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Posted: |
Dec 13, 2013 - 6:48 AM
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By: |
johnjohnson
(Member)
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Warner Bros. Home Entertainment has announced the Blu-ray release of director Stanley Donen's Funny Face, starring Audrey Hepburn, Fred Astaire, Kay Thompson, Michel Auclair and Robert Flemyng. The 1957 classic musical is being released as part of Warner's distribution deal with Paramount, and arrives on Blu-ray on April 8, 2014.
The Gershwin tunes include the title song, "S'wonderful", "How Long Has This Been Going On" and "He Loves and She Loves", among the newer numbers is Kay Thompson's energetic opener "Think Pink". For years available only in washed-out, flat prints, Funny Face was eventually restored to its full Technicolor and VistaVision glory.
The Blu-ray release of Funny Face is presented in 1080p with a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio track. Special features include:
•Kay Thompson: Think Pink!
•This is VistaVision
•Fashion Photographers Exposed
•The Fashion Designer and His Muse
•Parisian Dreams
•Theatrical Trailer
http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=12794
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Something else: during the shoot in Paris, they were drenched in rain practically every day. Look carefully at the sky in the background; it's always cloudy. There are even shots when they have to use umbrellas... Fortunately, none of this put a damper on what they created, one of the best musicals, ever: funny, charming, stylish, heartfelt. (It only drags a tad in the middle section, when Audrey get caught up in "Empathicalism...."
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One of two Audrey Hepburn films I loathe.
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Did Peggy Lee loathe two of Audrey's films, as well?
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At ease, Erik. PhiladelphiaSon's antipathy to FUNNY FACE is old news on this Board. (I can't remember what the second film was.)
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At ease, Erik. PhiladelphiaSon's antipathy to FUNNY FACE is old news on this Board. (I can't remember what the second film was.)
My Fair Lady  I love it...
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Sources such as . . . ?
If MGM was happy to let FUNNY FACE go, they were certainly playing their cards close to the vest. Negotiations dragged on for months, according to Astaire's autobiography STEPS IN TIME, and the film-makers were often in despair that an agreement would ever finally be reached between Paramount and MGM (and Warner Bros., which owned the rights to the Gershwin catalog) which would somehow allow the film to be made.
(FWIW, it would not be too much of a stretch to infer that MGM had no reluctance or antipathy toward musical movies starring Fred Astaire and set in Paris: The very next film Astaire made after FUNNY FACE was SILK STOCKINGS.)
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Posted: |
Dec 14, 2013 - 4:17 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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Sources such as . . . ?
If MGM was happy to let FUNNY FACE go, they were certainly playing their cards close to the vest. Negotiations dragged on for months, according to Astaire's autobiography STEPS IN TIME, and the film-makers were often in despair that an agreement would ever finally be reached between Paramount and MGM (and Warner Bros., which owned the rights to the Gershwin catalog) which would somehow allow the film to be made.
(FWIW, it would not be too much of a stretch to infer that MGM had no reluctance or antipathy toward musical movies starring Fred Astaire and set in Paris: The very next film Astaire made after FUNNY FACE was SILK STOCKINGS.)
Rather than just ceding the project to Paramount, I suspect that M-G-M did indeed engage in some tough negotiations. Stanley Donen and Roger Edens had done considerable prep work at M-G-M for the picture, and M-G-M would certainly want to get some kind of return on their investment. When M-G-M was unable to get the services of Hepburn, they put out a press release on 27 October 1955 announcing that contract dancer Carol Haney had been selected to play the female lead in the film, with the studio's Dolores Gray cast in the role of the fashion editor (eventually played by Kay Thompson). Whether M-G-M actually had any intentions of making the film with Haney is anyone's guess. After those months of negotiations, however, on 31 January 1956, Daily Variety announced that Paramount had acquired the film rights from M-G-M, and had cast Audrey Hepburn and Fred Astaire as the romantic leads. As part of this deal, Paramount also acquired the temporary services of Edens and Donen, who were still under contract to M-G-M. Paramount began shooting less than 3 months later, on 9 April 1956, obviously benefiting from all the pre-production work that M-G-M had done.
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Fascinating stuff.
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Indeed.
And the source(s)? Some of us may wish to pursue the matter with further research. Thanks.
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MGM was in the business of musicals (either actually made or planned), long after FUNNY FACE.
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Posted: |
Dec 16, 2013 - 3:03 AM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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MGM was in the business of musicals (either actually made or planned), long after FUNNY FACE.
Studios change their personnel and their philosophies. In early November 1956, months before FUNNY FACE opened, M-G-M studio head Dore Schary put SILK STOCKINGS into production. Later that same month, Schary was summoned to New York by new M-G-M president Joseph Vogel and given his walking papers, along with $100,000 in cash and another $900,000 in deferred salary to come later. 1957's SILK STOCKINGS was a success, and M-G-M would continue to make musicals (most notably, Arthur Freed's biggest success, 1958's GIGI), but SILK STOCKINGS would be the last M-G-M appearance for Fred Astaire, and 1957's LES GIRLS (which Schary's replacement greenlighted, and which was not a big success) would be the last M-G-M appearance for Gene Kelly.
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Until, of course, THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT and its sequels.
Thanks, gang, for the references. (Although the PANACHE book, the last effort of a gifted but dying author, occasionally suffers from factual errors which one likes to think would have been spotted and corrected had only the writer had world enough and time.)
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