Funny Face was a Paramount production directed by Stanley Donen, shot partly on location in Paris and partly on studio soundstages in Hollywood. The film starred Audrey Hepburn as Jo Stockton, a bookshop clerk turned reluctant fashion model, and Fred Astaire as Dick Avery, the photographer who discovers her. Astaire was 57 during production. Hepburn was 27. The age gap was significant and both of them knew it, but Donen built the film around their dynamic rather than trying to minimize it.
The Paris sequences were filmed on location in the spring of 1956. The production had access to the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, and the streets of Montmartre, which gave the film a visual authenticity that studio-built sets couldn’t replicate. Filming in Paris in the mid-1950s meant navigating real crowds, unpredictable weather, and the logistical challenge of moving equipment through narrow streets not designed for a Hollywood production.
Audrey Hepburn’s wardrobe was designed by Hubert de Givenchy, her real-life collaborator and close friend. The clothes weren’t just costumes — they were actual haute couture pieces that Givenchy created specifically for the film. The fashion sequences required extensive coordination between the costume department and the cinematographer, making sure each outfit was lit correctly for the Technicolor cameras.
Fred Astaire choreographed several of his own sequences, as he had throughout his career. His dance with Hepburn in the darkroom, lit entirely in red safelight, required precise blocking so the two performers stayed visible without the scene becoming flat. The famous sequence where Hepburn dances alone in a Left Bank café was shot with minimal crew to keep the space uncluttered.
