Well, I think FUNNY FACE is one of the real movie musical masterpieces. (I'd rank it at the VERY top if Astaire were twenty years younger.) I think every number is staged and performed brilliantly, and the three leads are perfection. For a musical of the era, the plot's a bubble on which to hang those deliriously wonderful Gershwin tunes, and the three additions to the score by Edens and Gershe are delightful. And pictorially, I can't think of another movie that can touch it for inventiveness.
As I said last week when I first watched the new DVD, the new transfer is spectacular and puts the old one (which I always thought looked digital and ugly) in the dust bin.
I am looking forward to seeing this 50th Anniversary DVD.
I, too, love this musical. So many wonderful moments, glorious photography. I don't have a problem with Astaire's age difference vis a vis Hepburn. All I have to do is remember "Love in the Afternoon" and what seemed like a love story between Audrey and her great-great-great grandfather (Gary Cooper) and Astaire looks downright young by comparison.
There is one number that seems out of place in the film -- the dance that Astaire does in the courtyard of Hepburn's hotel. It's a "novelty" number. BUT...they're in Paris, for gosh sake, and he's affecting a "bullfighter" character. I've always grimaced during that number.
The rest, though, seems like sheer heaven to me. That fashion montage is incredible. And the non-Gershwin "Bonjour, Paris" is one of the most inspried original musical numbers I've ever seen.
