I'd seen this film once before, back in the days when videotapes on a CRT television screen were the only home theater. Doesn't really seem that long ago, does it? Well, I picked up the DVD in the bargain bin of a local store recently, and watched it tonight on the widescreen monitor attached to my computer.
What a difference! The framing of all the shots suddenly makes sense, as does the absolutely amazing cinematography. It's a film built around photography, and that concept is reflected in the photography itself. Set design, choreography, camera angles -- it's all there. Having once been a professional photographer myself, I could really appreciate all the care that went into photographing this film.
I was also very pleasantly surprised at how well Audrey Hepburn acquitted herself here. The role doesn't require much in the way of acting ability, but she gives it all she's got and makes Jo not only believable but sympathetic. She's not really a singer, but she handles her singing parts creditably. And though she isn't really a dancer, either, her dance numbers are outstanding. Ginger Rogers she ain't, but even next to Fred Astaire, her footwork is way above average. And how *graceful* she is! She carries off even her solo dance number with a balletic poise and flexibility that astonished me.
As for Fred Astaire himself, he never at any point made a convincing romantic lead to me. Though a magnificent dancer, his screen persona was too much the cold fish to really play a passionate lover (as Gene Kelly certainly could). And his moment of "Gosh, I never realized it before, but I must really be in love with this girl" is just too much of an eye-roller. Even Laurence Olivier couldn't have pulled *that* one off.
The multi-talented Kay Thompson, it need hardly be said, more than holds her own in the acting, singing and dancing categories.
The script is by turns funny, banal, emotional and weak. Funny when it's gently skewering the fashion industry and self-righteous pseudo-intellectualism; banal in its clichéd and predictable love story; emotional when Audrey Hepburn gets to hint at the powerful emotions she can't reveal and weak in its rapturous "Oui, oui, it's gay Paree!" swoonfest over arriving in Paris.
So, no, it's not one of the great classical musicals (even the chosen Gershwin songs were far from the best selections from that vast repertoire). But you've got to take the bad with the good, and the good is very good indeed. Recommended.
PS: Oh, and for God's sake, folks -- *puh-leeze* get off that "age difference" high horse. If that's the sort of thing upsets you so much, maybe you shouldn't be watching movies at all.
What a difference! The framing of all the shots suddenly makes sense, as does the absolutely amazing cinematography. It's a film built around photography, and that concept is reflected in the photography itself. Set design, choreography, camera angles -- it's all there. Having once been a professional photographer myself, I could really appreciate all the care that went into photographing this film.
I was also very pleasantly surprised at how well Audrey Hepburn acquitted herself here. The role doesn't require much in the way of acting ability, but she gives it all she's got and makes Jo not only believable but sympathetic. She's not really a singer, but she handles her singing parts creditably. And though she isn't really a dancer, either, her dance numbers are outstanding. Ginger Rogers she ain't, but even next to Fred Astaire, her footwork is way above average. And how *graceful* she is! She carries off even her solo dance number with a balletic poise and flexibility that astonished me.
As for Fred Astaire himself, he never at any point made a convincing romantic lead to me. Though a magnificent dancer, his screen persona was too much the cold fish to really play a passionate lover (as Gene Kelly certainly could). And his moment of "Gosh, I never realized it before, but I must really be in love with this girl" is just too much of an eye-roller. Even Laurence Olivier couldn't have pulled *that* one off.
The multi-talented Kay Thompson, it need hardly be said, more than holds her own in the acting, singing and dancing categories.
The script is by turns funny, banal, emotional and weak. Funny when it's gently skewering the fashion industry and self-righteous pseudo-intellectualism; banal in its clichéd and predictable love story; emotional when Audrey Hepburn gets to hint at the powerful emotions she can't reveal and weak in its rapturous "Oui, oui, it's gay Paree!" swoonfest over arriving in Paris.
So, no, it's not one of the great classical musicals (even the chosen Gershwin songs were far from the best selections from that vast repertoire). But you've got to take the bad with the good, and the good is very good indeed. Recommended.
PS: Oh, and for God's sake, folks -- *puh-leeze* get off that "age difference" high horse. If that's the sort of thing upsets you so much, maybe you shouldn't be watching movies at all.