Stanley Donen directed the movie Funny Face in 1956. It stars Audrey Hepburn as Jo Stockton and Fred Astaire as Dick Avery. The production took place in both Los Angeles and Paris. Paramount Pictures used the VistaVision process to film the musical. Richard Avedon served as a special visual consultant for the production. He designed the opening title sequence and supervised the photographic style of the entire movie. Fred Astaire’s character, Dick Avery, is based on Avedon’s real-life career as a famous fashion photographer.
The crew traveled to Paris to film many of the movie’s most famous outdoor scenes. They filmed at the Louvre Museum, the Tuileries Garden, and the Eiffel Tower. The weather in Paris was often cold and wet during the shoot. Heavy rain turned the grass at the Tuileries into thick mud. The production team used large sheets of plywood to cover the ground so the actors could perform their dance moves. Audrey Hepburn wore a famous red dress while running down the stairs at the Louvre. This dress was designed by the French fashion designer Hubert de Givenchy.
Audrey Hepburn performed her own singing and dancing in the film. She trained for many hours to keep up with Fred Astaire’s professional speed. Astaire was 57 years old during the filming, while Hepburn was 27. They performed the “He Loves and She Loves” dance in a park outside Paris near a small church. The grass was very wet, which made the tap dancing sequences difficult and slippery. For the “Think Pink” sequence, the crew painted the entire office set and all the props in various shades of bright pink.
The movie features many real fashion industry professionals from the 1950s. Dovima, a famous top model, appears in the film as a character named Marion. Givenchy created the entire high-fashion wardrobe for Hepburn’s character. The darkroom scene used red lighting and actual chemical trays to mimic real photo development techniques. Avedon provided his own professional photographs for the images that appear on the walls of the magazine office scenes.
