The Face of Funny

I found myself watching 1957's Funny Face again on the weekend. What an odd man Fred Astaire was. Such a great dancer, such an odd look. I truly think he was asexual. He never seemed especially interested in any of his costars, just pleasant and gracious. Somehow Ginger Rogers made it work with lust entirely on her side. Audrey Hepburn is impossibly lovely as always but she can't make the chemistry work between her and Astaire somehow in Funny Face.

It's not that he was thirty years older than her. She worked fine with Humphrey Bogart, Gary Cooper, William Holden, and Cary Grant. Grant was probably the best because she was able to work up some real lust for him in Charade. Like Funny Face, Charade was directed by Stanley Donan so maybe that was a lesson the director took from Funny Face.

The screenplay is surprisingly intelligent and its dialogue about high art and philosophy versus fashion and sensual indulgence is interesting. Maybe the movie is too intellectual. It gets bogged down in it and Hepburn doesn't get time to properly come across as overcome with feeling.