The most enjoyable films of Audrey Hepburn

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Audrey Hepburn, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Charade, enjoyable films, Funny Face, How to Steal a Million, Love In the Afternoon, Monique classique, My Fair Lady, Roman Holiday, Sabrina, The Nun's Story

Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s

Audrey had the great chance not only to be born as a literally beautiful human being, but also to star in literally beautiful and enjoyable films. She didn’t have a big filmography, because she didn’t make many films, as she preferred to take care of her two sons. But she had the opportunity to appear in productions that were mostly good – some of them were masterpieces! She was and will always be a fashion icon, a model for any woman. She was unique and we should be happy that she existed and that she contributed in her own way to the magnificence of the Seventh Art.

The following list of films of Audrey is written in chronological order. All these films are remarkable productions and also very enjoyable and entertaining. I recommend them to everyone who wants to have a wonderful time watching good cinema and to discover the magic of Audrey Hepburn.

1. Roman Holiday (1953)
2. Sabrina (1954)
3. Funny Face (1957)
4. Love in the Afternoon (1957)
5. Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961)
6. Charade (1963)
7. My Fair Lady (1964)
8. How to Steal a Million (1966)

*Not a particularly enjoyable film, but rather a sad one, is “The Nun’s Story” (1959), my personal favourite film with Audrey.

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Movie of the Week: The Barkleys of Broadway (1949)

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1949, Charles Walters, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Oscar Levant, The Barkleys of Broadway

The last film of the iconic couple of dancers Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers, “The Barkleys of Broadway” is a wonderful, vivid, and colourful spectacle. Produced by MGM and directed by Charles Walters, this film tells the story of a successful musical comedy team, Josh and Dinah Barkley. There is a moment in which their separation is imminent, owing to the fact that she wants to become a tragic actress. But things turn out fine in the end, as Ginger and Fred keep dancing, having fun…and kissing. This film has several nice, romantic scenes with Hollywood’s golden couple, and you will certainly enjoy also the musical numbers of Oscar Levant, a very talented pianist, who performs Tchaikovsky’s “Concerto in B-flat Minor for Piano”. You will also get to watch Fred Astaire in the delightful musical number “Shoes With Wings On”, in which he is dancing with several pairs of shoes that somehow come to life. And, of course, don’t forget about his musical numbers with Ginger, that were created by George and Ira Gershwin. Furthemore, the settings and costumes are splendid. You will see Ginger wearing several colourful dresses – my personal favourite is the pink one (a photo is posted in this article). All in all, “The Barkleys of Broadway” is a good ending for the team Astaire-Rogers (their 10th film together). It was nominated for an Oscar for Best Cinematography, Color, and it’s still an enchanting cinematic experience, not just for the fans of the two great hollywoodian stars, but also for any moviegoerwho likes “oldies, but goldies”.

“The Barkleys of Broadway” is a personal favourite of mine and I thought it appropriate to put an end to the “Recommendations” series with this particular film. Starting from 2015, the blog will be dedicated to other types of articles, such as “Actress of the Month”. The first one will be Deborah Kerr. I will analyze her filmography and will recommend her best films. Other articles will be related to “Actor of the Month”, “Couple of the Month”, and “Famous Sisters”.

Thank you all for visiting my blog and I promise I will keep on the good work!

Happy New Year!

Monique classique

Movie of the Week: It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)

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1946, Donna Reed, Frank Capra, It's a Wonderful Life, James Stewart

Perhaps the most beloved classic Christmas movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life” was directed by the genius Frank Capra and it starred James Stewart, Donna Reed and Lionel Barrymore. It tells the story of a young and ambitious man who marries the girl of his dreams and who risks everything to earn a good living. The business world doesn’t really suit the idealistic George Bailey, who almost loses everything because of his risky business. In a moment of despair, he decides to commit suicide on Christmas Eve, and only an angel saves his life, showing him how the world would have looked like if there hadn’t been George Bailey. The film is magical, it’s wonderful, it conveys the message that life is the most precious gift one can have and so it should be treasured, no matter how difficult is to resist to temptations, challenges or disastrous situations. The film was nominated for 5 Oscars, for Best Picture, Best Actor in a Leading Role, Best Director, Best Sound, Recording, and Best Film Editing. It also earned a Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture Director (Frank Capra). Everybody should watch “It’s a Wonderful Life” on Christmas Eve, because it is really a memorable production of the Old Hollywood.

