Thursday Movie Picks: Muse

Who doesn’t love to be a muse for someone. I think I would fall over like a piece of cement if someone admitted that I was their muse. Wandering through the Shelves chose this interesting theme and it will be fun to see what everyone else will choose. I have another theme within a theme and here it goes...

1. FUNNY FACE-1957

A film starring the exquisite Audrey Hepburn as a young intellectual book store clerk whose store is uprooted by a fashion photo shoot run by famed photographer Dick Avery, played by Fred Astaire. In a photo, he sees the beauty of Hepburn and decides she needs to be his next fashion model. Hepburn agrees because she gets to go to Paris and meet the intellectuals of the day. Of course, there is dancing and singing with Kay Thompson stealing the show. Fred Astaire is based on famed photographer Richard Avedon and Audrey’s is based on Suzy Parker. Audrey Hepburn is one of the most beautiful and elegant ladies to ever grace the screen and when she models the Givenchy fashions especially the red dress when she walks down the steps in the Louvre.

2.  MY FAIR LADY-1964

This is a musical take on Pygmalion which is a great play by George Bernard Shaw and an excellent film from 1938 with Leslie Howard and Wendy Hiller which I prefer to this musical to be honest. This was a famous stage musical starring Rex Harrison as Professor Higgins and Julie Andrews as Eliza but because Julie Andrews was not known to movie audiences, the studio chose Audrey Hepburn. The story is about an arrogant cultured Higgins who is an expert in phonetics who makes a bet with his friend that he can take an ordinary cockney flower girl and pass her off as a duchess at a very elegant party where the King and Queen will attend. We see how he trains Eliza  for the big night and becomes more dependent and caring to her. Audrey was upset that her voice was dubbed by the great Marni Nixon, who dubbed many famous gals ,but the film still is a great take on the play. She may have been too “regal” as the cockney lass and I always wish to know how Julie Andrews would have been..which I know would have been great. By the way, Julie Andrews was nominated for her role in Mary Poppins that came out the same year...Julie won.

3.  PARIS WHEN IT SIZZLES-1964

Yup, Audrey stars as a typist temp sent to William Holden’s apartment to type his book. The problem is that Holden has writer’s block and his agent, played by the great Noel Coward, is putting the pressure on. When Holden see Hepburn he becomes inspired with all these different plots that make fun of many film plot lines including a very campy Dracula theme. Tony Curtis is quite funny as...Tony Curtis who plays more than just a cameo. It’s not the best film, to be honest, but it is still fun to see.

Can you think of any films that fits the theme?

Hubert De Givenchey's Muse...Audrey Hepburn