The elf’s face with the eyes of a fawn, whose naivety was refuted by the sharp mind that shone in them, - critic Marjorie Rosen described the appearance of Audrey Hepburn. A thin girl with a short straight bang and black arrows raised up in the corners of her eyes has become for many years the standard of touching and sensual beauty. Even more than her elusive charm and unsurpassed charm, striking talent of this legendary actress. Films with Audrey Hepburn - this is one of the best pages of world cinema.
Start
Audrey was born on May 4, 1929 in Brussels. From the mother - Baroness Ella van Heemstra - the girl inherited aristocratic elegance and dignity, from Joseph Victor's father Anthony Hepburn-Rasto - an extraordinary intellect and good nature. The childhood of the actress was not cloudless, although she remembered him with gratitude. The period of fascist occupation, hunger, hard work, that “shadow of fear and repression”, which Audrey mentioned later in the interview, could not take away her radiant faith in happiness, or a wonderful artistic gift. A fifteen-year-old girl danced to earn money to support the Nazism Resistance movement in her homeland.
First roles - first recognition
When the war ended, Audrey graduated from the conservatory and, having moved with her mother to Amsterdam, began to take ballet dance lessons, while working as a nurse in the veterans' house. According to her teachers, a novice ballerina could become a prima. But in order to help her family, Audrey chooses a dramatic career, in which she seems more realistic to succeed. For the first time as an actress, Audrey Hepburn appeared in the educational film “Dutch in Seven Lessons” in 1948. She played the tiny role of a flight attendant. The girl participated in musicals, starred in episodic roles until 1951, when she receives an offer to star in the British drama "Secret People". We can assume that the filmography of Audrey Hepburn also counts from this film. Her ballet education came in handy for the role.
Around this time, the young artist was seen by the famous Sidney Colet. The writer considered that she could not find the best actress for the role of Gigi in the play of the same name. For six months, Audrey shone in the title role on Broadway, winning a prestigious theater award for a talented personified image.
Princess
If the list of films with Audrey Hepburn is headed, in addition to those mentioned, by small roles in the films The Gang with Lavender Hill, The Baby from Monte Carlo, The Story of Young Wives, Laughter in Paradise, The Wild Oat Grain, then the first triumph of the actress was the image of Princess Anne in the romantic comedy of William Wyler "Roman Vacations." Filmed in 1953, it won the Academy Award for Best Actress for twenty-four-year-old Audrey Hepburn.
The filmography of the actress “shone” with her first starring role, which then will not be a number. The plot of the throne’s heiress who escaped from tiring royal cares and met her first love on the street is filled with funny and exciting scenes in which, it seems, Audrey alone could play so sincerely, freshly and fervently. Her cinematic duet with the already handsome by that time handsome Gregory Peck was enthusiastically received by the audience. The actor starred in the role of an enterprising journalist who sacrificed sensation for the sake of a genuine feeling.
American Cinderella
A year later, Audrey Hepburn appeared and was remembered by the audience in another sparkling comedy - Sabrina. Here, the actress appeared in the image of a sort of Cinderella, transformed from an inconspicuous servant to a dazzling charm, who enchanted the male half of the aristocratic family of millionaires Larrabi with her mind and manners. In this film, Audrey's partner was another famous actor - Humphrey Bogart. This picture is included in the United States in the National Register of the most significant films.
Inimitable Natasha Rostova
In 1956, the film adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s great novel War and Peace, filmed by director King Widor, was released on world screens. The premiere did not cause a stir in Europe and the West, but was highly praised in the Soviet Union. The appearance of Natasha Rostova, embodied by Audrey, perfectly corresponded to the Russian idea of this fragile, naive and pure heroine of Tolstoy. It is no coincidence that in the domestic version of the novel Natasha was played by Lyudmila Savelyeva, who looked very much like Audrey Hepburn in this role.
The filmography of the star, noted for this role, received a new content. The actress has gone beyond light comedic roles. The respect for her was so great that before the shooting, her approval should have been obtained not only by the script and the entire cast of the picture, but even by cameramen and make-up artists. Hepburn’s fee was the highest in her entire career: 350 thousand dollars in 12 days of work. The shooting was difficult, the actress was very tired, the health problems and the fact that Audrey had a miscarriage left a dramatic imprint on this period. The role of Andrei Bolkonsky in the film was played by Mel Ferrer, the husband of the actress, with whom she spent 13 happy years and gave birth to his son, Shawn, married to him in 1960.