Movie of the Week: Penny Serenade (1941)

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1941, Cary Grant, George Stevens, Irene Dunne, Penny Serenade

The last of the three films in which Cary Grant and Irene Dunne appeared together, “Penny Serenade” depicts the story of a couple who needs to overcome the tragic moments in order to keep their marriage and raise their adopted child. The plot is developed in flashbacks, as Julie (Irene Dunne) listens to a recording, “You Were Meant to Me”. The songs in the film mark the situations that Julie and Mark (Cary Grant) had to solve in the past, including her miscarriage and his financial collapse. Only in the end are they capable to find a miraculous solution and to save their marriage. “Penny Serenade”, the title of the film, is also one of the songs from the collection of records that could be heard throughout the motion picture. This film is said to be Irene Dunne’s personal favourite because of her own true story with the adoption of a child. It was also adapted for the radio in 1944, Dunne reprising the role. “Penny Serenade” earned an Oscar for Best Leading Role (Cary Grant) and it is considered an important romantic drama, directed by George Stevens, a master of such great films like “Giant”, “A Place in the Sun”, and “The Diary of Anne Frank”.

Movie of the Week: Dinner at Eight (1933)

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1933, David O. Selznick, Dinner at Eight, George Cukor, Jean Harlow, John Barrymore, Lionel Barrymore, Marie Dressler, Wallace Beery

Following the great success of “Grand Hotel” in the previous year, “Dinner at Eight” is another remarkable gathering of film stars: Jean Harlow, Marie Dressler, John Barrymore, Lionel Barrymore, and Wallace Beery, among the big names of that era. This production of the MGM studios was directed by George Cukor, known for working best with women. David O. Selznick had also a great importance in the making of this film, and “Dinner at Eight” obviously has some charm and a sense of perfection that one could see in most of the productions under Selznick’s signature, the best of them being, of course, “Gone With the Wind”.

The film’s budget was estimated at $435,000 and it grossed over $2,000,000, being a box office hit. “Dinner at Eight” is full of glamour, splendid costumes, of exquisite taste, and luxurious settings. It is considered a comedy of manners and, even if it wasn’t even nominated for an Academy Award (which is really surprising), the film is an excellent screen adaptation of the play by George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber. You will certainly enjoy this motion picture of the early 30s, with its witty dialogue and memorable scenes.

Movie of the Week: Grand Hotel (1932)

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1932, Edmund Goulding, Grand Hotel, Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, John Barrymore, Lionel Barrymore, Wallace Beery

The first major Hollywoodian film, with an extraordinary cast and stellar performances, “Grand Hotel” remains even today one of the most remarkable cinematic creations in history. Based on a play by William A. Drake, this production of the MGM studios presents, in a fragmentary form, the activities of several more or less renowned guests at the luxurious Grand Hotel in Berlin. Each of the characters has its own drama. The plot focuses on the story of a Russian ballerina, masterfully played by Greta Garbo, a Baron, played by the great John Barrymore, an honorable German citizen, played by the great Lionel Barrymore, a general director, played by the fine actor Wallace Beery, and a sexy, elegant German stenographer, embodied by the vamp Joan Crawford. You will certainly enjoy watching “Grand Hotel”, a film directed by Edmund Goulding. It got an Oscar for Best Picture and its budget was $750,000, earning $2,250,000, which turned it into one of the most profitable, successful and appreciated films in MGM’s history, a production that was praised also by both film critics and fans over the time.

Movie of the Week: Angel (1937)

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1937, Angel, Ernst Lubitsch, Herbert Marshall, Marlene Dietrich, Melvyn Douglas

“Angel” (1937) tells the story of the typical love triangle between a wife, her husband and her lover. Marlene Dietrich excels in this role, and Herbert Marshall is effective, too, as her husband, but Melvyn Douglas is simply unconvincing as the lover. I would have chosen Douglas as the husband, instead. Though his acting is usually good (see “Ninotchka”, for instance), Douglas is not particularly suitable for the “great lover” parts. He is somehow aloof and aristocratic as Marshall, but to me, Marshall is physically more appealing. Dietrich simply steals the show, and she wears some magnificent costumes, too. The film, directed by Ernst Lubitsch in his incomparable style, is very realistic to the lifestyle of high class people in the 30s. Beautiful, young, sophisticated wives married to boring aristocrats, diplomats or businessmen, and trying to live their life as mistresses – some of them having a child or none with their respective husbands. Dietrich manages to play very well the role of the unfulfilled wife and desirable woman, sometimes assuming false or double identity to find moments of happiness and sentimental fulfillment. Even if the film is not particularly original (there have been lots of films in the 1930s on the problem of love triangles; see also “Bella Donna”, an extremely rare British production from 1934, starring Conrad Veidt, Mary Ellis and John Stuart), it does have the glamour of the Hollywoodian productions between the two World Wars. So, I recommend “Angel” (Dietrich’s character’s pseudonym) to the fans of Marlene Dietrich and to all those who love good, old, black-and-white productions.

