The Fairest of Them All

‘Icon’ is a word that’s bandied about quite a bit these days; anyone who’s ever glanced at a copy of Heat magazine will have seen it hovering near the words ‘Paris Hilton’, for example. So we’d like to take this opportunity to remind you what the word actually means, to suggest an infinitely more worthy example; give you Audrey Hepburn.

She’s the kind of star that traverses art form – becoming a legend of both film and fashion - that laughs at the diminishing power of time, blows a kiss at the upstarts that believe they can fill her shoes. And honey, what shoes. Not only was Hepburn a goddess of the silver screen, but her image and style stepped off the set, taking on lives of their own; walk down any French street or through any Japanese mall and her instantly recognizable visage will wink out at you from postcards, t-shirts and mugs. The legend of Audrey has almost – not quite, but almost – eclipsed her films; people may know who she is without being able to name one or more of her titles. Which is where GFF’s inspired retrospective comes in…

From the greats – there are few whose cultural consciousness does not contain some reference to Breakfast at Tiffany's, to the more obscure, a strange little film with Sean Connery called Robin and Marian examines said mythical romance twenty years on – the selection has been chosen with care and offers an excellent summation of a career that spanned 38 years. There’s the musicals – My Fair Lady and Funny Face – the comedies – Charade and Roman Holiday – and the just plain unlikely; Unforgiven is a fairly harsh Western in which Hepburn plays a Kiowa Native American Indian, torn between her adoptive Caucasian family and her blood relatives. The production itself was fraught with difficulties, filming being suspended for several months whilst Hepburn recovered from a broken back sustained in a fall from a horse.

Whilst her more famous characters tend to be the first that leap to mind, (Holly-Go-Lightly, anyone?) time exploring her more unknown roles is time well spent; the GFF is offering a unique chance to see one of the few little known roles in Hepburn’s repetoire. The Children’s Hour is a tense exploration of human nature, in which Hepburn and her co-star Maclaine, both teachers at an exclusive girl’s school, are accused by a pupil of being in a lesbian relationship. Walking a fine line of what was permitted in cinema at the time (44 years before Brokeback Mountain) the screening next week is a must for any true fan of the five-time Oscar-nominated actress.

And if all of that hasn’t convinced you, let your fellow citizens add the final argument; last week a survey conducted by Sky amongst thousands of film fans showed Hepburn fending off the likes of Angelina Jolie and Keira Knightley to be declared the ultimate Hollywood beauty. Lucky for us, and for cinema, she had the grace, the style, the talent and the brains to go with it.