Funny Face – 50th Anniversary Edition (DVD)
Picture:
B Sound: B- Extras: C+ Film: A-
Audrey
Hepburn turned down Gigi for Stanley
Donen’s Funny Face, working with one
of her favorite directors and a great friend.
If he was not enough, she could not resist co-starring with the
legendary Fred Astaire. Like Gigi, Funny Face was at MGM, but landed up at Paramount. Shot on location partly in Paris, it is one
of the great musicals, a great film about the fashion business long before the
entertaining non-musical The Devil Wars
Prada and is back on DVD in a new 50th
Anniversary Edition.
Hepburn
plays a young lady who loves reading, philosophy and dreams of going to Paris
to meet a professor who she is very impressed with. Astaire is a major magazine photographer
(based on Richard Avedon, who was a major advisor on the film) working for a
huge fashion magazine run by editor Maggie Prescott (the great Kay Thompson)
who is concerned about the future direction of the magazine. After a brainstorm, they land up at the
bookstore where Jo Stockton (Hepburn) works and things slowly being to happen.
Of
course, we know the leads will get together, but the film has so much more to
offer. Leonard Gershe’s screenplay (he
also contributed to a few songs) is amazing, thorough, witty, hilarious and
offers the actors great opportunities for comedy, drama and offers plenty of
surprises, especially or those not lucky enough to have seen the film yet. Hepburn is the serious young gal looking for
a future with meaning, Astaire the witty photographer who takes no philosophy
seriously since he thinks (knows?) much of it is full of hot air. Opposites do attract.
Some have
taken issue with the age difference, which is not as much of a matter as it was
a half-century ago, but combine the star power and chemistry of the leads and
even then it was a hit. Thompson was a
major choreographer, one of the best in the business, but she rarely worked in
front of the camera. That makes her
sometimes scene-stealing performance all the more amazing and rare. Add the great supporting cast that includes
Michel Auclair, Robert Flemyng, Suzy Parker, Ruta Lee, the big model of the
time Dovima and one of the best supporting casts in Musical film history and Funny Face is my favorite Stanley Donen
film, even above gems and landmarks like Charade,
Arabesque, It’s Always Fair Weather, On
The Town and yes, even Singin’ In
The Rain.
Funny Face is the peak of the Hollywood
Musical in its last classic years and never has Donen been more consistent,
which says something considering he is one of the best filmmakers of his
generation.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image could have been the same as the 2001
DVD, which itself was from a more stable, consistent print than used on the 12”
LaserDisc. However, the studio has
created a new stunning transfer that is so vivid and clear, it can only be a
High Definition master. Originally shot
in the large frame VistaVision process (horizontally exposed 35mm film by
Directors of Photography Ray June with John P. Fulton), the detail, color,
definition and depth are exceptional for the DVD format and if it look this
amazing in this format, we can’t wait for the HD-DVD.
The Dolby
Digital 5.1 mix from the older DVD could have also been recycled for this
release, but the studio has returned to the original sound stems and upgraded
the sound further. The result is fuller
dialogue, more stereophonic-like sound and warmer, richer playback with more of
what we could now rightly call a soundfield.
Before, it sounded too monophonic with music decorating the surrounds,
but now, it is integrated. Love that
George & Ira Gershwin score and each dance number (choreographed by Eugene
Loring and Fred Astaire) is a gem. That
the songs integrate so well in the narrative is remarkable and this sound
upgrade is proof that older films can benefit from revisiting remixes.
Stills,
the original theatrical trailer and the ever-recycled Paramount In The 1950s
featurette have been brought over from the old DVD, which is all it had. New extras include two very welcome new
featurettes: The Fashion Designer & His Muse about the Hepburn/Givenchy
relationship and Parisian Dreams about the making of the film and an examination
of it. The film deserves more, but the
restoration alone is worth the price and that makes it one of the best back
catalog reissues we will see all year.
- Nicholas Sheffo
