Sunday, March 25, 2012

I Love Your Funny Face



I thought my first post should be about one of my favorite musicals: Funny Face (1957), starring Fred Astaire and Audrey Hepburn. The story revolves around Jo (Audrey), a young intellectual turned model by photographer Dick Avery (Fred) and Quality magazine editor, Maggie Prescott (Kay Thompson). In the process, Hepburn ultimately falls in love with the much older Astaire.
Photographer Astaire is a perfectionist (not different from his real self) who is looking for a girl who can “think as well she looks”, “a girl with character, spirit, and intelligence” for the magazine. Dick and Maggie come across Jo, who is an empathicalist and against fashion due to her belief that it’s all about taking silly pictures of silly women.
One of the main aspects of any musical is that the plot isn’t forced to go along with the songs; on the contrary, each song completes the plot perfectly. This is one of those musicals, with the exception of one song, “How Long Has This Been Going On” sung by Jo. She sings this after she explains the concept of empathy to Dick and suddenly receives a kiss from him. I know the song is about the delight experienced in a first kiss, but I don’t understand whether she really wanted it or not. I also felt the song came in too early in the film; these two people don’t even know each other and suddenly she’s elated and singing a confused love song about him.


“Funny Face” is probably my favorite song sung by Fred Astaire. It’s actually a very simple number, yet his emphasis on every word is perfect and one can completely “empathize” with Jo and know what she’s feeling hearing this song. That’s just what I love about Astaire. Yes, he can dance (no doubt about that), but also proved himself to be a beautiful singer throughout his career. One can really feel the emotion in his voice because he just makes it sound so simple! Anyway, not enough can be said about him…
The photo shoots in Paris are so nicely done and the scenarios Dick gives in order to get Jo into character are so cute! My favorite is the opera scene: “…He didn’t show…Walk down with fire in your eyes and murder on your mind”; he just says it so matter-of-factly!

Oh! I must make a little comment about the first musical number: “Think Pink” is sung by Thompson and a bunch of chorus girls who sound like they came out of a Charlie Brown movie (don’t get me wrong, I thought the numberwas very appropriate). Okay, that’s all I wanted to say.
Audrey is also given a chance to show off her dancing skills in a memorable performance. This solo dance, not her dances with Astaire, is really the one that stands out.

I also enjoyed how Dick tries to give Jo some insight of the man psyche, as she is acting very naïve about the philosopher she meets’ real intentions. A man will be a man no matter how many books he’s read or schools he’s attended. The interesting part, which is also pointed out by Dick and Maggie, is how Jo preaches empathy but is unable to empathize with those around her to feel what they are feeling and understand how her behavior affects them. This issue is an ongoing problem that causes her to eventually push Dick away from her.



The overall message of the movie is a bit contradicting. Jo states in the beginning that does not want to be a hypocrite and go against her beliefs by becoming a model; she only agrees to do so in order to be able to go to Paris for the fashion event and meet the philosopher she adores. She is pretty consistent about this until the end when she is let down by her beloved professor and it seems as though her belief system is shattered. We don’t really get a conclusion in that area; intellect or beauty? Beauty or intellect? Maybe both?

But this is a love story that we expect will end happily ever after; all I will say is that we are ultimately satisfied.



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