Funny Face

I’ve noted already that I have no great love for musicals, and today’s subject is no exception. Funny Face is a bit of vacuous romantic fluff buoyed by some striking photography, an adorable Audrey Hepburn and old school musical star Fred Astaire doing what he does best. Otherwise, it’s utterly disposable.

Fashion photographer Dick Avery (Fred Astaire) tries to find an “intellectual” backdrop for a photo shoot with a ditzy magazine model, and ends up shooting in a bookshop where egghead Jo Stockton (Audrey Hepburn) works as a clerk. Dick comes up with a brilliant idea: using the decidedly different Jo as a fashion model for an upcoming Paris photo shoot! His boss, fashion tycoon Maggie Prescott (Kay Thompson) is enthralled with the idea, but Jo is reluctant; she’s only conned on the promise of meeting French philosopher Professor Flostre (Michel Auclair), and so our three protagonists jaunt off to Paris, with the inevitable entanglements of love and work and sight-seeing and disillusionment playing their part.

Funny Face is an odd musical. Its soundtrack is a patchwork of original tunes, and older songs borrowed from stage musicals and films alike. Donen did well with a similar conceit in Singin' in the Rain, but notsomuch here. The songs are generally bland and unmemorable. There are only a few standout tunes, such as the loveably jaunty Bonjour, Paris! and the romantic duet S’Wonderful. The film does have some wonderful dance numbers, including Astaire’s dance to the title song and especially Hepburn’s wonderfully lithe, alluring free-style number in a bohemian café – Audrey has always been beautiful, but rarely as sexy as she is here.

The film’s story is complete fluff, a predictable Cinderella tale with a gorgeous Paris backdrop. Jo’s character is served poorly by the story; she goes from a smart if beautiful nebbish to a star-struck young lady to a helpless, naïve waif lost in a big city who needs the guidance of an older man – a retread of Roman Holiday, with musical numbers thrown in. The satire of the fashion industry and intellectualism are mild and don’t provide much food for thought; the characters and story don’t exist on anything more than a basic level. Even a six year old would be able to unravel the plot twists well before they unspool. It’s old-fashioned and clichéd, and revels in that fact. Whether one finds that charming or off-putting is down to the individual viewer.

The movie has exquisitely beautiful art direction, bordering at times on the surreal, particularly the bizarre Think Pink number and a montage of Audrey and Fred location-shooting . Donen would later direct Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and Singin’ in the Rain, two of the finest screen musicals (as well as teaming up with Hepburn again on Charade and Two For the Road), and does well here; it’s too bad he doesn’t have better material to work with.

Audrey Hepburn is at her loveliest: she nails the cute young egghead, the lovelorn Cinderella and the glamorous fashion model perfectly. However, in her various musical numbers she reveals her limitations as a singer, and one becomes sympathetic to Jack Warner’s decision to dub her voice with Marni Nixon in My Fair Lady. Fred Astaire frequently shows his age – even compared to Audrey’s romances with Gregory Peck, Gary Cooper, Rex Harrison and Humphrey Bogart, this pairing is just weird – but performs with a surprising vigor and maintains most of his customary charge. The real standout is stage actress Kay Thompson; she is a marvelous singer and dancer with natural comic talent, and steals just about every scene she’s in. The deceitful Professor Flostre is played by French star Michel Auclair: his only other foray into English was a small part in The Day of the Jackal.

Funny Face is an innocuous puff piece best left for musical fans and Audrey lovers. I am one, not the other.