This film stars Audrey Hepburn, Fred Astaire and Kay Thompson, and is a wonderfully cheerful musical made in 1957. Astaire is Dick Avery, photographer for fashion magazine Quality. When he meets Jo Stockton (Hepburn) working in a bookshop specialising in titles about philosophy, he decides that she would make a perfect model. But Jo is not interested in the world of fashion, believing it to be shallow and unimportant. However, she is desperate to go to Paris and meet her hero, philosopher Emil Flostre, and when she learns that the modelling assignment Dick wants her for is in Paris, she agrees to go. Inevitably they start to fall for one another, but Jo and Dick are from different worlds, and sometimes those world clash…
Even though I don’t often choose to watch musicals, I found this film enchanting, and great fun. Audrey Hepburn is as beautiful as ever, and it’s impossible not to love her. She is great as the idealistic Jo, who finds herself drawn into an unfamiliar world. Fred Astaire is also great as Dick Avery, and showcases his fabulous dancing. (However, my favourite dance sequence from the film was that which Hepburn performed the first time she went to the philosophy hang out – with her hair scraped back and dressed in plain black top and trousers, she is still luminescent and stunning.) Kay Thompson, as the editor of Quality was simply outstanding – she was hilarious, and her dancing and singing was great.
The film looks gorgeous – it’s set in New York, then Paris, and the latter city is shown off extremely well. There are also some lovely outfits on show (it is a film about a model for a fashion magazine after all). I really liked the songs and the dancing – as well as my aforementioned favourite dance sequence, I also especially liked the ‘Bonjour Paris’ song, where the three main characters all explore Paris on their own before meeting up at the Eiffel Tower.
Even if you’re not a fan of musicals, I’d recommend giving this film a watch – it’s feel-good, it looks good, and it’s a lot of fun.
Year of release: 1957
Director: Stanley Donen
Writer: Leonard Gershe
Main cast: Audrey Hepburn, Fred Astaire, Kay Thompson
Between the Pages 
I love these musicals and I’m a fan of Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly both absolutely brilliant. A great post, thank you for highlighting this lovely film.
Oh, thank you 🙂 Yes, it was such a lovely film. The dancing is amazing!