Somehow I missed this film when it was released in 1993. Maybe it was the birth of my son? Who knows?
But, I just saw it and it’s a beauty; I highly recommend it. Catch it if you can
Film
Let’s go to Marrakech for a minute!
I recently watched the 2015 Nicole Kidman film, Queen of the Desert. The movie chronicles the life of a fascinating Brit, Gertrude Bell. It’s a beautifully produced film and features some interior shots of the world-famous hotel in Marrakech, La Maoumania. One thing always leads to another, and thanks to the internet, we can make a quick trip to Marrakech.
I highly recommend the film, as well as Morocco. I was lucky enough to spend a month there a few years ago and I loved it.
Marriage Italian Style, 1964
She’s pretty great to watch, that Sophia Loren! And Marcello isn’t bad either!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=rTF61CqBgqA Ciao, ragazzi!
Next up, Sabrina, if you please!
The year is 1954 and Audrey Hepburn is 25 years old. Following the amazing success of Roman Holiday released in 1953, Hollywood couldn’t wait to produce another film with her. Having won the Oscar and other awards for her role in Roman Holiday, Audrey was seen as solid gold.
Billy Wilder was the next director to have the good fortune to direct Miss H in a film, and that movie was Sabrina.
In the picture below, Mr. Wilder gives the actress direction near Wall Street in New York.
Sabrina was designed to showcase Miss H, which it most certainly and admirably accomplished.
Unfortunately, the 65 year old Humphrey Bogart (supposedly Cary Grant was offered the role but turned it down) was cast as Sabrina’s love interest, which bends the credulity of even the most rabid fans of the lovely actress. And I like Humphrey Bogart a lot! But she was 25 to his 65. Crazy.
You may freely call me any form of crazy, but I sense in all these stills of Hepburn and Bogart that she was just not comfortable with the roles they were playing opposite of each other.
And I further think that some of the candid shots taken on the set further reveals her discomfort. One of these is above.
And, if you think I am hallucinating, compare the candid shots of Bogart with Miss H to the ones below with William Holden and Miss H. I think you’ll see what I mean!
If Audrey H wasn’t enjoying William Holden’s presence, I will eat my hat.
Her confidence with him shows through in the film and in publicity stills.
William Holden played the role of Humphrey Bogarts’s younger brother in the movie. He is much more believable as Miss H’s innamorato, for Holden was only 11 years her senior.
But, whatever. It was what it was. We have another great black and white film on which to gaze at the beautiful, sylph-like star.
Let’s take a look at her in various moments in the film:
In her role as young Sabrina before her trip to Paris. She helps her dad, the chauffeur, wash a car. She has one eye on her unrequited love object, the character played by William Holden.
Ready for a game of indoor tennis in a Givenchy ballgown below.
Waiting for a ride at the Long Island train station after her 2 year sojourn of culinary training in Paris.
Tres chic, mademoiselle!
Giving new elegance to a Manhattan boardroom:
The current television show, Mad Men, could well have used the boardroom from Sabrina as a role model for set design. I bet they did.
My favorite part of the movie are the scenes of her at the Paris culinary school!
Maybe I love them just because they show the Eiffel Tower in a snowfall out the cooking school window. Nah. It’s because of Audrey.
I mean, look at her!
Once again, Edith Head had the pleasure of overseeing the costumes for Sabrina, as she did for Roman Holiday and Funny Face. However, the film includes gowns designed by the famed French couturier, Hubert de Givenchy, seen here:
It is said that Miss Hepburn personally chose the dresses she wore in the movie from Givenchy’s choices. Both the designer and Miss H were mutually enchanted with each other, thus beginning a lifelong association.
In fact, Monsieur de Givenchy would specially design a perfume for his glamorous friend and muse, Audrey, in 1957. He named it L’interdit, which means “forbidden” in French. The fragrance became the House of de Givenchy’s first cult scent. The scent has a delicate, floral, powdery aroma, with notes of rose, jasmine, violet and, at the heart, a blend of woods and grasses. The sophisticated classic scent is as elegant and lovely as its original wearer.
But Miss Head won an Oscar for Sabrina, whether or not her role was as large in its production as assumed.
Whatever the real stories behind the making of the film were, we have the vehicle for more Audrey Hepburn, and that is good enough for me!
One last look at the radiant star:
Au revoir!
I love your funny face!
Three years after her fabulous performance with Eddie Albert and Gregory Peck in the 1953 hit, Roman Holiday, Audrey joined forces with Fred Astaire to star in Funny Face. This time the backdrop was Paris. Not bad, eh? First Rome and then Paris. A good life for sure!
Actress Kay Thompson, well-known author of the Eloise series of children’s books, joined Audrey and Fred in the production. Here’s a still of Miss Thompson in a great set using the hot colors of the late 1950s, pink and gray:
The film was enhanced by the contributions of famed photographer Richard Avedon who designed the opening title sequence and consulted throughout. In fact, Astaire’s character in the film is a still photographer named Dick Avery, based upon Avedon. Here’s a picture of the photog.
