Audrey Hepburn & Kay Thompson

[Lino]

I can see how a gay (especially american) man can relate to Kay Thompson.

And Lino, why not Portuguese?

Well, first of all, there's a tradition of camp in american culture in general (and in cinema in particular) that is clearly not part of my own particular culture, though I can appreciate and delight in it whenever I feel inclined.

That's why I said that the character played by Kay Thompson in Funny Face is more easily identifiable and easier to caricature by an american gay male. That's what I tried to imply, anyway. It's the OTT character that every drag queen aims to impersonate as loud as they can.

With Audrey, it's almost impossible to do that because she was so honest about herself and about the way she conducted her life in and off-screen. And let's face it - no man could ever hope to be so beautiful as she was, right? She was too feminine even for the best female impersonator around.

[Michael]

David, don't you ever imagine a musical movie with Kay Thompson going after a young stud like James Dean, like Astaire rubbing himself against Hepburn in Funny Face?

I couldn't resist sharing this hilarious IMDB review I just came across:

Two skinny people, with about 50 years age difference, fall in love - and sing a lot.

Or "Anorexic Face". Astaire is the funny face. He's like Stan Laurel's uglier, skinnier brother. Anorexic face and bony face should get along splendidly, and they do. And while they get along, they dance and sing a series of enthralling numbers, one better than the next.

The 1st song is a perky little ditty called "This Song Mentions the Word 'Pink' A Lot And Should Put You To Sleep Soon". The 2nd one, sung by Anorexic Face, is "I Just Kissed Someone's Great-grandfather So I Wanna Vomit My Last Week's Dinner". The 3rd one is a truly enchanting one, and goes by the name "When The Two Of Us Dance You Can Hear Our Bones Rattle All The Way In Zimbabwe". "We're In Paris, But We Remain A Dull Bunch" is the vivaciously sung 4th song. The 5th one is memorable, a highlight: "Paris Can Be So Dull When I Sing To An Anorexic Librarian". But I really fell in love with the 6th song, a delightful little mood-killer called "I'm In Love With My Best Friend's Great-granddaughter, So I Hope She Likes Wrinkles".

Unfortunately, all glorious things must come to an end, and that goes for this thrilling musical, too: the last song is a classic unrivaled by any other jaw-breaker, "'S Wonderful That This Movie Finally Ended, So Please Stop Snoring". Oh, and there is a dance number in a seedy French locale; the dance is entitled "Can You Tell I'm Not Really Michael Jackson?".

Astaire, aged 125 here, looks better than ever. It's a wonder he doesn't have all of gay Pari's fashion-models on his heels. But he could it he wanted to: all he has to do is step all over them during one of his step-dancing numbers. Hepburn, around 17 here, isn't bothered by the fact that Astaire used to play chess with Lincoln's assassin. She wants children from Astaire, even if that means injecting his sperm with a life-serum.

I think they look terrific together. What a pair.

There is something unmistakably romantic about the way Fred's dry, shriveled-up lips suck the life out of Audrey's virginal young mouth. There is something unmistakably unique about a couple who can split a single pea for lunch and not be hungry. There is also something unmistakably remarkable about Astaire's discovery of Hepburn in the library; she is two-dimensional so it's almost science-fiction the way Astaire manages to even see her. The movie could be also called "Funny Face As Seen With X-Ray Vision".

The movie ridicules the moronic beatniks, and what a ridicule! I'm sure the beatniks, after having seen this movie, shoved their heads into the sand in embarrassment, having realized that their lives were a waste; for that is how powerful this movie's satire is. Monty Python, move over, "Funny Face" is the future of social satire.

[David Ehrenstein]

Don't let the viscious queen who wrote that get so much as a city block close to you.

[Michael]

I didn't let him but his view of everything about Funny Face is so warped and sick that I was left in disbelief.

The way he painted Astaire in my mind, god how painful. And at least, he avoided mocking Kay.

[colinr0380]

That's a fun film, with Christopher Lee as the strip club proprietor!

Just found Alex Cox's introduction to the film when it was first shown on British television by the BBC in 1995 in their Forbidden Weekend (in a triple bill sandwiched between the premiere of The Night Porter and Performance - that was a memorable night!)

