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Tracee Ellis Ross recommended Sabrina (1954) in Movies (curated)

 
Sabrina (1954)
Sabrina (1954)
1954 | Comedy, Drama, Romance

"We will switch gears completely, and I will say the original Sabrina with Audrey Hepburn, which really influenced my style. Just driving up with her trunks of luggage on the back of the car… it was just such a beautiful film. The clothing, I just was like, whoa. The elegance of it, the time period, the black-and-whiteness of it, the cast. It’s just one of those classic films that kind of etched a place in my aesthetics of style and elegance."

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Sarah (126 KP) rated Charade (1963) in Movies

Jul 19, 2018  
Charade (1963)
Charade (1963)
1963 | Classics, Comedy, Drama
9
8.3 (6 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Fun, Romantic and Exciting
This film has a timeless appeal, and is one of my all-time favourites.

It is a story filled with twists and turns, and some moments of real suspense - all interspersed with light humour and romance.

Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn play the main characters in the film, and have a wonderful on-screen chemistry, which makes it all the more enjoyable to watch.

Perhaps the best - and most unexpected - part of the film is its ability to keep you guessing right to the very end.
  
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Lily Collins recommended Sabrina (1954) in Movies (curated)

 
Sabrina (1954)
Sabrina (1954)
1954 | Comedy, Drama, Romance

"Sabrina, with Audrey Hepburn. I actually spent my New Year’s this year watching Sabrina, and as it turned midnight I paused it and it was just her face on screen, smiling. I was like, “What a cool way to start the New Year.” She is just someone I’ve always admired. She says so much without saying anything at all. And back then they didn’t do such fast cuts in films; they stayed on a character’s face long enough for them to go from one emotion to another, and for the audience to really feel the emotion with each character — and she in that movie just goes from so many endearing moments to moments of sadness and laughter. It’s just such a classic, and I love black and white. So, that’s my list!"

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Charade (1963)
Charade (1963)
1963 | Classics, Comedy, Drama
8
8.3 (6 Ratings)
Movie Rating
The best Hitchcock film NOT Directed by Hitchcock
What do you get when you cross Cary Grant (NORTH BY NORTHWEST) with Audrey Hepburn (BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S) and a cavalcade of interesting faces like Walter Matthau (GOODBYE CHARLIE), James Coburn (THE GREAT ESCAPE), George Kennedy (IN HARM'S WAY) and Ned Glass (WEST SIDE STORY), put them in an exotic European location (this time, mostly, Paris) and have all of them chasing each other for a missing $250,000?

You have the best Alfred Hitchock film NOT Directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

Based on a story by Peter Stone, and Directed by Stanley Donen (SINGIN' IN THE RAIN), CHARADE is a throwback film, that shows the scramble for power and wealth in the beginnings of the cold war in Europe as a woman (Hepburn) searches for answers after her husband shows up deceased and she is instantly besieged by a bevy of mugs looking for some missing loot.

It's a fun and interesting whoddunnit and "whereisit"? With a central plot/love story hinging on the relationship between the Grant and Hepburn characters. And...this is where Charade succeeds greatly as the chemistry between the two is strong, thanks to the smart, forward-thinking idea of having Hepburn as on top of her game as Grant is of his. She is no "damsel in distress", but rather a worthy sparring partner for Grants (and the other mugs).

Of course, it doesn't hurt that Hepburn is dressed - impeccably - by Edith Head in stunning Givenchy outfits all set to the music of Henry Mancini.

Speaking of mugs, they don't get more character-y to look at than Matthau, Coburn, Kennedy and Glass and they all are terrific in their roles as shadowy, sinister figures who are after something that they think Hepburn has...but she just might not have it.

Beautifully shot by Donen in Paris of the early 1960's, this film captures a bygone era and a real feeling of a romanticized and glamorous Europe. This is interesting characters doing interesting things in an interesting way in an interesting place.

And...I'm glad all of this is interesting, for if you stopped for a moment to think about the plot - or the rather languid pace of this film - then Charade would lose quite a bit of it's luster and appeal.

But, fortunately for me, I didn't do that. I sat and immersed myself in these characters, settings and circumstances and was rewarded with a very entertaining evening brought to the screen by master players who know what they are doing.

