FUNNY FACE: Blu-ray (Paramount, 1957) Warner Home Video
In the mid-1950’s,
Stanley Donen established himself as director of peerless, elegant entertainments;
champagne cocktails of sleek sophistication with a romanticized froth and uber-wit
all their own. The trick and the wonderment of Stanley Donen’s movie career is,
of course, that he was as adept at telling stories as making them attractive to
look at, and worked – more often than not - outside the musical milieu. Without
question, Funny Face (1957) remains his opus magnum in movie musicals;
an adroit poke and subtle jab at the smug and self-involved mavens and
mistresses of high fashion. Funny Face also possesses a sublimely wicked
little streak of condemnation and slap down for the beatnik intellectuals who
populate Montmartre. “All that is delicious is not nutritious!” –
indeed. Yet, in the intervening decades, Funny Face has proven the magic
elixir to nourish our souls, mostly due to Donen’s astute recollections on what
makes men and women tick, cribbing from a sublime screenplay by Leonard Gershe,
who – along with Roger Edens, interpolates the memorable Gershwin score with
poppy hit tunes, bathed in lurid Technicolor, and, in VistaVision. Add to this,
resident Paramount costumier, Edith Head’s luscious couturier creations wed to
Audrey Hepburn’s immaculate and statuesque beauty, the dapper Fred Astaire,
effortlessly tripping the light fantastic, and the rarely seen elsewhere on the
screen, comedic genius of the sublimely asexual and devastatingly funny Kay
Thompson and…well – Funny Face has every last thing one might anticipate
from a blue chip movie musical made at the zenith of Hollywood’s golden age. There
is nothing of Hollywood in Richard Avedon’s superbly rendered main titles – a veritable
Trip-tek through the world of New York glam, from which Donen’s camera effortlessly
storms into the Manhattan high-rise offices of Quality Magazine, with Thompson’s
super-charged editor/denizen of design, Maggie Prescott encouraging the whole
world to “Think Pink!” – a color, she wouldn’t be caught dead in!
Funny Face is
uber-glamorous, amorous and s’wonderful: the quintessence of class with the
cultured Astaire perfectly cast opposite the dreamily ethereal Hepburn. He is
Dick Avery, a fashion photog with an agenda that will lead to love; she is Jo
Stockton, the beatnik philosopher toiling in an obscure Greenwich book shop
with dreams of going to Paris to study under Prof. Emile Flostre (Michel
Auclair) a notorious wolf who has more than ‘high ideals’ on his mind. Jo
fancies herself above it all and thinks that women who indulge in Maggie’s ideas
‘on how to be lovely’ are just silly and feckless stick figures with no
soul. She may have a point, as Maggie’s top model – Marion (played as an affecting
doe-eyed ditz by real-life fashion model, Dovima) possesses the intellectual
wherewithal of a gnat – presently, indulging her literary thirst in the latest
edition of Minute Men from Mars. “Marion can be very deep when she
wants to,” Maggie stresses to Dick, who is unable to bring forth the best
in her during their latest Quality fashion shoot. But what the magazine really
needs is a creature of substance as well as sex appeal, who instinctually knows
how to wear the right clothes too – a real ‘Quality’ woman. Could it be? Could
it really be…Jo? – the gal who admittedly thinks of her own face as ‘funny’?
But what Jo calls ‘funny’ Dick finds interesting. Moreover, Maggie is
convinced that with a little rouge, the right lipstick, a new do and some
coaching, Jo can achieve greatness. The real question remains: does she want
to?
Stanley Donen’s
career stretched all the way back to the early 1940’s when he was hired as a
dancer/extra in Broadway’s Best Foot Forward. When MGM bought the rights
to that play, they imported Donen along with several other principle cast back
to Culver City: Broadway’s loss/Hollywood’s gain as, in the intervening
decades, Donen would make a friend of MGM premiere musical/comedy star, Gene
Kelly, and remain the creative collaborator behind the camera on many of
Kelly’s best loved musicals, including Take Me Out to the Ball Game
(1949), Singin’ in the Rain (1952) and It’s Always Fair Weather
(1955). This union, like most marriages in Tinsel Town, was to eventually fall
out over differences – mostly, creative control. But Donen quickly proved he
could do without Kelly’s influences. The fifties were a turbulent period for
American film-makers, particularly at MGM – the purveyors of grand and glorious
escapism. After the ousting of L.B. Mayer, the studio continued to sink into
the mire of frequent mismanagement at the executive level, leading to the
toppling of Metro’s iconic star system. Amid this chaos, Donen became a
freelancer. It was a tough sell - at first, but Donen persevered; his forte,
blossoming into sleek and adult romantic comedies and buoyant musicals that gradually
acquired more ballast; his leitmotifs, dealing with more serious subject matter
yet seemingly while retaining the musical’s effortless aplomb. Funny Face
is unmistakably Donen at his most urbane and witty; its May/December coupling of
a naïve bookseller come fashion plate and the cynically charismatic middle-aged
shutter-bug, touches thematically upon a deeper cultural divide.