And here are a couple of famous shots he took of the luminous Miss Hepburn for Funny Face:
Avedon supplied some of the still photographs used in the production, including its most famous single image: an intentionally overexposed close-up of Miss Hepburn’s face with only her famous eyes, eyebrows, nose and mouth. It is still recognizable as Audrey.
Here’s how the famous still was used:
Hepburn was actually Avedon’s muse in the 1950s and 1960s, and about her he said “I am, and forever will be, devastated by the gift of Audrey Hepburn before my camera. I cannot lift her to greater heights. She is already there. I can only record. I cannot interpret her. There is no going further than who she is. She has achieved in herself her ultimate portrait.”
Of course Miss H got to show off some of her famous dance skills in the movie:
Including dancing with Mr. Astaire:
Edith Head was again, as in Roman Holiday, responsible for the overall look and fashions Miss Hepburn wears in Funny Face. Here is Miss Head with some of her sketches.
This sketch provided the inspiration for the dress worn in the famous Avendon shots with Audrey and the balloons.
The divine Miss Hepburn also wears sumptuous gowns designed by Hubert de Givenchy as below:
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There is a silly plot involving the photographer Dick Avery and the bookstore intellectual turned model, Jo Stockton, played by Miss A.
The fictional photog and model fuss and fume:
And then they potentially marry:
To find out if they do marry, you’ll have to watch the film! Here is a clue.
There is a superfluous number called “think pink” that is a lot of fun:
And of course the city of Paris plays a role as well. Here are two shots of Audrey set off by the River Seine.
And even the Louvre and the famous Victory of Samothrace play a role in the gorgeous film.
The entire extravaganza is a lot of fun to watch! Just go and see!
Roman Holiday
Oh, how I love this movie! It is my favorite single film of all time.
It was released in 1953, which was a very good year! It was Miss Hepburn’s first starring role in an American film, even though the whole thing was set in Rome. It has a fantastic story which is as moving as it is comedic.
Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck on a Vespa (bzzzz, bzzzz, vespa means hornet in Italian) with Rome as a backdrop. It doesn’t get any better than that! All of my favorites in one shot.
Here the actors appear on the iconic Spanish Steps. Miss Hepburn was the perfect age to play a European princess and Mr. Peck was completely believable as a seasoned American journalist looking to get a scoop on a story. (This is an important distinction, for not every American leading man will be a believable love interest for the amazing Miss Hepburn in her future films.)
A publicity still.
I didn’t discover this movie until I was an adult, but it didn’t matter, I fell for it completely. And then, one time I was visiting my friend, Grayce Murabito, in her little village, Casoli di Camiore, near Lucca, and I met the very charismatic Eddie Albert who also had a major role in the film. Grayce and Eddie had been an entertainment duo in their early professional careers. I will write a post on them soon.
Here is a still of all 3 of the movie stars, Audrey, Gregory, and Eddie.
Which was turned into a great poster:
When the movie begins, we meet the character Miss Hepburn plays, Princess Ann. She is a very miserable young royal who is stifled and bored in her constant round of official presentations, even when they are in Rome.
She wants nothing but a little fun in her life and to be released from always doing the right thing.
After she has been all but tucked into bed by her female attendants in her glamorous Roman chamber, she manages to break free.
Some hi jinx ensue and she winds up in the care of an American journalist who coincidentally is in desperate need of a scoop. For quite a while he doesn’t realize he has one.
In the meantime, the princess tastes freedom. For starters, she gets her hair cut. She wanders around the streets of Rome, caught up in the sweet pleasure of her freedom to do just as she likes (dolce far niente), and when she strolls by a hairdresser, she can’t resist going in for a break-all-the-rules fashionable haircut.
Of course her new pixie haircut looks marvelous on her because, after all, she is still Audrey Hepburn!
So, heartened by her new hairstyle, Princess Ann does other daring things, like ride around Rome on a Vespa with an American man.
And wander the streets of Rome freely, meeting the people.
And attending an ordinary dance for ordinary people, at which she dances with her handsome journalist friend.
And sleeping in his tiny apartment in his pajamas.
She and her journalist friend visit the famous la boca della verita (the mouth of truth) in Rome. Joe Bradley tells her the myth, which purports that, if you put your hand into the mouth of this sculpture and tell a lie, your hand will be bitten off.
Ann is apprehensive, but tests it. Then she and Joe collapse in laughter at her silly fears.
Along with tasting freedom, the princess also inadvertently gets a taste of love in her dashing co-conspirator. Only she doesn’t know he knows who she is and that he is actually setting her up.
But he has fallen in love with her as well. How could he not? The entire western world was falling in love with Audrey Hepburn right then, no matter what role she was playing.
In the end, she goes back to her duties and you will have to watch the film to find out how Joe Bradley winds up using his scoop.
