Roman Holiday- A 1953 Film Directed by William Wyler- Starring Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck- run time 118 minutes

 

Audrey Hepburn plays the part of the Crown Princess from an unnamed European country that is on an official tour of Europe to promote trade with her country. She feels suffocated and overwhelmed by her duties. We see at official receptions and balls.  One night she gets so stressed out that she escapes while in Rome wanting to see the city on her own, Those in charge of protecting and directing her are in a panic and set out agents to find her

 The Princess does not even know how to undress herself (leading to a very befuddled reaction by Gregory Peck's character when she instructed him to undress her.

I do not want to give away more about the adventures of the Princess but I will say her driving a Vespa with Gregory Peck hanging on behind was hilarious.

The the movie was filmed in Rome and there are lots of great scenes of the city,

Roman Holiday was a critical and commercial success. It was nominated for 10 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and won three: Best Actress for Hepburn, Best Story, and Best Costume Design. The film was also a box office hit, grossing over $3 million in its initial release.

Roman Holiday is considered a classic romantic comedy. It is praised for its beautiful cinematography, Hepburn's charming performance, and its heartwarming story. The film has been ranked as one of the greatest romantic comedies of all time by several publications, including the American Film Institute.

I will next watch Robin and Marian 

Mel Ulm 

My Fair Lady - A 1964 Movie Directed by George Cukor- Starring Audrey Hepburn and Rex Harrison - run time 2 hours and thirty minutes

My Fair Lady is a 1964 American musical comedy-drama film adapted from the 1956 Lerner and Loewe stage musical based on George Bernard Shaw's 1913 stage play Pygmalion. With a screenplay by Alan Jay Lerner and directed by George Cukor, the film depicts a poor Cockney flower-seller named Eliza Doolittle who overhears an arrogant phonetics professor, Henry Higgins, as he casually wagers that he could teach her to speak "proper" English, thereby making her presentable in the high society of Edwardian London.

The film stars Audrey Hepburn as Eliza Doolittle—and Rex Harrison as Henry Higgins—reprising his role from the stage musical—

it was a critical and commercial success, it became the highest-grossing film of 1964 and won eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor. In 1998, the American Film Institute named it the 91st greatest American film of all time. In 2006, it was ranked eighth in the AFI's Greatest Movie Musicals list.

My Fair Lady is a classic musical film that is still enjoyed by audiences today. It is a story about transformation, class, and the power of language. The film is beautifully shot and features some of the most iconic songs in musical theater history, such as "I Could Have Danced All Night" and "The Rain in Spain." If you haven't seen My Fair Lady, I highly recommend it. It is a timeless film that will stay with you long after you watch it.

I loved how Eliza Doolittle came to stand up to Professor Higgins.

 

War and Peace- A 1956 Film Directed by King Vidor, Produced by Dino de Laurentis - Starring Audrey Hepburn, Henry Fonda and Mel Ferrer

 This is epic movie making on a grand scale with a powerful producer and director with major stars based upon War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy, published in 1869.

Tolstoy's novel is universally regarded as one of the greatest novels ever written.  (My in translation edition is 1459 pages,)  it begins just before Napoleon's invasion of Russia and proceeds through to his armies retreat from Moscow. (Jun 24, 1812 – Dec 14, 1812)

The lead characters all play rich pampered aristocrats,

The film tells the story of five aristocratic families in Russia during the Napoleonic Wars. The focus is on the relationships between Pierre Bezukhov (Fonda), a wealthy but searching young man; Natasha Rostova (Hepburn), a beautiful and vivacious young woman; and Prince Andrei Bolkonsky (Ferrer), a proud and idealistic young man. The film follows the characters as they experience love, loss, war, and peace.

Hepburn's performance as Natasha was widely praised and she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama. The film was also nominated for Academy Awards for Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, and Best Costume Design.

War and Peace (1956) is a sweeping and ambitious film that captures the epic scope of Tolstoy's novel. It is a visually stunning film with a strong cast of actors. While it may not be as faithful to the novel as some fans would like, it is still a compelling and enjoyable film.

Mel Ulm

Breakfast at Tiffany's- A 1961 Movie Starring Audrey Hepburn and George Peppard- run time 1 hour and 55 minutes- Directed by Blake Edwards

 

Breakfast at Tiffany's is the fourth movie starring Audrey Hepburn I have posted upon.  Previously I streamed Funny Face, Charades and Love in the Afternoon.  I have her War and Peace and My Fair Lady in que for later in the month.

Breakfast at Tiffany's is on YouTube 

The film opens with Holly Golightly, a young woman who lives in a tiny apartment in Greenwich Village, New York City. She is a high-class escort who is always looking for a wealthy husband. One day, she meets Paul "Fred" Varjak, a struggling writer who has just moved into her apartment building. Paul is immediately smitten with Holly, but she is hesitant to get involved with him because she is afraid of being hurt.

Despite her reservations, Holly and Paul begin to fall in love. They spend their days together exploring New York City and their nights dancing and drinking. However, Holly's past continues to haunt her. She is still haunted by the memory of her childhood in Texas, where she was abused by her parents. She is also afraid of commitment, and she is not sure if she can ever truly love anyone.