Letter Grade: A-

8 Stars (out of 10) and you can take that to the Bank (ofMarquis)
  
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Hazel (1853 KP) rated Oh Yeah, Audrey! in Books

Dec 17, 2018  
Oh Yeah, Audrey!
Oh Yeah, Audrey!
Tucker Shaw | 2014 | Contemporary, Young Adult (YA)
10
9.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
<i>I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads.</i>

Fans of Audrey Hepburn are bound to love Tucker Shaw’s latest contemporary young adult novel <i>Oh Yeah, Audrey!</i> especially if they admire her as much as sixteen year old Gemma Beasley does. The novel takes place over a time period of twenty-six hours beginning at 5:00am outside <i>Tiffany’s</i> in New York. Through Tumblr Gemma has “met” other Audrey fanatics and has arranged a get together in honour of the twentieth anniversary of the legendary star’s death.

It helps to have watched the film <i>Breakfast at Tiffany’s</i> (I haven’t) or at least have read the book (I have), as the narrative is full of quotes and references to Holly Golightly and scenes from the film. At first it appears no one else will turn up to the meeting but eventually they do and their exciting day gets off to an enjoyable start. Although they have a strict itinerary planned out it is soon forgotten as other options arise. By asking themselves: “what would Holly do?” they end up doing a lot of things they have never done before.

It all seems too good to be true when a rich good-looking guy asks Gemma out for dinner. She accepts despite it meaning she will be ditching her friends but she promises to meet up with them later. However, Gemma soon finds herself out of her depth and feels like she has ruined the evening not just for herself, but for her friends as well.

Initially readers may expect <i>Oh Yeah, Audrey!</i> to be a very girly book but it actually has a strong message behind it. The whole time that Gemma is asking herself “what would Holly do?” she is not discovering the person she is and what she really wants. <i>Breakfast at Tiffany’s</i> may have made running away from home and living independently look like a glamorous adventure, but Gemma discovers that Holly Golightly was most likely a very lonely character.

I enjoyed this book much more than I was expecting to. It is a quick easy read that is very funny and entertaining but also moving at the end. Those who have not yet read/seen <i>Breakfast at Tiffany’s</i> will definitely be thinking about doing so after reading <i>Oh Yeah, Audrey!</i>
  
Two for the Road (1967)
Two for the Road (1967)
1967 | Classics, Comedy, Drama
(0 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"I love all of Stanley Donen’s movies and I wanna put one of them in there. I’ll put Two for the Road, which I love. Audrey Hepburn, Stanley Donen’s movie. Those would be my five. Today. [Laughs] Tomorrow I’m gonna pick Claude Lelouch — And Now My Love. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen that. It is amazing. It’s with an actress named Marthe Keller who made Bobby Deerfield with Al Pacino. And Now My Love is the story of two people who never meet until the end of the movie, and the protagonist is a kid who is a thief and gets sent to jail and learns how to use the camera in jail — and goes from making porno movies to making, you know, great movies, like Truffaut and Godard and Lelouch and the French new Wave. It’s really the best love story, and he’s an unsung hero of cinema, Claude Lelouch. Actually, that would be tied for Two for the Road — that way I get a sixth choice, and I’m greedy. [Laughs] Tie it. That’s a tie."

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And Now My Love (1974)
And Now My Love (1974)
1974 | Drama, Romance
(0 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"I love all of Stanley Donen’s movies and I wanna put one of them in there. I’ll put Two for the Road, which I love. Audrey Hepburn, Stanley Donen’s movie. Those would be my five. Today. [Laughs] Tomorrow I’m gonna pick Claude Lelouch — And Now My Love. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen that. It is amazing. It’s with an actress named Marthe Keller who made Bobby Deerfield with Al Pacino. And Now My Love is the story of two people who never meet until the end of the movie, and the protagonist is a kid who is a thief and gets sent to jail and learns how to use the camera in jail — and goes from making porno movies to making, you know, great movies, like Truffaut and Godard and Lelouch and the French new Wave. It’s really the best love story, and he’s an unsung hero of cinema, Claude Lelouch. Actually, that would be tied for Two for the Road — that way I get a sixth choice, and I’m greedy. [Laughs] Tie it. That’s a tie."

