Stanley Donen
Funny Face

"I do not presume to tell a woman
what a woman should think,
but to tell her how she can think: think pink!"

In 1957, director and choreographer Stanley Donen, after bringing "Singin' in The Rain" to the big screen alongside Gene Kelly, directed "Funny Face," a film version of the already well-known musical enriched by the music and songs of Ira and George Gershwin.

Despite not having a masterpiece of a plot as its foundation, it still manages to stand its ground and make its mark in the musical genre landscape, thanks especially to the beautiful music and the splendid cinematography that make it a delightful little film that, over the years, has not lost the charm of the glorious days in which it was shot. As I mentioned, the weak point is the plot, as the story is quite simple and overly sweet. A fashion magazine, led by a dynamic editor (Kay Thompson, actually an orchestra conductor lending her talents to acting in this film), absolutely needs to find a new trend-setting fashion ("Think Pink!"), and to do so, it also needs the right face. The "silly" face belongs to librarian Jo Stockton (Audrey Hepburn), a follower of the "empathicalists" philosophy (a caricature of the existentialists), who is compelled by photographer Dick Avery (Fred Astaire) to participate in a photoshoot in Paris organized by the magazine, in exchange for a visit to the hometown of the master of her doctrine. In Paris, between one photo and another, the two will fall in love.

An excellent directorial effort from Donen, the film however, relies entirely on the performances of the still lively Astaire and Hepburn, who gifts the audience with the famous "Basal Metabolism" scene, a stunning jazz dance number performed in a Parisian bistro. In these scenes, which soon became cult classics, the actress shows off the iconic "empathicalists" attire, a black turtleneck sweater, pants of the same color, and white socks. Audrey reclaims her passion for dance and unleashes all her joy of living in these splendid sequences, which, if you have never seen them, will immediately amaze you, leaving you as spellbound as poor Astaire watching the dance in complete enchantment. Another strong point is the photography, truly beautiful in both exterior settings and interiors, like in Avery's small development lab, where the photographer takes the famous "Funny Face" portrait, actually created by Richard Avedon, famous for his "still images" to whom the character portrayed by Astaire is inspired. It's a pity for the dialogues which are not very convincing and some situations that do not work well, like the ending that does not do justice to Jo's intelligence, but aside from that, it's a pleasant and entertaining film, in Italy titled "Una Cenerentola A Parigi."

P.S.: Hepburn would go on to star in two more films with Donen, "Charade" and "Two For The Road," two splendid pictures.