Funny Face (Blu-ray) (1957)

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General		Extras
Category	Romantic Comedy	None
Rating
Year Of Production	1957
Running Time	103:19
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Stanley Donen
Studio Distributor	Paramount Home Entertainment	Starring	Audrey Hepburn Fred Astaire Kay Thompson Michael Auclair Robert Flemyng
Case	?
RPI	Box	Music	George Gershwin

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 French Dolby Digital 2.0 mono (224Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 mono (224Kb/s) Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 mono (224Kb/s) Japanese Dolby Digital 5.1 (640Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	1080p
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English French German Dutch Norwegian Croatian Italian Spanish Danish Spanish Swedish Japanese English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

     Fashion magazine Editor Maggie Prescott (Kay Thompson) is seeking a new look for the magazine. At an impromptu photo shoot in a bookstore, fashion photographer Dick Avery (Fred Astaire) meets shopgirl Jo Stockton (Audrey Hepburn), an erudite and intelligent young woman so different from the airhead models he usually photographs. Avery manages to persuade Maggie that Jo is the new face they are looking for; he also persuades Jo to come to Paris for the launch of the new look, mainly because Jo wants to meet her idol, philosopher Professor Emile Flostre (Michel Auclair). In Paris love blossoms but as usual true love does not run smooth, nor does the launch. However, there is never any doubt that it will all be happily resolved before the fade out to “The End”.

     Funny Face is a musical that looks gorgeous; the film’s Technicolor colours are deep and vibrant, the set direction and costumes worn by Hepburn stunning. This is the strength of the film and it was nominated for four Oscars, including for art direction, costumes and cinematography, but won none. As a musical it is less successful. Director Stanley Donen had revamped the musical with his magical Singin’ in the Rain in 1952 and in some aspects Funny Face is a lesser version of that film, down to an Astaire dance with an umbrella – but minus the rain. By 1957 the concept, and choreography, feel somewhat dated.

     Funny Face had originally been a George & Ira Gershwin musical play on Broadway in 1927 which starred Fred Astaire and his sister Adele, but the plot of the play was jettisoned when it came to make Funny Face. Some of the Gershwin music and lyrics were retained and additional songs written by Leonard Gershe and Roger Edens, but except for S’Wonderful, Funny Face and the most lively song in the film Clap Yo’ Hands, the music comes over as fairly bland. It is not helped by the fact that Hepburn does not have a strong singing voice and, indeed, in her next role in a musical, in My Fair Lady in 1964, her voice was overdubbed. Hepburn does acquit herself well in the dance numbers, being a lithe, flexible woman of 28 years old, but her romance with Astaire, who was 30 years her senior, lacks any spark. At 58 Astaire still has the moves, but it is telling that he is at his most animated in the Clap Yo’ Hands number performed with Kay Thompson, who is in fact only 10 years his junior! Indeed, Thompson is great, and the most consistently entertaining person in the film.

     Funny Face does include some barbs at beauty, celebrity and fashion and boasts some witty dialogue, such as when Jo explains the purpose of dance to Dick; it looks stunning but as a musical and a vehicle for Hepburn it lacks the sparkle it should. It is still, however, entertaining and good clean fun.

Video

     The Blu-ray states that Funny Face is presented in a full frame in an aspect ratio. The original release ratio as listed on IMDb is 1.85:1; this Blu-ray presentation of Funny Face is in fact presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, in 1080p using the MPEG-4 AVC code.

     In a word, sumptuous! The depth of detail is astounding, the colours deep, rich and vibrant. In a couple of sequences, such as the early developing room scene or the sequence in the Paris café, the reds are enhanced and look magical. Elsewhere, on the Paris set or in the interiors the colours are beautiful, detail in close-ups pristine. Blacks and shadow detail are superb. The film also shows a pleasing amount of grain, skin tones are great, brightness and contract consistent.

     This is not to say the print is perfect. At times it struggles to cope with Astaire’s white coat, which comes over as glary, as well as some of the white lamps in the background. Perhaps the most obvious is where Astaire’s white coat and Hepburn’s white wedding dress are in the scene with a green grass and tree background: throw in movement, such as at 69:35 and the cameras cannot cope and the scene becomes soft and glary. The great detail of the HD Blu-ray presentation just makes it more obvious.

    There is also minor occasional blur with movement.

     Subtitles are provided in English, English for the hearing impaired, a wide range of European languages plus Japanese. I sampled a small portion; they were in a clear white font and seemed to cover all the words.

     A simply gorgeous Technicolor print.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
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Audio

     Audio choices are English Dolby TrueHD 5.1, German, Spanish, French and Italian Dolby Digital at 224 Kbps and Japanese Dolby Digital 5.1 at 640 Kbps. The audio for Funny Face was originally a mono track, which is not available on this Blu-ray release. I listened to the English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 audio, and expect for some ambient musical noise in the surrounds it may as well have been mono.

     Dialogue is clear and easy to hear although it was sometimes soft compared to the musical numbers. Not surprisingly the audio lacked depth, but the singing and dancing came over nicely. I did not notice any subwoofer use, but then again it was not really needed.

     Lip synchronisation seemed slightly out during the Think Pink! musical number but was otherwise fine.

     The audio does what is required.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

     Nothing.

    There have been standalone Blu-ray releases of Funny Face including a US Region Free and a version here in Australia, but the specifications seem similar and none have any of the extras that were available previously on the DVD release, especially the Paramount 2 disc edition; details of the extras on that release can be found here.

     I can find no listing of a similar Blu-ray set to the Audrey Timeless Collection elsewhere. A local bargain.

     Funny Face looks gorgeous; the film’s Technicolor colours, the set direction and costumes worn by Hepburn stunning but as a musical and a vehicle for Hepburn it lacks the sparkle it should.

     The video is sumptuous and the audio fine. No extras.

     A stand-alone Blu-ray of Funny Face has previously been available in Australia. The same Blu-ray is now released as part the three disc set Audrey Timeless Collection from Paramount that also includes Sabrina (1954) and Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961). The set is a bargain for fans of Hepburn or classic Hollywood cinema if you do not already own the standalone Blu-rays.

Video
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Extras
Plot
Overall