From my Facebook archives, January 31, 2015:
Funny Face, Paramount 1957. Fred Astaire. Audrey Hepburn. Well, Audrey Hepburn. Fred Astaire. That's the starring order.
Audrey asked for Fred to be her co-star in this, her first musical--and she got him. There were apparently some contractual difficulties putting it all together, but, as Fred put it in his autobiography: "I was not missing it. Period."
The film certainly has a compelling visual style to it. It immediately looks different than the previous Fred films we've been watching--the 60s appear to have arrived even though it's 1957.
Overall the film was enjoyable--more so than The Band Wagon for me--though it is well down the list of my favorite Fred films. Several of the dance numbers are fun, particularly Fred's solo and the comic duet with Kay Thompson. But the romantic duets between the two stars are relatively weak by Fred's standards.
Kay Thompson, who amongst other things was a vocal coach for Judy Garland, was great to watch. I have no clue why she stayed mostly behind the scenes and didn't perform in more movies.
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