"I'm not hugely fond of [My Fair Lady]. I find Audrey Hepburn fantastically twee. ... Twee is whimsy without wit. It is mimsy-mumsy sweetness without any kind of bite. And that's not for me. She can't sing and she can't really act, I'm afraid. I'm sure she was a delightful woman — and perhaps if I had known her I would have enjoyed her acting more, but I don't and I didn't, so that's all there is to it really." — Emma ThompsonI'm clearly more of a fan than Thompson but the thing that has always grated on me is the girlishness; the desexualised, Pannish quality that allowed her to play nuns so easily. I will get into great trouble with my wife for saying this, but I don't think I've ever been entirely happy with any movie featuring nuns. Excepting their use in dream sequences, I've spent most of my moviegoing life in flight from the wimple.
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Oddly, one instance where Hepburn does show an ability to convey sexual tension is in her brief interplay with Peter Finch in. . .The Nun’s Story. Hope that observation doesn't get ME in trouble.
ReplyDeleteWhen she's cast opposite a young actor (or Cary Grant) I do think she has some fire, although her innate gentility meant she was never going to be Ava Gardner.
That's true. I do like her and Grant in Charade, where he is more the object of desire than she is — which allows her all that flirting-with-an-Icon stuff about his dimple and shaving etc.
ReplyDeleteI don't think a woman has to be overtly sexy in order to be attractive and graceful, even the sexiest women are overly-so, crass, and rude/clumsy. Audrey had a true grace of spirit and Mrs. Thompson would be lucky to be as great an icon, actress, or genuine person that Hepburn was. But I guess since men can't stick their d***s in a woman's personality and true elegance that they go for women like Megan Fox or that other girl from "Transformers." Shallow personality,shallow thoughts, shallow relationships.
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