Trendsetter
In the film "Funny Muzzle" in 1957, another significant role was played by Audrey Hepburn, whose filmography by then already had several films that made the actress a trendsetter of style. Here she appeared in the image of a pretty saleswoman whose face the publishers intend to put on the cover of the magazine as a standard of beauty.
Noting the best films with Audrey Hepburn, one should, of course, mention the Blake Edwards melodrama “Breakfast at Tiffany's” in 1961. The actress considered Holly to be the brightest part in her film career and admitted that it was incredibly difficult to play an eccentric extrovert girl to her, naturally uncommunicative and closed. The appearance of Audrey in this film made a splash in the fashion world. The actress was dressed in a small black dress and wore a hairstyle with lightened strands in luxurious brown hair. The chic style was developed by her together with Hubert Givenchy. Audrey became for the famous French fashion designer the ideal of female beauty, and he created his exquisite models for her. He dedicated his first perfume to her too.
Slum queen
The role of Eliza Doolittle in the musical My Fair Lady, created in 1964 by director George Cukor based on the immortal play by B. Shaw Pygmalion, brought Audrey Hepburn a new surge of success. The metamorphosis of the vulgar daughter of a scavenger into a well-bred lady, whom the light unconditionally accepts as a mysterious lady of royal blood, was a success for the actress! But the Oscar for the main role in the film was received only by her partner Rex Harrison, who played Professor Higgins, who turned the simpleton into a queen.
Not all musical compositions in the film sound in Hepburn's voice: at the insistence of the director, most of her vocal parts were covered by professional singer Marnie Nixon. And yet in the audience's memory, Audrey remained a charming and alluring beautiful lady for many generations.
Creative pause
In 1966, the actress pleased the audience in the comedy of William Wyler "How to Steal a Million." The film gathered a large audience in the USSR. Hubert Givenchy created the lace dress for Audrey in the image of Nicole, and the famous French company Cartier provided jewelry.
After this film, the actress did not star in any noticeable films. In personal life, too, there have been changes. After a divorce from Ferrer, the actress married a doctor Andrea Dotti, moved to Italy. Pregnancy and childbirth of the second son of Luc was difficult. Audrey, in order not to lose the baby, refused active work in the cinema. And only in the late seventies she tried to return to the set.
In the thriller Blood Connection, based on the best-selling novel by Sidney Sheldon, the actress played Elizabeth Roffe, the heiress of the pharmaceutical corporation, whose assassination attempts follow one after another. The film turned out to be weak, and even fans of the star did not express enthusiasm. Before shooting in this picture, there was a misunderstanding with Audrey Hepburn, the filmography of which, according to her, was significantly affected by this. She unobtrusively rejected the role in the highly successful film "Turning Point". The image of the former ballerina was created by the screenwriter for her, but after her refusal, Shirley MacLane got it.
Last roles
One of Audrey’s last roles in the movie was her role in the elegant comedy of Peter Bogdanovich, “They all laughed.” The picture was at the center of the scandal after the murder of twenty-year-old actress Dorothy Stratten, who starred in one of the main roles, and was not appreciated by critics. However, everyone favorably accepted Audrey's work, again taking off his hat to the exquisite talent of the magnificent artist.
And for the very last time, Hepburn found herself in the spotlights in Spielberg’s fantasy “Always.” The sixty-year-old actress played the role of an angel, with whom the ghost of pilot Piet Sandic talks. In total, Hepburn made about thirty brilliant roles in the cinema.
She will never be forgotten
The last five years of her life, the actress has devoted charitable assistance to children from the poorest countries in the world. As a special ambassador for the UN Children's Fund, she visited more than one hundred and twenty states, whose population was in dire need of support. The actress was awarded the Medal of Freedom and the Humanitarian Award for helping humanity, which was awarded to her posthumously.
Audrey died of cancer on January 20, 1993. Until the last breath, this woman remained a delightful lady, full of dignity, nobility and charm. And films with Audrey Hepburn will long give the joy of meeting this marvelous fairy of charm and spiritual beauty.