Tag: Audrey Hepburn

March 28, 2017 /

There has never been a thorough way of stamping down individuality and strength. Even during society’s most oppressive states, humans have found ways of expressing themselves through one way or another, even if not always in the most obvious form. Sometimes, though, these assertions of self are so incredibly in plain view that they become easy to entirely overlook, as is the case with the role fashion has played in solidifying female identity in film. Long dismissed as mere cosmetics and playing dress-up, women’s cinematic fashions have nevertheless inspired far-reaching cultural trends by reflecting or encouraging resilience.

February 6, 2017 / / Main Slate Archive

One of the more enchanting and effervescent romantic comedies to come out of any era, Roman Holiday (1954) is certainly an anomaly among films from the frantic 1950s, a decade remembered for its deadly serious dramas, oppressive crime stories, ponderous literary adaptations, epics and musical productions. No, Roman Holiday is something completely different, unique unto itself; one of those magical motion pictures in which every element combines to form an exquisite, uplifting entertainment that transcends time and still feels as fresh, surprising and spontaneous today as on the day it was released.

January 6, 2011 / / Main Slate Archive

Breakfast at Tiffany’s – 1961 – dir. Blake Edwards

It is hard to believe that Breakfast at Tiffany’s is celebrating its 50th birthday this year!

Equally hard to believe is the fact that author, Truman Capote, did not want Audrey Hepburn playing Holly Golightly in the film adaptation of his 1958 novella and kept insisting that director, Blake Edwards, hire Marilyn Monroe for the role.  He thought Hepburn was a wonderful actress, and wide-eyed and fawn-in-the-woods enough to portray Holly’s sensitive, vulnerable side, but felt she lacked the edge to play a savvy Park Avenue call girl. Edwards won out and Hepburn turned out to be perfect in the part.

February 9, 2009 / / Film Notes

By Chris Bamberger

TOP HAT (1935) dir. Mark Sandrich

In 2007 National Public Radio played an excerpt of Fred Astaire singing “Let’s Face the Music and Dance” and asked listeners to describe in a single phrase the quality of his voice. One participant’s entry was, “The boyfriend you longed for before you found out about sex.”

Oh, really?

Donald Spoto, in his biography of Audrey Hepburn, describes her one-time co-star as having “nothing erotic or even sensual about him… Fred Astaire was a gentleman up there on the screen—so much a gentleman, in fact, that there was never an atom of erotic appeal about him.”

It gets worse.

April 4, 2007 / / Film Notes

By Jess Wilton

The lights go down, “Moon River” begins to play, the taxi pulls up to Tiffany’s in the violet glow of a New York dawn, Holly Golightly steps out onto the deserted sidewalk, and even the most cynical, objective viewer begins to feel a bit giddy. Forty-five years after its original release, Breakfast at Tiffany’s remains a reliable source of nostalgia, sentimentality, and reckless escapism. But its staying power doesn’t lie solely in the enormously appealing, slightly twisted characters from Truman Capote’s novella, nor has it held a place in our hearts simply for in its powerful themes of urban identity crisis. These things add dimension to any great film romance, and help sustain the viewer through multiple screenings, but honest-to-goodness Hollywood spectacle constitutes the shallow soul of this valentine; The City, Audrey Hepburn, Mancini’s music, they are all so good to see and hear that they render actual content almost secondary.