The Best Fictional Bookstores

Posted on July 5, 2017 at 8:00 am

Electric Literature has a delightful piece about the best bookstores in movies and books. People who write books love bookstores, and the ones they imagine are very enticing. “You’ve Got Mail” is all about bookstores, and this one is perfect — and just about to disappear. I’m sorry to say that I am pretty sure the big bookstore driving her out of business has probably since been itself eclipsed by Amazon.

Humphrey Bogart visited a bookstore that didn’t have what he was looking for in “The Big Sleep.”

Audrey Hepburn got her first kiss from Fred Astaire in a bookstore in “Funny Face.”

Certainly the movies’ most unusual bookstore scene was this one filmed backwards in “Top Secret!”

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Film History For Your Netflix Queue Movie History

Google Salutes Audrey Hepburn

Posted on May 4, 2014 at 9:42 am

Today Google pays tribute to Audrey Hepburn, a movie star of impeccable elegance and grace on what would have been the 85th birthday.  It’s a great reason to watch these unmissable classics.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sorbncQusuk

Roman Holiday Hepburn became a star and won her first Oscar for playing a runaway princess who meets up with a handsome reporter (Gregory Peck). Peck loved to tell the story about how he surprised her in this scene.  He did not tell her what he was going to do with his hand and that reaction from her is pure Audrey, no acting involved.

My Fair Lady Hepburn plays Eliza Doolittle, the flower girl who wants to learn to speak English well enough to work in a flower shop and ends up enchanting royalty and, an even tougher task, the irascible Professor Higgins.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sr3h2_p2iyw

How to Steal a Million The most glamorous art thieves ever are Audrey Hepburn and Peter O’Toole in this glossy romantic comedy.

Sabrina A chauffeur’s daughter dreams of marrying her employer’s handsome playboy son (William Holden) until his stern businessman brother (Humphrey Bogart) tries to distract her.  This was Hepburn’s first film featuring gowns by the man who would become her signature designer, Givenchy.  Their work together made her a fashion icon.

Breakfast At Tiffany’s Hepburn plays Holly Golightly, a party girl trying to take care of herself in New York, but fighting her feelings for the writer downstairs.

Funny Face Hepburn stars with Fred Astaire in a musical about a bookish girl who accepts a modeling job in Paris so she can meet her idol, a French philosopher, but finds herself falling for the urbane photographer to the music of George Gershwin.

Two for the Road One of the wisest, wittiest, and most romantic films of all time follows a young couple (Hepburn and Albert Finney) as they travel through Europe in different stages of their relationship, from meeting as young students to newlyweds, new parents, disappointed early middle-age, and the possibility of renewal.

Charade Hepburn stars with Cary Grant in the most romantic thriller ever made, a sophisticated crime caper to a swoony Henry Mancini score.

Audrey_Hepburn

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Actors Film History For Your Netflix Queue Lists

Funny Face

Posted on February 9, 2009 at 8:00 am

A
Lowest Recommended Age: All Ages
MPAA Rating: NR
Profanity: None
Alcohol/ Drugs: Social drinking
Violence/ Scariness: None
Diversity Issues: Some mild sexism reflecting its era
Date Released to Theaters: 1957
Date Released to DVD: 2009
Amazon.com ASIN: B004IK30LO

My second DVD pick of the week for Valentine’s Day is the other new Audrey Hepburn release, “Funny Face,” a gorgeous musical set in Paris with Fred Astaire and songs by Gershwin. The title tune, and “How Long Has This Been Going On” and “S’Wonderful” have become standards, and the non-Gershwin numbers like “Think Pink” and “Bonjour Paris” are lively and well-staged.

It’s the story of a shy bookstore clerk with an interest in French philosophy who gets invited to Paris as a model and agrees to go only because it will give her a chance to meet the philosopher she most admires. She thinks that fashion is silly and superficial. But the photographer (Astaire, playing a character based on Richard Avedon) shows her the passion, dedication, professionalism, and artistry required and the philosopher shows her that he does not always practice what he preaches. The film is a delight. Be sure to watch for a rare screen appearance by Kay Thompson, the author of the “Eloise” books, as the magazine editor, and some real-life supermodels spoofing themselves.

Funny Face

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