Mid-60's Comedy/Satire About Hollywood

FloatingOpera7

Paris When It Sizzles (1964): Audrey Hepburn, William Holden, Tony Curtis, Mel Ferrer, Marline Dietrich,Gregoire Aslan, Michel Thomas, Raymond Bussieres, Christian Duvaleix, Noel Coward, Dominique Boschero, Evi Marandi. Director Richard Quine...Screenplay George Axelrod, Julien Duvivier, Henry Jeanson.

Little did Director Richard Quine know that his 1964 comedy "Paris When It Sizzles" would actually pave the way for later, more developed and expressive comedies satirizing the world of Hollywood, namely screen writing. For instance, 2002's "Adaptation" starring Nicholas Cage and Meryl Streep was a cleverly constructed satire on screen writing. William Holden, in his fifties, a compulsive alcohol drinker, past his prime and in the declining phase of his career portrays the protagonist. He is Richard Benson, a soave screenwriter for a Hollywood studio, living in Paris and supposedly working on a screenplay for a film that must be made in a short amount of time. Desperate for help, he hires a typist, Gabrielle Simpson (Audrey Hepburn). The two of them combine their creative talents to write a successful, mainstream action thriller "The Girl Who Stole The Eiffel Tower" , put themselves in the roles of the lead characters and in the process, fall in love with each other. The whole film, the script owing to the genius of George Axelrod, is itself a living screenplay that we get to see come to life. Reality and fantasy are mixed up and before long, we are caught up in the adventure in much the same way one would in those old "Choose Your Own Adventure" books. Rick and Gaby are each other's antagonist at first, both of them involved in a dangerous game of good guys versus bad guys, something about protecting a powerful secret from the wrong hands or the wrong politics. But before long, Rick and Gaby fall in love and after many plot twists, the film concludes in the most conventional manner for a film - the bad boy is redeemed through a girl's love but he dies because his dangerous lifestyle has caught up with him. Audrey Hepburn turns on her charm as usual. Always beautifully dressed, still a beautiful woman despite being older, intelligent, charismatic and a fine actress. This role was quite the stray from the previous "serious" roles she had undertaken at the start of the 60's - Holly Golightly in "Breakfast At Tiffany's" and Eliza Dolittle in "My Fair Lady", coincidentally both films are alluded to in this movie. As Gabrielle/Gaby, Audrey is clearly having fun and not doing anything truly challenging. There is genuine chemistry between Holden and Hepburn, this owing to the fact that they had been involved during the filming of "Sabrina" in the mid-50's. Hepburn decided Holden was not husband material and dumped him. Ten years later, they reunite to portray lovers in this film, and it works. They even look great together. This is a well-written, lively comedy that is unfortunately very old-fashioned by today's standards for comedy. At the time of its release, it was fresh and new stuff, so that all the little touches like Frank Sinatra's voice for the song "The Girl Who Stole The Eiffel Tower", the sudden cameos by Tony Curtis and Marlene Dietrich and the witty remarks by everyone (i.e. "You can't talk, you're only Policeman No. 2") and the words "Kiss..The End..Fade Out", were all new to audiences at the time. This is a fun comedy that satirizes Hollywood films and still maintains its dignity and charm. A must see for fans of Audrey Hepburn and William Holden.

score 10/10

FloatingOpera7 12 April 2007

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1636276/