Funny Face (1957) on Netflix
NR19571h 43mComedyMusicalRomance
Fashion editor Maggie Prescott wants a new look, both beautiful and intellectual. She and photographer Dick Avery use the Greenwich Village bookstore where Jo Stockton works as a backdrop.
- Netflix3.8/5
- IMDb7.0/1035,966 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes88%
Trailer
Plot summary
Fashion photographer Dick Avery, in search for an intellectual backdrop for an air-headed model, expropriates a Greenwich Village bookstore. When the photo session is over the store is left in a shambles, much to salesgirl Jo Stockton's dismay. Avery stays behind to help her clean up. Later, he examines the photos taken there and sees Jo in the background of one shot. He is intrigued by her unique appearance, as is Maggie Prescott, the editor of a leading fashion magazine. They offer Jo a modeling contract, which she reluctantly accepts only because it includes a trip to Paris. Eventually, her snobbish attitude toward the job softens, and Jo begins to enjoy the work and the company of her handsome photographer.
Cast
Show all 20 cast
- Brandon Beachas Guest at Aborted Fashion Show
- Carole Eastmanas Specialty Dancer (uncredited)
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Funny Face (1957)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Funny Face was a box office disappointment on first release and failed to break even, but Paramount reissued it theatrically in 1964, when Hepburn's My Fair Lady was drawing excellent reviews and huge grosses, and the film finally turned a profit.
- Astaire's character was loosely based on the career of Richard Avedon, who provided a number of the photographs seen in the film, including the stills for the opening credits, which were also used in the halls of Quality magazine.
- According to Hepburn herself, she insisted on Astaire as a precondition for her participation, making his casting a condition of her own appearance in the film.
- Thompson makes a rare appearance on camera as Maggie Prescott, a fashion magazine editor loosely based on Diana Vreeland, though architectural historian Francis Morrone says the inspiration was Carmel Snow, editor-in-chief of Harper's Bazaar.
- At 58, Astaire was three decades Hepburn's senior and approaching the end of his musical film career; this was the second in a consecutive series of three French-themed musicals he made in the 1950s.
- Although it has the same title as the 1927 Broadway musical Funny Face by the Gershwin brothers and features the same male star, Fred Astaire, the plot is completely different and only four of the stage songs are included.
