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Whistle Stopper - Funny Face (50th Anniversary Edition)
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List Price: $14.99
Our Price: $8.03
Your Save: $ 6.96 ( 46% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Paramount
Starring: Audrey Hepburn, Fred Astaire, Kay Thompson, Michel Auclair, Robert Flemyng
Directed By: Stanley Donen
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
Audience Rating: Unrated
Binding: DVD
Brand: PARAMOUNT PICTURES
EAN: 0097361308449
Format: Color
Label: Paramount
Manufacturer: Paramount
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Paramount
Region Code: 1
Release Date: 2007-10-02
Running Time: 103
Studio: Paramount
Theatrical Release Date: 1957-02-13
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: This face isn't all that funny...
Comment: There is no denying that Audrey Hepburn is a charming and endearing actress. Her singing on the other hand is less than phenomenal, so casting her in a musical (which was the big thing to do for a spell) was not the smartest decision to make. Casting her alongside the vocal talents of Fred Astaire and Kay Thompson only further embellished the fact that Hepburn was out of her league so-to-speak. The other problem with `Funny Face' is that even when you strip away the singing segments the story itself is average at best. This is your simple ugly duckling is made pretty and falls in love with the man responsible only to resent him and then fall back in love with him. This is the same formula we see in just about every film in this genre and its Oscar nomination in the writing department is almost as pointless as handing a film like `She's All That' a script nomination.
In all honesty there is no imagination or originality to be found in `Funny Face'.
The story follows bookworm Jo as she meets photographer Avery who thinks that she has the perfect face (albeit funny) for a new line of clothing for the everywoman. After some convincing is done Jo is shipped off to Paris where she is more interested in meeting Professor Emile Flostre than posing for pictures. Before long she falls head over heels for Avery, but his jealousy over the Flostre causes some issues to rise between he and Jo.
Fred Astaire is, in my opinion, a little too old for the part. He looks uninterested most of the time, that is unless he is parading across the screen in full on sing and dance mode. Kay Thompson is delightful as Maggie Prescott. She is truly the greatest thing about the film and should have been up for Oscar since she is the only one in the cast who gets everything right. When she's singing, dancing or just plain acting she is spot on perfection. Astaire is only perfect when he's got a tune to whistle, and Audrey is stunning when she's merely reading lines, but once the music starts she comes off out of place. Her voice is not terrible, but it is not up to par with her co-stars.
I can't really say that I would ever watch `Funny Face' again. Aside from Thompson I was let down for the overall experience was less that it could have been. The plot was simple at best and the dialog didn't help the matter too much either. Hepburn is charming and Astaire can sing and Thompson was splendid but the mediocre outweighs the positive and brings this film down a few notches for me.
Not everything can be a classic.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Girls ... Think Pink!
Comment:
I have to say that as a once-proud bookstore owner, I was absolutely appalled at the absolute disrespect for private property and the handling of the books and the young Audrey in the film's opening. I cringed for those few moments when she was brushed outside and made to choke on the smoggy air of New York City. The real kick in the pants was when the old dodger Astaire planted a fatty right on the very tame Hepburn kisser. You could be arrested for no less these days, haha.
So, Funny Face is really Ira Gershwin's most impressionable and lasting film? I guess that's not a bad thing. The songs are quaint and a bit cutesy when sung or `spoken' by Audrey, but it's not to their detriment or the song's. The music is what gives the movie some real charm.
"You're not exotic ... but oh, so hypnotic."
Truer words could not have been spoken about Audrey Hepburn as that was honestly her most endearing quality and the reason why we all love her. She, thankfully, wasn't Elizabeth Taylor in Cleopatra and she wasn't ever Lauren Bacall in the Big Sleep, but closer to that bon vivant feeling that was so evident in the early years of Ingrid Bergman. Notice how I make no modern references when discussing Audrey. I don't think anyone comes close these days, or probably ever will. It's all in shambles now.
Thank god that the French were drinking Absinthe during the Café Scene where she gives her legendary `kitty cat on the prowl dance routine' that always makes a person grin from ear to ear.
The film does disappear into a strange level of mediocre film making in between the period from the frolicking on the meadow at the church, to the beatnik booze-down where a fake beard is sported and I'm not speaking about Kay Thompson, but Monsieur Astaire, from Tallahassee. I guess trying to pass themselves off as trailer-bait, white trash must've been humorous and entertaining back then, but I honestly couldn't wait for the number to end as Audrey disappears for the length of a bible.
In the end, your brain doesn't want to translate the real message of the film as it's about a girl who gets caught up in the New York Fashion Industry, looses her moral center, gives up on the idolized love of her life, and then violently beats her lover over the head with a vase to pursue her May-December relationship. I think Audrey was 27 during filming, and Fred was 58. I guess. Sigh ... I guess it aint all that bad. Maybe that was why they gave her the last name of `Stockton'.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Not Worth Buying
Comment: I wish I'd rented this movie instead of buying it. I was looking forward to watching a beautiful love story unfold between Audrey Hepburn and Fred Astaire. Yes, there's a huge age difference between the two in this film but the romance between them was not totally unbelievable. It just wasn't very inspiring. And the entire movie wasn't very interesting or fun to watch.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Amazing performances, entertaining film.
Comment: I'd be lying if I suggested that I liked musicals. I've always found them a little embarrassing. Two people start making a connection or the tension heightens in a scene and the payoff? Someone breaks into song. Generally, that's not my idea of entertainment.
But, Audrey Hepburn was so interesting to watch. She truly was a captivating person and really took over a role. In Funny Face, it was impossible to take my eyes off of her. I'm not talking about her beauty, though she was a beautiful woman. I'm talking about her entire persona, that charm, grace and fun she oozed on-screen. Anything with Audrey in it is worth seeing, musical or not.
Fred Astaire, a very capable actor, was an amazing dancer. It is a joy to watch him dance -- and I'm no huge fan of dancing, either -- in Funny Face. It's almost mind boggling that he was so athletic and graceful and skilled at almost 60 years old. Yes, he was 58 when Funny Face was made, but he really tore it up, dancing like a man 20 years his junior.
Overall, the movie's cute and fun. Check it out if you're in the mood for Audrey, Fred or a good musical.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Worth it for the clothes alone!
Comment: Hepburn, Astaire, Paris, Gershwin - what more do you want? Add in stunning clothes and visuals, not to mention the amazing Kay Thompson, and you have two hours of blissful, escapist fun. Indulge yourself!
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Editorial Reviews:
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This filmed version of the 1927 George Gershwin Broadway musical Funny Face utilizes the play's original star Fred Astaire and several of the original tunes then goes merrily off on its own. Astaire is cast as as fashion photographer Dick Avery (a character based on Richard Avedon the film's "visual consultant") who is sent out by his female boss Maggie Prescott (Kay Thompson) to find a "new face". It doesn't take Dick long to discover Jo (Audrey Hepburn who does her own singing) an owlish Greenwich Village bookstore clerk. Acting as Pygmalion to Jo's Galatea Dick whisks the wide-eyed girl off to Paris and transforms her into the fashion world's hottest model. Along the way he falls in love with Jo and works overtime to wean her away from such phony-baloney intellectuals as Professor Emile Flostre (Michel Auclair). The Gershwin tunes include the title song "S'wonderful" "How Long Has This Been Going On" and "He Loves and She Loves"; among the newer numbers is Kay Thompson's energetic opener "Think Pink". For years available only in washed-out flat prints Funny Face was eventually restored to its full Technicolor and VistaVision glory.System Requirements:Running Time: 103 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating: NR UPC: 097361308449 Manufacturer No: 130844
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