Stanley Donen
Charade

"I already know such a quantity of people, that until one dies, I simply cannot get to know another one"

She could only present herself this way, with an arrogant tone, Regina "Reggie" Lampert (Audrey Hepburn) to the middle-aged gentleman Peter Joshua (Cary Grant) who attempts to court her while she is seated in a Chalet in the Alps. From here on, their lives will intertwine in an incredible sequence of events, espionage, murders, identity swaps, escapes, all piling up unexpectedly to give unforeseen results and difficult to manage for the two protagonists, just like in a "Charade". The "Charade" indeed is a game from the old tradition of puzzles where according to a formula, "A+B=AB", words are combined to give another with a complete sense, e.g., "Tram+Bustle=Tumult", this is what the plot of the film masterfully directed by Stanley Donen plays on.

Audrey Hepburn plays Reggie, a young woman who, after becoming a widow, finds herself in big trouble due to her husband's secret past, which mysteriously resurfaces at his funeral along with three shady individuals, condemning her to a continuous escape through Paris in search of a sum of money that has suddenly disappeared into thin air, in this she is aided by the thief Cary Grant, but beware in "Charade" nothing is as it seems.

Made in 1963, "Charade" has gone down in the history of cinema for many reasons, the complex intertwining of the screenplay is constantly kept under the director's control, there isn't a flaw, everything flows on the right tracks. This is not a film that can be classified in a particular genre; one of its greatest merits is indeed its ability to cleverly unite many narrative strands of cinema, comedy, mystery, thriller, romance, all perfectly calibrated so that they combine perfectly to give the desired result. It wasn't easy to translate into images the complex plot written by Peter Stone, that's when Stanley Donen's talent comes out. A master of cinematic musicals, the American choreographer and director manages with great ease to keep the reins of the film, his experience with musical films, heavily dependent on rhythm and balance in the scenes, stands out, and he manages to create a film with typical interlocking sequences present in musicals (for example, the continuous alternation between choral scenes and individual scenes) even without music and songs.

This talent of his will be re-expressed in "Two For The Road" a few years later, where he will play with flashbacks and the theme of travel in a simply splendid comedy. The suspense is one of the main elements of the film, there's a lot of Hitchcock, but there are also many elements taken from "James Bond", by then the first two films of the series had come out and the audience was beginning to appreciate spy stories and conspiracies. But irony also wants its part, and in the choice of the cast, only Hepburn and Grant could give both characters all the right connotations; the character of Reggie is very peculiar, she is completely disoriented by the facts that hit her, alternating fear with joy, tears with smiles, she seems an easy figure to condition and subject, but as often happens with roles played by Audrey, they always have some winning card hidden in their hearts. Grant, now at the end of his career, contributes to giving the multiple identities of his character the necessary credibility, perfect then.

Splendid settings in a different Paris; no longer a postcard, and very beautiful cinematography do the rest, along with a phenomenal soundtrack signed by Henry Mancini, you can't go wrong with the American composer, when there's Audrey Hepburn he manages to give his music a dreamy touch that leaves you breathless, just watch the incredible opening titles made in pure 60's style with the two purple arrows chasing each other accompanied by the main theme to realize it.

A beautiful film, so I have nothing else to say.