"It is decidedly a B picture , exploiting a variety of current concerns: prostitution, juvenile delinquency, beatniks, jazz music, French women and coffee bars. It has no plot but a lot of energy and invention. The staid architect hero - if he is the hero it is very hard to tell - has designed a model utopia called City 2000 which is to be surrounded by skyscraper sized giant concrete structures to deaden sound. In the coffee bar the hapless Pinky Ross is attempting to break the world long distance drumming record. Whenever Adam Faith bursts into song, his voice is amplified by an invisible mobile echo chamber and supported by an invisible rock and roll band. Almost every woman is a blonde, and the bicycle pumps have been working overtime in the wardrobe department.

Beat Girl is utterly stupid in fact, but also very entertaining and enjoyable. It is worth a dozen Legend Of The Falls or Nells because it is actually funny and has real verbal verve. Check out the plethora of fantastic 50s epigrams:

"Love? That's the gimmick that makes sex respectable."
"He sends me...over and out!"
"Next week - boom! - the world goes up in smoke and what's the score? Zero."
"You've gotta live for kicks, that's all you've got."
"Great, dad, great! Straight from the fridge. Way out!"
"Get out of here you jiving, dribbling scum!"

I suppose Beat Girl ran into trouble with the censors for two reasons: the JDs (juveline delinquents) and the strip club scenes. The JDs are by 90s standards incredibly wimpy, not a gun or knife among them and gang boss Adam Faith doesn't even allow drinking. Faith is pretty good actually, a better actor than most of the professionals and somewhat complex - he threatens to beat the Beat Girl up at one stage. When he is outnumbered by teddy boys, who smash his car and guitar, he declares:
"I don't fight, it's for squares."

Peter McEnery and Shirley Anne Field appear as members of his self pitying, tee-total gang. A waif-like Oliver Reed is in there dancing too. Most of the strip tease sequences are rubbish, bar one extraordinarily hot dance number here restored for the first time. If videotaping films off air were legal, the viewer would be well advised to stick a tape in the VCR if only to possess Dail Ambler's priceless dialogue and the one outstanding dance scene...it's straight from the fridge, dads! Way out!"

Of course I broke the law and recorded it!

And I love John Barry's title tune!

[Roger_Thornhill]

I always rather liked Hepburn and Cooper in Love In The Afternoon, even with the creepy age differences taken into account and that it sort of drags along in it's second act. But! As was typical of Wilder he comes up with a wonderful ending that makes it a memorable film for me.

I recently picked up War & Peace with Hepburn co-starring in it, it was largely an impulse buy as it was inexpensive. I've heard it's a very flawed film, but Hepburn alone makes me interested in giving it a shot. Has anyone here seen it?

[starmanof51]

THE great beatnik movie is, of course Edmond T Greville's Beat Girl. Ive got the cut and spackled US version (which is fun in itself to watch for the ludicrous censor cuts) but there's supposed to be a new restored R2 version.

I was watching Beat Girl (R1 cut) for the first time even as you posted this, David. Solid fun. "Over and out", indeed! I thought the old timers were great, Christopher Lee and Nigel Green, David Farrar even. Lee's part is smallish, but he makes a meal of it all the same. Adam Faith is surprisingly passable, and Oliver Reed's epileptic dancing and shaking is amusing (probably wasn't to him if he saw it in later years). The female leads are pretty awful, but Gillian Hill's dancing is, uh, memorable. John Barry's instrumental music is altogether too good for the film. Should we believe he wrote the songs/lyrics as well? If so, I hope he's enjoyed many years of people buying him drinks for contributing "It's Legal" to the cultural heritage.

Regarding Funny Face and the IMDB review Michael provided - look, I like Funny Face just fine, but I like snark even more, so bravo, Mr. Unknown Snarky Reviewer.

[tryavna]

I recently picked up War & Peace with Hepburn co-starring in it, it was largely an impulse buy as it was inexpensive. I've heard it's a very flawed film, but Hepburn alone makes me interested in giving it a shot. Has anyone here seen it?

I have -- though I was more interested in it because of King Vidor's direction than because of Hepburn's presence. And what you've heard is right: it is an extremely flawed movie. Obviously, it pales beside Bondarchuk's definitive version, which is about twice as long and manages to cover much more of the novel. However, I've always heard that Bondarchuk liked how Vidor handled some of the material, especially the battle scenes (which are pretty good). The two main problems with the film is that the script is a mess, which isn't surprising considering, and that Fonda, Hepburn, and Ferrer are all hopelessly miscast. At least Fonda and Hepburn try and fail; Ferrer doesn't seem to be trying at all. As far as Hepburn is concerned, she's much too old and sophisticated for the role of Natasha. Nevertheless, it's worth watching once -- if only because the supporting cast is interesting (Herbert Lom, Oscar Homolka, Anita Ekberg, John Mills, etc.).