Breakfast at Tiffany's is a classic romantic comedy that has been praised for its beautiful cinematography, its witty dialogue, and its iconic performances. Audrey Hepburn is particularly memorable as Holly Golightly, and her performance helped to make the film a timeless classic.

Holly Golightly, deriving from a novella by Truman Capote, is a bit difficult to like initially but she quickly grew on me. The ending was emotionally satisfying.  The dialogue is funny.  

Mel Ulm

Love in the Afternoon - A 1957 Movie Starring Audrey Hepburn, Gary Cooper and Maurice Chevalier- directed by Billy Wilder - run time 2 hours and ten minutes

 

Love in the Afternoon is Available on YouTube 

Love in the Afternoon takes place in Paris. Claude Chavasse (Maurice Chevalier) is a private detective. He investigates  an adultery case: Monsieur X (John McGiver), his client, believes his wife is having an affair with another man. She is, indeed, having an affair with Frank Flannagan (Gary Cooper), a businessman already well-known for his many love-affair scandals. When Monsieur X learns the news, he only has one idea stuck in his mind: to kill Frank Flanagan. Claude Chavasse tells him that it would be a regrettable idea, but his “project” is already all set in his mind: he will go to the Ritz Hotel where Frank stays, surprise him with his wife and kill him. Fortunately, Claude Chavasse’ daughter, Ariane (Audrey Hepburn), stops him. She goes to the Ritz, enters in Flannagan’s suite by the window, explains the situation to Flannagan and Madame X, takes Madame X’s hat, this one runs away by the window, and when Monsieur X enters in the suite, he realizes that his wife is not having an affair with Flannagan. This is only the beginning of the film, but that’s what set the story and that’s how Frank Flannagan and Ariane Chavasse will meet. As you can imagine, a love story eventually starts between them and the rest of the film is the evolution of their love. Of course, for the sweet, fragile and innocent Ariane, it is not easy to be in love with a man like Frank Flannagan. She invents some incredible stories to grab his attention.This movie is named Love in the Afternoon because every time Ariane and Frank meet, it’s during the afternoon, most of the time at 4 pm.

I found this an enjoyable film.. The relationship between the Hepburn and Cooper characters required some suspension of my reaction to their age difference. 

I will next post on Breakfast at Tiffany's 

Mel Ulm

Charade- A 1963 Film Starring Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant - Directed by Stanley Dolan - Set in Paris

 

Charade is Available on YouTube 

This is part of my Participation in Paris in July 2023- Hosted  by Words and Peace 

https://wordsandpeace.com/

This is my second post on a set in Paris Film Starring Audrey Hepburn. My first was The gorgeous Funny Face.

Charade follows Regina Lampert (Hepburn), a young woman who discovers upon her return to Paris that her husband has been murdered. She soon learns that he was involved in a theft of a quarter of a million dollars during World War II, and that three of his former associates are now after the money. Regina teams up with Peter Joshua (Grant), a mysterious stranger who may or may not be involved in the theft, to try to find the money and stay alive.

Charade is kind of a combination of a romance, a murder mystery, with some scary elements set against iconic Parisisn scenes. There are numerous surprises,  for sure I did not see the gratifying ending coming.

My next Audrey Hepburn in Paris  movie will be Sabrina.

Mel Ulm

Funny Face- A 1957 Film - Audrey Hepburn and Fred Astaire in Paris - A Beautiful Movie directed by Stanley Dolen

 

This is part of my Participation in Paris in July 2023- Hosted by Words and Peace 

https://wordsandpeace.com/2023/06/30/paris-in-july-2023/

The music is by George Gerswin, the customes by Edith Head

The movie is on YouTube 

The film tells the story of Jo Stockton (Hepburn), a shy bookstore employee who is discovered by fashion photographer Dick Avery (Astaire). Avery believes that Jo has the potential to be a successful model, and he convinces her to go to Paris with him to shoot a fashion campaign. In Paris, Jo blossoms into a confident and stylish woman, and she falls in love with Avery. However, their relationship is tested when Jo's intellectual side clashes with Avery's commercialism.

The opening in the office of a famous fashion magazine, it brought to my mind The Devil Wears Prada,  it begins with a delightful musical number when the magazine editor, who sees her job as telling the women of America what to wear decides the next issue will feature all pink outfits. The movie explodes in color, dance, marvelous clothing.

For the next issue she decides to feature women into arts and books, intellectuals. Of course no professional model can fit that role.  Being in New York City, the whole crew, including Fred Astaire as the photographer winds up in a Greenwich City bookstore being managed by Jo Stockton.  Chaos results and Jo is horrified by what she sees as the shallow values embodied by viewing women only for their looks. Jo is a follower of a French philosopher who expounds "Emphaticalism", a satire of the pretensions of French Existentialism.

A don't want to reveal to much of the plot other than to say Jo ends up as a lead model for the magazine's big fashion show issue in Paris. There are lots of iconic Paris scenes. Audrey even does an Apace dance and cracks an expensive vase over the head of the famous philosopher.  

This was Hepburn's first musical. She and Astaire make great dance partners.

I have loved Audrey Hepburn since I saw her way back when My Fair Lady premiered

I have found two other Audrey Hepburn movies with Parisian connections, Charade and Sabrina and hope to watch them both this month

Mel Ulm