Retro Matinee Double Feature: Funny Face and Paris When it Sizzles

File another one in the "How have I never seen this?!?" category. Audrey Hepburn and Fred Astaire in Funny Face: Hepburn as the bookworm that photographer Astaire and fashion editor Kay Thompson cross paths with during an impromptu fashion shoot at a book store. Soon the reluctant beauty, who dreams of meeting her favorite philosopher and instead of couture, is swept off to Paris.


At the start of the film, a high power fashion editor bemoans the pressure of having to satisfy "the great American woman who stands out there naked waiting for me to tell her what to wear." Isn't that so true, by the way, all those seasonal "trends"?

Thompson has a sudden vision. This season it's pink! Admittedly after watching the infectious "Think Pink" scene, I, who prides myself on questioning things and being an independent thinker, wanted to wear pink! Luckily, I had a thrifted Michael Korrs cotton top (know where it's from: made in India) from the CATS Resale Shop I just picked up for $9. Even warm and fuzziness works on me. Being seduced to go to a department store usually does not.

And who wouldn't want to go to Paris after the charming, "Bonjour, Paris!" number!

If you haven't seen Funny Face and love Astaire, Hepburn, fashion, Paris, or all of the above, watch it, for it is a love letter to all those things. I could watch it again and again.

Paris When it Sizzles takes place around and on Bastille Day, which is today, and finds Hepburn as a smart, savvy typist who aids William Holden in creating a movie script. It's no Funny Face, but I enjoyed it and loved the nod to Funny Face in a scene where Hepburn awakes to find the song played on a record player with a paper trail leading to Holden.

Did you know Audrey Hepburn didn't like her nose, thought her feet were too big and neck too long, and shoulders too wide? And that she considered herself just an average actress who considered Givenchy's clothes "armor" that helped her. I didn't either until I watched the Funny Face extras. Even one of the world's great beauties questioned herself. Why do we as women do that so much?


There's a great scene where Hepburn comes out of the bedroom in this nightgown of sky blue (one of my favorite colors). I'm not a man, but I find her more alluring than anything you'll find in the Victoria's Secret catalogue.

I adore her classic style. When assessing my summer wardrobe this year, I parted with a lot of skirts and dresses I thought were now too short (some just gotten last summer at swaps or thrift). At 35, I felt it was time for a more age appropriate look. Age appropriate - I concept lost many in a losing game of chasing youth. I also love how intelligent her characters were. Something we should covet - wisdom.

I already have her classic Sabrina waiting for me (thank you county library!) I love the frugality of watching all these films for free from the library. I've also recently seen Doris Day's April in Paris and Elizabeth Taylor and Van Johnson in The Last Time I Saw Paris. Do you have any films on Paris you adore? Or Audrey Hepburn films?

Retro Matinee Feature Showing: Swing Time

On the bus ride home from work, I pass a dance studio with a sea of young dancers in the window, or being hand held across a bustling street as a busy world races on by. I wonder if they know Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Or about the joyous (that's the only word that seems fitting) music of Cole Porter and Irving Berlin that fills the pictures. How much do we Americans not know or are forgetting about our rich culture history?

It seems almost every blurb on the back of an Astaire-Rogers film (there are 10) says it's one of their most beloved by fans, and it's easy to see why they would all be beloved. So far, I've seen Follow the Fleet, Top Hat, Shall We Dance, Barkleys of Broadway and my favorite so far, Swing Time. The Gay Divorcee is next in line.

Leonard Maltin summed up the appeal of the Astaire-Rogers films, but this also speaks a lot about our times:

"We live in such a cynical time that it might be hard for some people - younger people - to really appreciate what these films did for audiences then and still do for audiences that discover them today. Which is to make you feel better. They make you feel better about life. They make you feel better about yourself because they lift your spirits. And some people dismiss that as mere escapism, or as mere fluff. I don't think there's anything mere about it. I think it's art of the highest quality."

Isn't he so right? Our times do seem so cynical. Do people really feel better about themselves sitting on a couch wasting valuable leisure time as we glumly witness the dysfunction displayed on reality television. Does that lift spirits? Find me a family unit without dysfunction, there's is just on display for our judgement.

How much of culture today is about shock value. In the pop world, what will get people talking - a violent video? A meat dress at the Grammy's? Are these things really art? If it is, in my humble opinion, it's of the lowest value. Yet this is what millions of us embrace. It might be other's cup of tea, but it’s just not for me.

Cancelling cable this year and being more selective about what I watch is one of the best decisions I've made. I whole-heartedly agree with Mr. Maltin, these films are art of the highest quality, which is what I want to fill my life with. Art that makes me better.

People need hope in their lives, and we need more hope in our culture. The Astaire-Rogers films were made in the lean economic years of the 1930s, but you can watch them in 2011 (far too lean for many Americans) and in two hours feel good about life. I want to feel good about life and have my spirits soar, don't you?