[zedz]

My guilty Audrey pleasure (and I'm by no means a huge fan) is Wait Until Dark, a cheesy / nifty little thriller in which she plays a blind woman who has unwittingly come into possession of a heroin-stuffed doll. Cue sadistic terrorisation of defenceless blind girl by evil thugs; cue blind girl's ingenious revenge.

In the blind-girl-in-peril stakes, though, it's not as good as the effectively chilling Mia Farrow vehicle Blind Terror, which imdb conveniently informs me was directed by the often great Richard Fleischer (Narrow Margin, 10 Rillington Place). Another point for the auteurists, I guess.

[devlinnn]

Love all of Wait Until Dark (especially the knit and cords) until...

Spoiler

poor blind Audrey, after being terrorized and finally killing a wonderfully sadistic Alan Arkin, is told to walk all the way across the fucking room to get a hug from the hubby! If only she killed one more...

[zedz]

Love all of Wait Until Dark (especially the knit and cords) until...

Spoiler

poor blind Audrey, after being terrorized and finally killing a wonderfully sadistic Alan Arkin, is told to walk all the way across the fucking room to get a hug from the hubby! If only she killed one more...

Spoiler

Now she's got the knack, she can always resmash the lightbulbs!

[Lino]

For a more serious study of Audrey's acting talents, go for the very underrated The Nun's Story. I still watch it now and then and it never fails to make a deep impression on me. Especially the strong ending.

[Antoine Doinel]

Breakfast At Tiffany's: Steve Cohn Edit

[domino harvey]

Mel Ferrer's Green Mansions is finally getting a DVD release, April 6 in the UK. Audrey Hepburn in her prime running around Ferngully, what more could you ask for?

[domino harvey]

Got my copy of Green Mansions in today. Despite what the back of the box says ("4:3"), the film is in its original Scope format and is enhanced for 16X9. Strangely enough, though it is a R2 disc, the film is presented in a progressive NTSC transfer. Some screen caps:





















As for the film itself... oof. I've now seen every Audrey Hepburn film except Bloodline and this ranks as the worst. The Audreyites will at least get the pleasure of watching Hepburn walk around borderline naked in her sheer one-piece designer jungle-scrap slip, but that's about all there is to recommend here.

[visuallyimpaired]

I have never been an obvious fan of the Hollywood musical but have seen my share of Audrey Hepburn films. I have always found it curious that she was paired with men more that thrice her age but found these matches amusing and hopeful. One can always morbidly wish that the magic of Hollywood can happen in the real world too.

I only saw "Funny Face" for the first time last week and was enchanted by the film. Mr. Astaire as the Richard Avadon-ish photographer danced (and sang) with his usual ease making me rethink my prior crush on the athletic Gene Kelly who now seems to me to work far too hard (and show it) as Madonna to please a crowd.

Can anybody tell me why we were more often than not denied her obvious skills as a dancer? Her boho Parisian nightclub scene in "Funny Face" is one of the best of the film's many highlights.

[Westwood]

I am pretty sure I have all of Audrey Hepburn's movies in my collection, be it on dvd, or taped from tv in one language or another, and I have only watched a couple of them. I remember watching My Fair Lady in Italian and I was really bored, but I was very young then. I guess I would enjoy watching the original version in widescreen on the latest dvd. Of course I have seen Breakfast At Tiffany's a couple of times and I like it, but I find it a bit to light for my taste.

I think that her appeal to gay audiences (male) might be different, rather than less than other icons, because she never really went camp and started using heavy makeup. There is a certain gay group who just loves former "has-beens" becoming this way. You know, the big eyelashes, the wigs. I don't think Audrey ever had this phase.
I have never seen a drag-queen made up to look like her to be honest.

I think another reason she doesn't belong in that group's list is because she was never a strong woman in movies, and usually those make for big gay icons, the broads who fight their way out of life's challenges, or suffer for love but overcome it. So she might be recognized for her grace and style in this context. Then of course she did all her work for Unicef but that is not relative to the topic.

Personally, she does fail to draw me in like others do.

[domino harvey]

Fun industry ad for the film

[Constable]

I will be viewing Funny Face[/b] for the first time this week.

What?! A gay man that hasn't succumbed to the perenial charms and talents of Audrey Hepburn yet? Where have you been all your life, Michael?