Movie of the Week: Niagara (1953)

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1953, Henry Hathaway, Joseph Cotten, Marilyn Monroe, Niagara

One of the best-known color film noirs, along with “Leave Her to Heaven”, and an important experience in Marilyn Monroe’s career and pursuit of stardom, “Niagara” is an interesting thriller, with Joseph Cotten as the jealous husband. The scenes with him and Marilyn are excellent and one could feel the tension, the torment of the couple, connected with the turbulent images of the Niagara Falls. Marilyn is seductive and exquisitely beautiful (color films fit her to perfection, even more than black-and-white productions). The dresses are wonderful and the settings are remarkable, too. Directed by Henry Hathaway, “Niagara” was a very modern film for those times (early 50s), just like From Here to Eternity” (both of them were released in 1953). and it is still watched by contemporary generations, too. The walk of Marilyn Monroe in this production of 20th Century-Fox studio is iconic, as it is considered the longest walk in cinema history: 116 feet of film. You will certainly enjoy the lovely scenes of Marilyn, even if her character is tragically killed by the end of the film. That is why “Niagara” is equally beautiful and shocking, a powerful contrast that is typical to a film noir.

Movie of the Week: A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)

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1951, A Streetcar Named Desire, Elia Kazan, Marlon Brando, Tennessee Williams, Vivien Leigh

The recommendation for this week is another Vivien Leigh film: “A Streetcar Named Desire”. Her performance here was, again, magnificent. The role of Blanche duBois fit her to perfection, and so Vivien earned her second Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role, but also a Golden Globe. Her co-stars were the great Marlon Brando, Kim Hunter, and Karl Malden. All three of them appeared also in the Broadway production, only Vivien made the British theatrical version, and not the American one, in which Jessica Tandy had the leading role. Vivien’s interpretation of the role and the style itself were modeled by her husband, Laurence Olivier, who directed the English stage version of the play written by Tennessee Williams. Directed by the gifted Elia Kazan,”Streetcar” is one of the top films of the 1950s and it still has a strong influence in the international cinema. It earned 4 Oscars, for Best Actress in a Leading Role, Best Actress in a Supporting Role, Best Actor in a Supporting Role, and Best Art Direction, and it also had 8 nominations, for Best Picture, Best Actor in a Leading Role, Best Director, Best Writing, Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Sound, and Best Music. Vivien’s stellar performance as the middle-aged Southern Belle, who has suffered many disillusions that caused her a serious mental and emotional problem, is still a subject for discussion and, along with Scarlett O’Hara, is considered the best performance of Vivien Leigh in her entire career.

Movie of the Week: Anna Karenina (1948)

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1948, Alexander Korda, Anna Karenina, Julien Duvivier, Kieron Moore, Ralph Richardson, Vivien Leigh

As we are celebrating today Vivien Leigh’s 101st birth anniversary, I decided to recommend one of her films, one of the many screen versions of Leo Tolstoy’s “Anna Karenina”. Even if most people appreciated the 1935 Hollywood version with Greta Garbo, I consider that Vivien Leigh was even more beautiful and emotionally more vulnerable in her depiction of the heroine. Vivien already had health problems and her marriage to Laurence Olivier was worse than in the beginning of the 1940s. She suffered because he didn’t agree to cast her as Ophelia in his monumental production of William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”, and so Vivien accepted Alexander Korda’s offer for “Anna Karenina”. The costumes, designed by Cecil Beaton, were exquisite, and there are plenty of impressive, iconic portraits of Vivien as Anna Karenina that are spread all over the world. But the film itself, which is almost 2 hours and 30 minutes, is very long, and Julien Duvivier’s direction is sometimes very stiff. Furthermore, Vivien had zero chemistry with her co-star Kieron Moore, as Count Vronsky. On the other hand, Ralph Richardson was excellent in the role of Karenin, and he and Vivien had many significant scenes, which lifted the film’s quality. Another remarkable scene, and very daring in the way it was made, is the one where Anna Karenina kills herself by throing herself in front of the train. You will actually see the train passing over Anna (Vivien) and the last image is very impactful emotionally, as we see her dead body lying on the rail (Vivien really excelled in all her scenes at the train station). The closing credits were: “And the light by which she had been reading the book of life, blazed up suddenly, illuminating those pages that had been dark, then flickered, grew dim, and went out forever”. I would say that this English version of the Russian story had the best ending and the best performance, as Vivien had many things in common with Anna, including her emotional turmoil and her family situation (leaving her husband and her child for her lover, Olivier, who later became her second husband). This is a nice tribute to Vivien, to remember her, and I recommend you to watch this film today or in any other occasion you may find it.