" - from ''Funny Face''
* "Bonjour, Paris! (Reprise)"
* "On How to Be Lovely"
* "
Clap Yo' Hands" - from ''
Oh, Kay!''
* "
'S Wonderful" - from ''Funny Face''
Production
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 film plot is actually adapted from another Broadway musical, ''Wedding Bells'', by
Leonard Gershe. The original title for the film was ''Wedding Day''.
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.
As was the case with many of her leading men, Astaire was much older than Hepburn. At 58, three decades 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 loosely based on
Diana Vreeland
Diana Vreeland (September 29, 1903 – August 22, 1989) was an American fashion columnist and editor. She worked for the fashion magazine ''Harper's Bazaar'' and as editor-in-chief at '' Vogue'', later becoming a special consultant to the Costume ...
. (Architectural historian
Francis Morrone says it was
Carmel Snow, editor-in-chief of ''
Harper’s Bazaar'', who was the inspiration for the Maggie Prescott character.) 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". (While at ''
Vogue'', Vreeland once sent a memo to staff urging them to "Today let's think pig white! Wouldn't it be wonderful to have stockings that were pig white! The color of baby pigs, not quite white and not quite pink!"
)
Astaire's character was loosely based on the career of
Richard Avedon
Richard Avedon (May 15, 1923 – October 1, 2004) was an American fashion and portrait photographer. He worked for ''Harper's Bazaar'', '' Vogue'' and '' Elle'' specializing in capturing movement in still pictures of fashion, theater and ...
, 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, which was designed by Avedon, during the
"Funny Face" musical number which takes place in a
darkroom
A darkroom is used to process photographic film, make Photographic printing, prints and carry out other associated tasks. It is a room that can be made completely dark to allow the processing of light-sensitive photographic materials, including ...
, and when Dick (Astaire) presents it to Maggie (Thompson).
Release
Box office
On initial release, ''Funny Face'' was a
box office disappointment and failed to break even. However, in 1964, when ''
My Fair Lady
''My Fair Lady'' is a musical theatre, musical with a book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe. The story, based on George Bernard Shaw's 1913 play ''Pygmalion (play), Pygmalion'' and on the Pygmalion (1938 film), 1938 film ...
'' (also starring Hepburn) was released to excellent reviews and huge box office grosses, Paramount theatrically reissued ''Funny Face''. As a result, the film drew substantial crowds and finally turned a profit.
Critical reception
The film was generally well received in the United States.
Bosley Crowther
Francis Bosley Crowther Jr. (July 13, 1905 – March 7, 1981) was an American journalist, writer, and film critic for ''The New York Times'' for 27 years. His work helped shape the careers of many actors, directors and screenwriters, though some ...
of ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'', for example, lauded it as "delightfully balmy," "colorful and glittering," and "extraordinarily stylish," "with class in every considerable department on which this sort of picture depends."
The reviewer for ''
The Times
''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...
'', however, was not impressed when the film opened at the
Odeon in London on April 25, 1957: "...a displeasing piece of work, pseudo-sophisticated, expensive and brash in approach, vulgar in taste and insensitive in outlook. This, in fact, is the American 'musical' at its worst; not even the presence of Mr Fred Astaire, who was in the original stage production, can save the day. It may seem extravagant to discuss a 'musical' in terms proper to a serious creative work, yet there is that in the film's attitude towards the 'intellectual', whether in Greenwich Village or Paris, which offends. It is not amiable parody and it is not telling satire; it has its roots in the ill-based instinct to jeer, and its jeers are offensive."
[The Times review 25 April 1957: ''Odeon Cinema: "Funny Face" with Fred Astaire'']
On review aggregator website
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...
, the film has an 88% rating, based on 40 reviews, with an average rating of 7.8/10. The consensus summarizes: "A timeless and elegant musical feast, ''Funny Face'' thrives on the agile and vibrant performances from legendary screen titans Audrey Hepburn and Fred Astaire."