Jokes apart, I started enjoying musicals because of my everlasting love for Audrey. And it's been more than 20 odd years now. That is one special lady. And Funny Face is a delight.

Can I ask an entirely off topic question or, I suppose, a tangentially related question?

Why do you suppose Audrey Hepburn appeals more to gay men and women than straight males? And do you agree with the premise of the question at all?

[Beloved Aunt]

Well, sbe doesn't appeal really all THAT much to me! I like Audrey but she always seems to keep me at arms' length, like Judy Garland does. The old-timey female movie star whose every second of screen time I just eat up like candy is Jennifer Jones. Even if she doesn't give a good performance, she has a sort of preposterous, totally unique, unkillable star quality just by being there, like in her very passive performance in Love is a Many-Splendored Thjng.

[Matt]

Goodness! Digging up 18-year-old posts from Lino! And my response is still the same as it was then:

I always thought she was more popular among young women than among men of any stripe. I usually remain unmoved by all gamines: Hepburn, Leslie Caron, Jean Seberg, et al.

I honestly never really considered Audrey Hepburn a gay icon at all. When you've got stars from the same era like Jayne Mansfield, Susan Hayward, Elizabeth Taylor, and Jane Russell? I feel like even Debbie Reynolds and Doris Day have more cred as gay icons than Hepburn.

[The Curious Sofa]

True, Audrey Hepburn never had a particular following among gay men, except in a general way in that gay men are/were generally more inclined to like old Hollywood movies (especially "women's" movies) and are more likely to be interested in fashion. She appealed especially to women who are drawn to female stars for their style and relatability rather than their sex appeal, and for whom she may have been less threatening than some busty bombshell. While certainly beautiful, she looked more like an "editorial" model than a pin-up. This is also a reason why Hepburn appealed less to heterosexual males, who tend to be attracted to traditionally female body types than a thin, flat-chested gamine. But I'm sure there were some pioneering hetero hipsters who were drawn to her manic-pixie dream-girl prototype, not everyone has the same taste.

What gay icons have in common is a larger-than-life quality, and part of Hepburn's appeal is the opposite of that. Like Ingrid Bergman, her persona worked best in relatability and a naturalistic register, she wasn't one to chew the scenery like a Joan Crawford or Bette Davis, and she lacks the quavering emotionalism of a Judy Garland. Maybe the biggest gay icon of the 20th century, Garland's persona is closely tied to a narrative of oppression and personal demons, something gay men gravitated towards for obvious reasons. From Davis to Crawford to Garland to Streisand to Lady Gaga, the classic gay icon rarely is conventionally pretty, which gives them an underdog quality to root for. There are other types of gay icons, like Jayne Mansfield, who seemed to be designed to appeal to red-blooded males. Her enshrinement in the pantheon is largely due to John Waters and the mainstreaming of drag, in her exaggerated feminine attributes and camp self-awareness she is more like a drag queen.

It's become popular to bash Hepburn because she represents the opposite of our current body-positive trend, and it's often been rumored that her slender figure was due to an eating disorder. I always liked her very much, the only strange thing about her career and reputation is that she was miscast in her two most iconic roles; Breakfast at Tiffany's and especially My Fair Lady. But I can't think of many star-making turns more charming than Roman Holiday, she's very touching in The Nun's Story (perhaps her best performance), and she's perfectly cast in Funny Face, where she actually gets to play a fashion model (and where, for any discerning gay, Kay Thompson meets the requirements of a gay icon).

[domino harvey]

Her thin frame was due to malnutrition as a child during the war, not an eating disorder

[The Curious Sofa]

Her thin frame was due to malnutrition as a child during the war, not an eating disorder

I wasn't talking about facts, I was talking about rumours of an alleged eating disorder that followed her around. She is still held up in a negative light as an example of a body type favoured by the fashion industry that is difficult for most women to achieve. While fat shaming is no longer considered OK, there is a whole industry of clickbait and gossip magazines that, under the guise of concern for their health, call out female celebrities for being too thin and, on the other hand, congratulate other women for losing weight, even though they were never overweight in the first place (just ask Kate Winslet).

Incidentally, while Hepburn's wartime deprivation has always been cited as the reason for her thinness, to deflect rumours of anorexia, it doesn't make much medical sense. Just because you've been starved as a child doesn't mean you're going to be skinny for the rest of your life. But she never looked like she was anorexic. In any case, unless you are close enough to someone to be genuinely concerned about their health, it is never a good idea to call someone out about their weight.

[domino harvey]

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