THE MOVIE:

Of the two musicals Audrey Hepburn made, it seems that My Fair Lady gets the most attention, but I personally prefer the far more carefree Funny Face to that stodgy old ball of corn. Though both are ostensibly the same kind of Cinderella story that Ms. Hepburn's fame and reputation are built on, she was better suited to the light-hearted nature of this 1957 vehicle. Her character is more quirky than pitiable, and Paris fits her better than London. She was, after all, the ultimate Givenchy girl, and the fabulous designer dresses the actress here, teaming with Edith Head to give Funny Face one of cinema's most delectable wardrobes.

Funny Face has been available on DVD since 1999, but to celebrate the film's birthday, Paramount is now releasing a 50th Anniversary Edition in the style of their Breakfast at Tiffany's reissue from a couple of years ago. This means a pinker package, and a couple of added bonuses, though sadly Jo Stockton doesn't quite get the red carpet treatment Holly Golightly did.

Directed by the always impressive Stanley Donen, featuring songs by the Gershwins, and borrowing from the life story of Richard Avedon (who also did the photo manipulations in the movie), Funny Face has all the right ingredients as a musical vehicle for its two stars. Fred Astaire plays the Avedon stand-in, Dick Avery. Working alongside his hard-charging editor, the wonderful Kay Thompson, Avery hatches a plan to create a new campaign for Quality Magazine, one that takes an average, bookish girl and makes her a fashion plate. They find Jo Stockton (Hepburn) in a musty bookshop in Greenwich Village, and despite her strict philosophical principles, she takes their gig as a means to an end. The photo shoot is going to take place in Paris, and once she is in Paris, she can meet her personal guru, Professor Emile Flostre (Michel Auclaire), the father of "Emphaticalism," a philosophy that essentially boils down to "put yourself in my place."

Once in Paris, the supposed ugly duckling turns into a gorgeous swan (or, as it's described in the film, the caterpillar's cocoon did not birth a butterfly, but a bird of paradise), and the black-clad philosopher becomes a stunning model. She is charmed by the romance of the city and by Avery. Crossed wires, though, lead to the usual romantic comedy complications, and a mad dash must be made to put them back together once they are torn apart.

Sure, Funny Face possesses a bizarre anti-intellectualism in the way beauty is given greater value than brains, but that's part of the silly fantasy. There's a reason Kierkegaard has never been the subject of a musical, these things are supposed to be light and airy. Besides, it's pretty easy to see Funny Face for what it is when Astaire is such an old fuddy duddy. The portrayal of the bohemian café where dark personages gather to cry over tragic songs and question the meaning of existence is a little like how your grandfather probably talks about rap music. If you can't laugh at Fred Astaire impersonating a beatnik, then maybe you're as comically dour as the movie would have us believe beatnik's of your kind are. Plus, the same setting provides us with the iconic Audrey dance sequence, parodying Martha Graham, that the Gap so shamelessly appropriated for their vile ad campaign last year.

And those are only a sampling of the pleasures you'll find in Funny Face. There is the great music, the gorgeous clothes, and the truly inventive visual sequences Donen concocts for the magazine layouts at the beginning of the movie. In fact, for as much fun as Paris is, from a filmmaking standpoint, Funny Face is at its best in New York. The "Think Pink" number is a marvel of editing and design, and the outer office of Kay Thompson's executive suite is a beautiful concoction of minimalism and color.

And that wedding dress! I hate weddings, but even I love that dress.

So, yeah, the appeal of Funny Face is that it's a bit hokey, but fifty years is a long time, and it obviously is the good kind of hokey if we're still interested in the movie enough for there to be a 50th Anniversary Edition DVD. With the list of talent involved--Astaire, Hepburn, Donen, Givenchy, Gershwin & Gershwin, etc.--could we expect any less? The joy of the movie, and its fundamental message to Jo, is that sometimes simplicity is okay. Sometimes we want to partake of something just because it looks nice or it makes us feel good. The fun and the predictability of a Cinderella story, which Funny Face very much is, is that it's fun and predictable. What good would it be if it weren't?