The girl, Jo
Stockton wants something more- something better - from life, mis-perceiving to
have discovered it in the scholastic meanderings of a pseudo-intellectual,
living in Paris. The man, Dick Avery is more of a father-figure than dashing lover,
and, has no illusions about the disconnect between his level-headed generation
and this modern one who believe they have improved upon the past. From Jo’s vantage
– Dick is a dinosaur. He merely toils in the creative soup for the superficial
luxuries it can provide. In essence, the
plot of Funny Face is nothing new. Boy meets girl. Boy loses girl. Boy
sings a song and gets girl. But Donen finds interesting ways of introducing
socio-psychological paradigms into this seemingly straight-forward narrative –
the archetypes becoming less cut and dry as the story inveigles them on route
to most every musical’s inevitable conclusion – love assured. What makes Funny
Face an utterly fascinating entertainment is the very genuine realization that
neither Dick or Jo are ever entirely certain they have found true happiness
together; not even as the floating palette carrying their embraced bodies,
swaying to a reprise of ‘S’wonderful’ effortlessly sails them down a
narrow stream and into a cloudy dream-like haze, moments before the screen
fades to black and the Paramount logo reappears with ‘The End’ plastered over
it. Yes – they have found each other. This
much is true enough. But are they destined to be husband and wife? Or, has
Paris merely and momentarily worked its hypnotic spell on these dewy-eyed lovers.
Jo’s sacrifices have matured her outlook on life. Yet, her invested innocence
has only slightly scuffed the surface of Dick’s more readily ensconced and
generalized disparagement of youth. He is still a craggy middle-aged guy,
primal doubts and all. So, is this a love match or just a scene from Paris as
it fizzles? Of course, none of it would have worked without the intervention of
an irreverently caustic third wheel; oft ruthless and demanding in her pursuit
of superficial female perfection.
Stanley Donen’s
one and only choice for the part of fashion maven, Maggie Prescott was Kay
Thompson; the impeccably groomed, wraith-thin, and angular-shaped trendsetter
who had blazed a career crossing all popular media of her day, including
successes on the stage, as well as starring in her own smash hit nightclub act.
In the 1940’s, Kay Thompson gave up the spotlight to work behind the scenes
with some of the 20th century’s most iconic recording artists as a
musical collaborator at MGM, arranging scores and songs for other stars and
achieving a uniquely lush – though never florid – sound that remains instantly
recognizable to this day. You can spot a Kay Thompson arrangement by its
opening strains; fresh and invigorating, but with an underlay of emotional
depth previously unheard in American movie musicals. Donen, however, wanted Thompson
- ‘the performer’ - to reemerge in Funny Face. And Thompson, a superb
raconteur and appetizingly glib bon vivant really comes into her own in Funny
Face. One is immediately struck with
a genuine sense of regret, she never again appeared before the cameras. With a
visage reminiscent of Eve Arden – and a self-deprecating, easily digestible
personality as ‘slick and hard to take as Veronica Lake’ – her reedy
frame miraculous in all its pert gesticulations as she joins Astaire and
Hepburn during their jaunty travelogue through the city of light, to ‘Bonjour
Paris’, Thompson exudes all of the exoticism and enthusiasm of an intercontinental
adventuress out on a lark and a spree. Who can forget Thompson’s ‘pizzazz’
as she wickedly extols the life of a fashion editor with ‘Think Pink’;
the celebratory lampoon of high style that kick starts the show? “Think
pink!” Thompson belts out as she swirls about with arms extended, eager to
grasp the moment and clutch it tight to her bosom, “Think pink when you shop
for summer clothes. Think pink when you want that quelque chose. Red is dead,
blue is through, green’s obscene and brown’s to boo…and there is not the
slightest excuse for plum or puce…or chartreuse.” And Thompson is as exceptionally brilliant
in her scathing duet with Astaire, ‘Clap Yo Hands’ – her inimitable gift
for mimicry yielding a deliciously deviant caricature of the prim southern
belle gone to intellectual seed.
