Sabrina was Audrey Hepburn's second major American film and one of my favorites. Great story, great cast (Bogie and Holden) and great Audrey. So let's get to it.
Sabrina is the daughter of a chauffeur for the wealthy Larrabee family who lives on Long Island. All her life Sabrina has watched the elegant parties hosted by the Larrabee's and always dreamed of being a part of that life. Furthermore she has always been in love with David Larrabee (William Holden), the youngest of the Larrabee sons. Sabrina goes off to Paris to a famous cooking school. There she gains confidence and a new sense of style and fashion. In the meantime, David Larrabee has become engaged to the daughter of a businessman whom Linus Larrabee (Humphrey Bogart) hopes to make a major business deal with. When Sabrina returns to Long Island she is so transformed that David initially doesn't recognize her. He is immediately taken with her and it is clear that she has not forgotten him either. David invites her to one of the famous Larrabee parties. His in-laws-to-be freak out when they see David dancing with the beautiful and elegant Sabrina. Linus, in order to save the business deal, sets off to woo Sabrina himself, with the idea that he will trick her to return to Paris. It backfires when he falls in love with Sabrina too. David realizes that this is another one of his infatuations and sees that David really loves her. In the end the right guy ends up with the right girl.
Wow long plot summary. I'll have to work on that. Anyway, this is a great Audrey movie. She is very young in this film and so it's not her most polished acting but she can't help but shine. What I love about this version vs the Harrison Ford remake (which I also enjoy) is that Sabrina comes back from Paris truly changed and supremely confident of herself. In the remake Sabrina is wiser and prettier but still so insecure. It just feels like all Julia Ormond did in Paris is cut her hair (which she says at the end of the film).
Also, gotta love the supporting cast. Bogie's acting feels a bit stiff at times and he is painfully older than Audrey, but a strained acting job by Bogie is better than most other actors' best. Also, never really like Holden (although he's great in Born Yesterday), so it works in this film that he's the guy you don't root for. Oddly enough, Holden and Hepburn struck up a real life romance during this film. Go figure.
So I enjoy this film. Not enjoyed because Val and I continue to watch it every now and then. Speaking of which Val's choice (she picked Sabrina) for the September category is: Movies adapted from Television series. Valerie has chosen Mission: Impossible and I am putting forth The Fugitive. So let me know what you thought of Sabrina and give me a movie for September.
*Note: Whoever picks the winning movie for September will choose the movie category for November. I'm sorry but I reserve the right to pick the category for my favorite month (October) of the year.
7 comments:
I love Sabrina. nuf said. So, my suggestion is Transformers. And those who think that Transformers were JUST toys. Oh no they weren't. It was a TV Cartoon that my brothers and I watched relentlessly. I even wonder where the old VCR Tape went of our recordings from the TV. ?? The New Transformers movie rocked and I would love an excuse to watch it again. It takes a few weeks for us to get our blockbuster movies in the mail, but we're just glad we can get them.
We think the next film should be Maverick. Great TV show even better Film.
The Fugitive
sabrina was nice and audrey was lovely. my favorite part was the way she said "hellooo!" i think she deserved someone who was only 20 years older rather than someone who was 40 years older. she also deserved someone who didn't despise her as bogey did.
i had never seen the original, and was only vaguely familiar with the new one. i gotta say, a lot of people think that people made films better back in those days. i am not one of them. on average, movies today are waaaay better than movies from 50 years ago. Not every movie from that era was casablanca. they had plenty of rubbish. we just don't watch all the rubbish from 50 years ago.
that being said, this old movie has a charm about it that is just as welcome now as i'm sure it was welcomed then. can't quite put my finger on it. certain charm that may have followed audrey around.
anyway, next month i have three suggestions. roy, you wanna pick one of the three?
if we watch any movie based on transformers, it's gotta be the original cartoon movie. i may be in the minority, but i got problems with the michael bay version.
addams family
and as long as you gotta watch it anyway, star trek: the motion picture.
There was a reason that this movie got an Academy Award for Best Costume Design - Audrey's dresses were amazing. She always looked so lovely.
One of my favorite parts of the movie was the location of the office building. I know exactly where 30 Braod is located (just around the corner from my apartment). I took a little detour during my walk to to subway this morning to stand in front of the building.
I did not love the casting of Bogey, I must say. I never saw that he actually loved her, but what do I know?
Also, I love the scenes of her in cooking class. For some reason that is the first memory of watching it when I was little. I love the way they cracked the eggs.
I vote for ALF. That was an awesome translation.
wv:vvfsapve!!
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