Here’s another still with some technicolor added later. The princess has discovered gelato as well as freedom.
The critics and the public alike were captivated by Audrey and her performance in Roman Holiday and she was feted with multiple awards. Miss H was the first actress to win an Academy Award, a Golden Globe and a BAFTA Award for a single performance. This beautiful film set Miss H up for a series of great upcoming performances on the American screen.
It is sweet to look at this candid photo of the two lead characters playing cards during a break from filming in Rome.
Sigh. It is such a beautiful film. Run, don’t walk, to see it as soon as possible. Ride your Vespa if you can.
Ciao a tutti!
Post script: Famed Hollywood designer, Edith Head, created the looks Miss Hepburn wore. Here is Miss Head.
:
And here is the sketch Miss Head designed for the ballgown Princess Ann wears to receive dignitaries.
And, finally, one last, luminous shot of Audrey Hepburn in Rome on the Spanish Steps in color from 1953, for no other reason than I can.
Here’s the vintage trailer for the movie:
W is for Warhol
Back to the alphabet in art.
Andy Warhol. Marilyn Monroe. Campbell’s Tomato Soup. Pop Art. Celebrity.
Here’s a picture of Warhol: life is art.
I once had an Andy Warhol siting in Manhattan in the 1980s. I was at Christie’s, the famous art auctioneers, on Park Avenue, and Andy was there too. We were both looking at the current offerings (i.e. the next bunch of paintings for sale) and, once I saw him, I stopped looking at the art on the walls and looked instead at Andy. He was so “put together” as his easily noticed persona as art god, that I followed him from section to section, never taking my eyes off of him unless he seemed to notice me. Which he mostly didn’t. And, when he did, he just thought I was one of the usual culture vultures. At least, I assume that was his assumption.
It was very, very cool, and I am pretty sure I didn’t freak him out. I know how to stalk someone surreptitiously. It’s just a skill I have developed over time.
Never forget that it was Mr. Warhol that first coined the term “15 minutes of fame.”
Happy 4th of July! Be famous for 15 minutes if you can!
P.S. If it is hot where you are, try watching Marilyn Monroe in The Seven Year Itch. It will cool you off and make you smile. Not bad for an old movie!
Three more beauties, a movie, a novel and a MOOC.
Have you seen this charming film? If not, you must! It is perfectly delightful.
Hula Girls was released in Japan in 2006 and, the following year, swept five major awards from the Japan Academy. That alone might convince you that it is worth seeing.
Then, when you hear that the heart-warming story is based on a real life group of miner’s daughters in a real Japanese village, who reluctantly turn to dancing the hula in an effort to save their small community: maybe that will make you want to see it.
But, whatever inspires you, see it!
I loved it.
And then there is By Blood, written by Ellen Ullman. I juust finished reading this masterpiece, which was a New York Times Notable Book last year.
You know how sometimes you get lucky and find a book that you can’t stop reading? Well, for me, this book was all that. I read it in under a day because I could not put it down. I tried to do other things yesterday, honest I did. But when I walked away from this book, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I read a lot, and this rarely happens.
By Blood is a must read for anyone interested in current fiction and great story-telling. It is written with a fresh, new style that keeps the narrative flowing. You will be amazed. I promise.
And, finally, my MOOC.
You know about these Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC), I presume? If not, you need to find out about them pronto. For anyone who loves learning, this is an amazing new resource, a cutting-edge approach to education for the 21st century. And, it is free. I am currently enrolled in a history course entitled The Ancient Greeks taught by Andrew Szegedy-Maszak of Wesleyan University.
As a learning or teaching format, this system has some kinks. For example, if you watch the course videos, and don’t already know a lot about Greek history and name and place spellings, you are going to feel overwhelmed and need to stop the video a bunch of times to look up the spellings. A word to the planners: this is not a good thing. A lot of “students” are going to get frustrated and stop “attending” your lectures. I also think the “tests” are not currently stressing the most important concepts in learning. But, again, I want to emphasize that the format is new and being revised, so still try out a course or two.
However, I persevered and overall have been happy that I did. What great access to good professors and new materials in an approachable format. It is a boon for learners from around the world. In the online forums, I found myself chatting about the course with people from Hong Kong, South America, all over Europe.
So, try it, I think you’ll like it.
“Departures,” a film by Yôjirô Takita, is a most definitely a beautiful thing.
If you haven’t already seen “Departures,” you must watch this extraordinary film. I never want to discuss a plot, because I think it’s better when you don’t have any idea of what to expect.
But, run, don’t walk, to see this movie.
Here is the actual poster for the film, which won the Japan Academy Prize for “picture of the year” in 2009 as well as the American Academy Award for “best foreign language film.”
I promise you won’t be disappointed. It is beautiful, touching, and inspiring. You will smile and, if your heart isn’t made of stone, you will cry or at least feel like it. I envy your opportunity to watch this film for the first time.
Sayonara!
get back, lauretta! 
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