Ultimately, the
success of Funny Face belongs as much to Kay Thompson as it does her two
co-stars; the ebullient and ever dapper, Astaire and translucently glamorous
gamin turned butterfly emerging from her cocoon. To voyage with these three
disparate figures of fun into the uber chic byways and narrow street cafes of France’s
fun-filled capital is to be wondrously teleported on a grand holiday through
Parisian haute couture. And Funny Face is a wry tickle as well as a
sardonic snub of the fashion world. Under Donen’s expertise and Leonard
Gershe’s capably crafted screenplay Maggie Prescott’s exclusivity devolves from
a haughty parade of wax mannequins into a surreal and impressionist
exploitation of that superficially modish lifestyle. For this is a world
created by human hands and ego, and, about as far removed from the one we find
ourselves a part of at the beginning of our story. This is precisely why Funny
Face succeeds; because it parallels the mundane with the trivial and the
sacred, elevating escapism to its most rarefied art form, while taking us on an
odyssey into an industry we only thought we knew.
Funny Face begins with a
summoning of Dick Avery to the hallowed halls of iconoclastic fashion editor
and goddess-in-the-making, Maggie Prescott. As the publisher of ‘Quality’
Magazine, Maggie is always on the prowl for the next big thing to set the world
of fashion on its head. Seems ‘Quality’ is in a quandary. They need a fresh new
face to launch their spring and summer campaign. But where, oh where to find such
inner intellectualism in a sea of cloned and cartoonish sexpots? Well, to
Greenwich Village of course, and a beatnik bookstore overseen by Jo Stockton.
Jo knows as much about fashion as she does of brain surgery. Moreover, she
thinks ‘style’ is silly, self-indulgent and petite bourgeois, not to mention
ridiculous. Dick and Maggie descend on her drab emporium with a slew of models,
props and Marion - the utterly hapless super model who leers and leans as
though she were about to make love to a stack of Tolstoy – if only she could
spell it. The shoot goes well…well, sort of, particularly after Maggie locks
out Jo – who has begun to protest their interference. Alas, Maggie still does
not believe they have captured the essence of the ‘new’ Quality woman. Afterward
Dick decides to stay behind and help clean up the atrocious mess made from the
shop. He empathizes with Jo. She,
however, is rather direct in her admonishment of his involvement in the fashion
world – also, is impromptu sexual advances that leave Jo bewildered and
burgeoning with an as yet untapped passion. How long has this been going on?
After Dick’s departure, Jo streaks through the shop with the orange and yellow
bonnet, tied with lime green fasteners, left behind by Marion, amused at the
sight of herself in a large mirror. The next day, Maggie views Dick’s pictures
with displeasure. Not even in a room full of books could Marion pass for an
intellectual.
But Dick has
made a more profound discovery; one Maggie seems to have overlooked. The new
‘Quality’ woman is right under their noses – Jo! Maggie admits Jo has
possibilities. But the girl is stubborn to a fault and completely resistant to
the prospect of transforming herself into a supermodel – that is, until she
learns that one of the perks of this grand experiment will be a trip to Paris
where she could schmooze with her intellectual ideal: Professor Emile Flostre.
Whisked off to Paris, Jo nevertheless defies Dick and Maggie’s edicts to be
outwardly elegance, believing it will harm her inner empathicalism. Gradually,
however, the allure of fancy clothes takes hold and Jo realizes fashion does
indeed serve a fundamental purpose beyond mere vanity. More importantly, she
has fallen hopelessly in love with her mentor – Dick Avery. Denying her
feelings, Jo escapes into Flostre’s Bohemian enclave, jeopardizing the Paris
launch of ‘the Quality woman’, only to discover Flostre is a fraud; a rank
capitalist who has exploited his intellectual theories for pure profit.
Disillusioned and emotionally wounded, Jo opens fashion week in Paris, then
makes a B-line for the airport to return to America. However, at the last
moment she comes to her senses. Still wearing the off-the-runway wedding gown
featured in Maggie’s finale, Jo is reunited with Dick at the little church
where she first began to develop affections for him. The lovers embrace and
step onto a raft that sails slowly beyond shimmering arbors and a lake-full of
swans – destined to love and be loved for who she is – as lovers do.
