Funny Face Astaire, Fred performer Thompson, Kaye performer Film 1957-02-13 MGM Funny Face, with musical score by George and Ira Gershwin, presents Astaire, as an established fashion photographer, who discovers a petulant young Greenwich Village intellectual (Audrey Hepburn, in this her musical film debut) and converts her into a successful fashion model. Directed by Stanley Donen, working closely with the photographer Richard Avedon, the photography is extraordinarily imaginative (a darkroom scene, for instance, lit entirely in red; a scene in a churchyard hued with soft, gauzy, romantic haze). "Think Pink" with Kay Thompson concludes with a brief chorus routine that included high-kicking lunges. "Clap Yo' Hands" with Astaire and Kay Thompson parodies the popular music trends and fads of the 1950s from which Astaire felt himself to be distant; the song has ample rhythmic wit and complexity but it is awkward when translated to rock and roll sensibility. Thompson sings the lyric like a early spoken word beat poet as Astaire slouches around her in a zoot-suiting shuffle. Although hand-clapping is not used to invent or resound the music, Thompson substitutes rhythmic beats by slapping on Astaire's guitar; in turn, Astaire back-kicks the guitar (the fifties of rock and roll creeping in). "Basal Metabolism" shows Paris in the 50s full of beat and bebop, cool and hips: we see Hepburn in a murky Parisian café in eager quest of the intellectual life where she encounter Parisian philosophers spouting existential quick takes on life. Astaire is not impressed either by the surroundings or by the twitchy eccentric dance she does with two male patrons to demonstrate to him what a free spirit she has become. The dance, set to mostly n jazzy up-tempo arrangement of "How Long Has This Been Going On?" and "Funny Face" become a parody of freaky hipness; existential sceneography. "Clap Yo' Hands" a duet for Astaire and Thompson set to the old Gershwin tune, is one of Astaire's rare efforts at sustained broad comedy, here with Kay Thompson. The song is submerged in some new material-- "knocked-out jazz" as Astaire punctuates the song with brisk hand claps and broadly exaggerated squawks of mock alarm; at its best when the performers lunge into the center of the floor and go right into a funny little soft shoe to the changing from a full-figure shots to medium shots of the upper body. Performing Arts Encyclopedia http://www.loc.gov/performingarts Mueller, John: Astaire Dancing: The Musical Films. New York: Knopf (1985). Tap Dance America http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/html/tda/tda-home.html Fred Astaire (biography) loc.music.tdabio.16 tda IHAS 151216 loc.music.tda.878