Accolades
The
National Board of Review
The National Board of Review of Motion Pictures is a non-profit organization of New York City area film enthusiasts. Its awards, which are announced in early December, are considered the first major harbinger of the film awards season that ...
gave the film Special Citation award for the photographic innovations.
Leonard Gershe was nominated for "Best Written American Musical" by the
Writers Guild of America
The Writers Guild of America (WGA) is the name of two American labor unions representing writers in film, television, radio, and online media:
* The Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) is headquartered in New York City and is affiliated wit ...
. Stanley Donen was nominated by the
Directors Guild of America
The Directors Guild of America (DGA) is an entertainment guild that represents the interests of Film director, film and Television director, television directors in the United States motion picture industry and abroad. Founded as the Screen Dir ...
for "Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures" and for a "Golden Palm" at the
1957 Cannes Film Festival.
Fred Astaire received a Golden Laurel nomination for "Top Male Musical Performance". The film received four
Academy Award
The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence ...
"Oscar" nominations: Leonard Gershe for "Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen";
Edith Head
Edith Claire Head (née Posener, October 28, 1897 – October 24, 1981) was an American film costume designer who won a record eight Academy Awards for Academy Award for Best Costume Design, Best Costume Design between 1949 and 1973, making he ...
and
Hubert de Givenchy
Hubert James Marcel Taffin de Givenchy (; 20 February 1927 – 10 March 2018) was a French fashion designer who founded the luxury fashion and perfume house of Givenchy in 1952. He is famous for having designed much of the personal and professi ...
(Hepburn's costume designer) for "Best Costume Design";
Ray June
Ray June, American Society of Cinematographers, A.S.C. (March 27, 1895 – May 26, 1958) was an American cinematographer during the early and classical Hollywood cinema. His best-known films are ''Babes in Arms (film), Babes in Arms'' and ''Funn ...
for "Best Cinematography"; and
Hal Pereira,
George W. Davis,
Sam Comer, and
Ray Moyer for "Best Art Direction-Set Decoration".
Home media
To date, ''Funny Face'' has been released to
DVD
The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...
in Region 1 (
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...
) in three editions from
Paramount Home Entertainment
Paramount Home Entertainment (formerly Paramount Home Media Distribution, originally Paramount Home Video, and operating as the namesake film studio since 2022) is the home video distribution arm of Paramount Pictures.
The division oversees Para ...
: in 2001 as part of the "Audrey Hepburn Widescreen Collection" series, in 2007 in a 50th Anniversary edition, and in 2009 as part of Paramount's Centennial Collection. The 2007 version has additional featurettes as well as improved picture and sound quality from the 2001 edition.
[Keizer, Mark]
"Funny Face - 50th Anniversary Edition"
- DVDFile - October 1, 2007 The 2009 release is spread over two discs and includes a few additional featurettes not included in the 2007 edition such as Kay Thompson's "Think Pink", "This is VistaVision" and "Fashion Photographers Exposed".
See also
*
List of American films of 1957
This is a list of American films released in 1957.
'' The Bridge on the River Kwai'' won the Academy Award for Best Picture.
A-B
C-H
I-N
O-Q
R-T
U-Z
Documentary
See also
* 1957 in the United States
References
External lin ...
References
External links
*
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Funny Face
1957 films
1957 musical comedy films
1957 romantic comedy films
1950s American films
1950s English-language films
1950s French-language films
1950s multilingual films
1950s romantic musical films
American musical comedy films
American romantic comedy films
American romantic musical films
Films about fashion in France
Films directed by Stanley Donen
Films scored by Adolph Deutsch
Films set in New York City
Films set in Paris
Films shot in Los Angeles
Films shot in Paris
French-language American films
Films scored by George Gershwin
Paramount Pictures films
English-language romantic comedy films
English-language romantic musical films
English-language musical comedy films
VistaVision films