THE DVD

Note: Since this DVD was reviewed, another edition has also been released. Read about the 2009 Funny Face - The Centennial Collection here.

Video:
As with any upgrade, consumers are going to want to know what is different between the old version and the new version. DVD Talk's Chris Hughes reviewed the 1999 "Audrey Hepburn Widescreen Collection" version of Funny Face and gave it pretty average marks. (Ignore the specs in the slugline at the top of his review, they are incorrect and even contradicted later in the piece.) Judging by the basic information on the back of both DVD boxes, I was ready to assume that there wasn't actually a change in the image transfer. Both the earlier disc and the 50th Anniversary Edition boast a "widescreen version enhanced for 16:9 TVs."

A sample of a couple of scenes, however, quickly showed some subtle changes.

1999

2007

1999

2007

1999

2007

For the record, all of these shots come from chapter 11 of the movie. Just waiting to reach the same moment in time as that first group shot, I saw a few pops in the picture in the 1999 version that didn't show up in the 2007 edition. More importantly, though, I saw an upgrade in the color values and in the clarity of overall detail. Look past Audrey in the close-up, and note how many more folds in the curtain you can see. Also compare the staircase in the red-dress shot, the more natural colors in the stone. The same in the group picture: better skin tones, a smoother look to the objects in the set.

Unless my eyes (or my monitor) are playing tricks on me, I see a better picture here.

Sound:
Paramount has provided two major audio options for the original English audio: a 5.1 mix and a mono version. In this case, I don't think much has been done. As with the 1999 version, the original mono actually sounds a bit better, and though the 5.1 isn't bad, it's more unnecessary, a bit of sound overkill. It should be noted, though, that for those of you looking for alternate language tracks, while the original disc only had a French dub, the new one also has Spanish and Portuguese, all of them in mono. All four languages are also represented in the subtitle options--whereas the 1999 had only an English subtitle for the deaf and hearing impaired. When the DVD loads up, too, you will be prompted for which language you want as your default.

Extras:
One would hope that for a 50th Anniversary Edition, we'd get a lot more bonus features. Sadly, this is not really the case. Three of the five listed elements are carry-overs from 1999: the theatrical trailer, a cursory photo gallery, and a promo reel called "Paramount in the '50s" that sells us on the great movies the studio made in that decade, but only makes a passing reference to Funny Face.

The two new featurettes are more in keeping with the theme of the movie, but aren't very substantial. Together, they barely crest fifteen minutes. "The Fashion Designer and His Muse" looks at the relationship between Audrey and Givenchy, while "Parisian Dreams" talks about the locations used in Funny Face and explains more about what Richard Avedon contributed to the production.

FINAL THOUGHTS:
For Audrey Hepburn fanatics, the Funny Face: 50th Anniversary Edition DVD may not be everything we could have hoped for, but it is a definite step up in production values. We all know how good this film is. Stanley Donen's eye for design and image mixed with the costumes of Givenchy and Edith Head, the music of the Gershwins, and Parisian location shooting make this romantic coupling of Fred Astaire and Audrey Hepburn one of the prettiest musicals from its era. Personally I'm happy to have a cleaner image, but your decision to upgrade is really down to how high on the importance meter you rate these things. For those of you who don't own Funny Face, there is no question. Highly Recommended.

Jamie S. Rich is a novelist and comic book writer. He is best known for his collaborations with Joelle Jones, including the hardboiled crime comic book You Have Killed Me, the challenging romance 12 Reasons Why I Love Her, and the 2007 prose novel Have You Seen the Horizon Lately?, for which Jones did the cover. All three were published by Oni Press. His most recent projects include the futuristic romance A Boy and a Girl with Natalie Nourigat; Archer Coe and the Thousand Natural Shocks, a loopy crime tale drawn by Dan Christensen; and the horror miniseries Madame Frankenstein, a collaboration with Megan Levens. Follow Rich's blog at Confessions123.com.