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Funny Face

Director: Stanley Donen
Writer: Leonard Gerhse
Cast: Audrey Hepburn, Fred Astaire, Kay Thompson, Michel Auclair, Robert Flemyng, Jean Del Val, Virginia Gibson, Dovima
Music by: George Gershwin, Leonard Gerhe
Photography by: Ray June
Runtime: 103 min.
Year: 1957

About: Fashion photographer Dick Avery, in search for an intellectual backdrop for an air-headed model, expropriates a Greenwich Village bookstore. When the photo session is over the store is left in a shambles, much to salesgirl Jo Stockton's dismay. Avery stays behind to help her clean up. Later, he examines the photos taken there and sees Jo in the background of one shot. He is intrigued by her unique appearance, as is Maggie Prescott, the editor of a leading fashion magazine. They offer Jo a modeling contract, which she reluctantly accepts only because it includes a trip to Paris

Trivia:
¤ Fred Astaire's character is based on photographer Richard Avedon. In fact, it is Avedon who set up most of the photography for this film, including the famous face portrait of Audrey unveiled during the dark room sequence.
¤ in the movie appeared mother of Audrey - Baroness Ella Van Heemstra, as a sidewalk cafe patron.
¤ Hepburn filmed this back-to-back with "Love in the Afternoon".
¤ The soggy weather played havoc with the shooting of the wedding dress dance scene. Fred Astaire and Audrey Hepburn were continually slipping in the muddy and slippery grass.
¤ Audrey Hepburn did not want to be separated from her husband Mel Ferrer, so filming of the Paris scenes was timed to coincide with Ferrer's filming of "Elena et les hommes" (1956).
¤ Paris' unseasonably rainy weather had to be worked into the script, particularly during the balloons photo shoot scene.
¤ Astaire also starred in the original 1927 Broadway version of George Gershwin's and Ira Gershwin's "Funny Face". Although he was the male lead in the show, he did not play the same character he does in the film, and the storyline of the original stage musical was entirely different from the one in the film.
¤ Audrey's terrier appears as the dog in the basket during the "Anna Karenia" train shot.
¤ Hepburn was offered the lead role in "Gigi" (1958) but turned it down to make this movie.
¤ Cyd Charisse was offered the lead role, but declined. Audrey's agent initially rejected the film, but Hepburn overrode the decision after reading the script.
¤ The Audrey Hepburn character was inspired by Suzy Parker, who made a fashionable cameo appearance in the film (her first film) in the "Think Pink" sequence.
¤ Astaire was thirty years older than Audrey, during production od the movie.
¤ Hepburn's wardrobe was designed by Givenchy.

Awards:
Oscars: nominacje: Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Writing - Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen.
Cannes Film Festival: nomination: Best Movie

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