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Allison Anders recommended Charade (1963) in Movies (curated)

 
Charade (1963)
Charade (1963)
1963 | Classics, Comedy, Drama
8.3 (6 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"The longer I live and the more movies I know, the more I love Stanley Donen. However, I fell in love with this film as a child. I went to see it because—well, because I saw everything that came to the Paramount Theater (or the Capitol) in Ashland, Kentucky. But I was especially primed for loving this movie because I was enamored of Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly—I had seen that movie ten times the previous year. But Charade was a very different movie from Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and for a little girl—and for that time—it was very violent, and it scared the hell out of me so much that I thought James Coburn was in my closet at night, and I made my mother go with me to check if he was there before bedtime. Nevertheless, I went back for more every weekend until its run was over. I loved the witty romance between Cary Grant and Audrey, and I loved Paris as much as I had loved New York in Breakfast at Tiffany’s. And the mystery works! And I loved that so much I went back again and again, even if it scared the pee outta me. On the DVD, director Stanley Donen and screenwriter Peter Stone banter amusingly from a long friendship together on the long process it took to make this film. Stone makes the great observation that when you write a mystery, you make it for a second viewing. And if the audience says, “That’s a cheat,” then you didn’t do it right. But if they see it a second time and say, “Oh, it was there all the time, and I didn’t see it,” then you have something. This film has all that and more—i.e., the best clothes ever!"

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Baz Luhrmann recommended War and Peace (1956) in Movies (curated)

 
War and Peace (1956)
War and Peace (1956)
1956 | International, Classics, Drama
9.0 (1 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"One of my great all-time loves in cinema, and I’ve seen it three times, is Bondarchuk’s War and Peace. Not a lot of people may have seen that film. It was made during the Soviet era. I’d be happy to see it again — it is, however, 12 hours long. It took 10 years to make, and some actors lived and died during the period of making the movie. It’s a little bit influenced by being a ’60s film, so it’s got a bit of a trippy edge to it; it’s a little bit abstract. But it has some of the finest examples of Russian acting of that era. I was profoundly affected by the Russian theater and the style of Russian acting. It was shot on cameras and film stock that we simply never have access to. If I’m not mistaken, during the opening credits the camera is in a cosmonaut’s space capsule being shot into Earth. It’s probably the biggest crane shot of all time. At first you think, “Well this is going to be tedious,” but stay with it and I think you’ll find yourself drawn in. And the girl who played Natasha [Lyudmila Savelyeva] is a dead ringer for Audrey Hepburn and she’s one of the most luminous stars that ever found herself on the screen."

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Long Shot (2019)
Long Shot (2019)
2019 | Comedy
Seth Rogen is NOT a movie star
I am a little shocked this did not do better and I would like to apologize to the filmmakers for posting this review 2 weeks late and not generating word-of-mouth. Long Shot is a comedic romance (romantic comedies are love stories with comedic moments where as this is a laugh out loud comedy with a little romance) between schlub Seth Rogen and glamorous Charlize Theron.
The introductions clearly favor Charlotte who is film in a Audrey Hepburn glamour lighting as she negotiates world politics with barely a moment for herself. She can't even take a bath without compromising. Fred is shown in a dark pallette as he infiltrates a neo-Nazi organization for his boutique periodical. He is a Neil Sheehanesque investigative journalist living in Brooklyn so committed to his ideals he is impervious to physical pain along with the emotional weight he carries fot idealism. When Fred quits in protest of a media mogul buyout of his ezine, his best friend takes him tona fundraiser where Secretary of State Charlotte Field is. Twenty years ago, Charlotte lived next to Fred in Washington and babysat him. He was mesmerized by her passion and she had a tiny crush on the sweet boy next door. After their reintroduction and a focus group evaluation, Charlotte realizes she may need the writing skills Fred possesses and without a job Fred takes a position.
Long Shot takes pot shots at the pressure of a woman in politics who has to work twice as hard as a man and is judged much more harshly if she is unattached. Fred learns that compromise is not an all or nothing affair whether in politics, the boardroom, or the bedroom. Overall, a highly entertaining romance with a little bit of a Notting Hill conclusion.