Both aesthetically and musically, Funny Face achieves many high-water marks.
The film is an embarrassment of riches; Donen, creating a stunningly lush evocation
of Paris – a city patronized by the American film industry ad nauseam, but that
nevertheless seems revitalized, fresh and new herein – even more magical,
fanciful and utterly appealing than any boat trip down the Seine. Funny Face
does not evoke the Paris that is or even was, but rather the one we all wish it
could be; a rich oasis for romance, extolling only the virtues of life with
none of the vices left in the rear view. Arguably, Donen does Paris one better,
perhaps nowhere more cleverly than at the moment when Audrey, preparing for her
latest fashion shoot, suddenly emerges from behind the famed statue of Winged
Victory at the Louvre. In her lurid red satin strapless gown and air-borne
chiffon wrap, rising in a similar gesture, Hepburn’s Jo is reborn before this rigid
marble that now appears to be the facsimile rather than the original, as
Hepburn, looking every bit the physical embodiment of it, brings forth a
breathtaking sense of living creation. Even when Donen descends from arch
elegance into Über Bohemianism, he can never entirely live up to this iconic
moment; the Café Montmartre, transformed into a smoky, seedy, and very sexy den
of iniquity, where Jo unleashes her inner tramp for a few exquisite moments of ‘Basal
Metabolism.’
As for the
score, Audrey - in her own voice, sings the poignant, ‘How Long Has This
Been Going On?’ Astaire taps the exuberant ‘Let’s Kiss and Make Up.’
Astaire and Audrey do an elegant pas deux to Gershwin’s immortal, ‘S’Wonderful’
and the entire cast gets into the act with ‘Bonjour Paris!’ Arguably,
the song which lingers the longest in our collective memory is Kay Thompson’s
acidic and comical ‘Think Pink’ – an ode to fashion for fashion’s sake. Immeasurably
aided by Paramount’s patented high fidelity widescreen process, VistaVision,
and the sumptuous backdrop of Paris at its most photogenic (despite chronic
inclement weather that plagued the shoot, forcing Donen to depict a few key sequences
in the pouring rain), Funny Face emerges with a genuine sparkle and
heart; an ultra-gorgeous bon-bon with oodles of grace and glamour to admire. ‘On
how to be lovely’, Funny Face rates a perfect ten!
There is good
news and bad news for fans of Funny Face on Blu-ray. Paramount Home Video initially released this
disc only in Europe. Good news – it was region free, meaning it would play
anywhere in the world. A few years later, Warner Home Video, under an exclusive
licensing agreement with Paramount, released their own edition on Blu-ray, cribbing
from the same digital files. Bad news – both editions are hardly up to snuff.
Indeed, something is remiss in the remastering process here; Funny Face’s
imagery having that overly processed digital look, with slight color smearing
and a complete lack of film grain. VistaVision was Paramount’s response to
Cinemascope and it achieved the highest quality of image reproduction possible in the movies then – billed as ‘motion
picture high fidelity’. At least where
color reproduction is concerned, these Blu-rays of Funny Face remain true
to the VistaVision negative. Colors are extremely bold, fully saturated and
ultra-vibrant. Contrast levels are bang on. But only in close-up do fine
details pop. Everything has an artificially crisp look, the result of DNR liberally
applied. VistaVision’s singular
shortcoming was virtually no place on its negative to fit a true
stereo soundtrack. On this Blu-ray, the original mono has been remixed to DTS
5.1. How does it sound? Well, during the songs – rather good, in fact, if, with
a slightly processed ‘stereo’ blend, most noticed during choral refrains, where
voices have an 'echoey' quality. As no ‘stereo’ stems remain for the rest,
the soundtrack reverts to a practical re-channeled mono mix for dialogue and SFX
– a sort of faux PerspectaSound. While the European release of Funny Face
lacked the extras housed on Paramount’s retired 2-disc Special Edition DVD, the
Warner reissue states’ side reinstated these short featurettes, crowded onto
the same single disc as the feature film. In either incarnation, Funny Face
deserves a better transfer – one, far more indicative of the virtues of
VistaVision than what is being represented here. Bottom line: while Donen’s sublime
masterpiece is a must have, this Blu-ray is hardly the perfect way to indulge. Judge and buy accordingly.
FILM RATING (out
of 5 - 5 being the best)
5+
VIDEO/AUDIO
3.5
EXTRAS
3
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