The Furniture: Funny Face, France, Fashion and Failure

"The Furniture" is our series on Production Design by Daniel Walber. Click on the images to see them in magnified detail.

Funny Face (1957) is not really a complicated movie, visually or otherwise. Its production design doesn’t express inner turmoil or repressive social structures, nor does it take the characters on any sort of elaborate journey. And in some scenes it’s downright boring, director Stanley Donen essentially stepping back to allow Fred Astaire and Audrey Hepburn room to dance.

But production design doesn’t have to be profound to be good, or even Oscar-worthy. And while I wouldn’t have voted for Funny Face for the Academy Awards, I do think it’s worth a look. Besides, its design does sort of have a message: that the opposite of fashion is books, and that any attempt to combine the two will lead to utter chaos. Is it serious? No, of course not, but it manages to be fun and chic at the same time.

It all starts with a gorgeous opening sequence designed by legendary photographer Richard Avedon, who also served as “Special Visual Consultant”...

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Vintage '57 (and what if there had been 10 nominees)

by Nathaniel R

The next Smackdown will be posted on Sunday July 7th. But first let's have a little context on the year that was: Dwight Eisenhower began his second term as President, an influenza epidemic that killed 1 million people worldwide began, Elvis Presley made his final appearance on the Ed Sullivan show (shot waist up only), and the Frisbee was introduced. here's more context for that year in a pop culture sense.

Great Big Box Office Hits: Bridge on the River Kwai, Sayonara, and Peyton Place were the top grossers (and competed for the Oscars). Other hits included Old Yeller, Raintree County, and Gunfight at the OK Corral...

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1957: Another Iconic Year for Deborah Kerr

by Camila Henriques

The mid 50s were huge for Deborah Kerr. She followed up the huge hit The King and I (1956) with two leading roles the following year in Heaven Knows Mr Allison and An Affair to Remember.

1957 brought Oscar nomination number four to Deborah Kerr. It happened for her turn as a nun in Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison. She lost to Joanne Woodward’s intricate work in The Three Faces of Eve. She would applaud, sitting in the Academy audience as a gracious nominees, twice more until the Academy gave her an honorary award in 1994 (presented by Glenn Close, who has since then inherited the forever bridesmaid mantle, *le sigh*). But, for me, it was another movie she did in '57 that truly cemented her as a Hollywood icon. 

Leo McCarey’s An Affair to Remember put Kerr in the same frame as Cary Grant. It wasn’t a first time partnership for them, as they had worked together in 1953’s Dream Wife...

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Introducing the Smackdown Panel for '57

Are you enjoying our super-sized Supporting Actress Smackdown season? We've already discussed 1947, 1981, and 2002. We normally only do 4 episodes but we're super-sizing things this summer so there's lots more to come. It's our own niche movie-loving way of trying to alleviate your (and our) anxiety, depression, exhaustion, during this tumultous time of righteous protests, pandemic sheltering, and treasonous manchild in the White House. Up next 1957

THE NOMINEES

• Hope Lange (Peyton Place)
• Carolyn Jones (The Bachelor Party)
• Miyoshi Umeki (Sayonara)
• Elsa Lanchester (Witness for the Prosecution)
• Diane Varsi (Peyton Place)

Get to watching those four films when you need a break from the real world! Send in your ballots once you've screened 'em with "1957" in the subject line. But please only vote on the movies you've seen.

PLEASE WELCOME OUR NEXT PANEL ... 

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The curious case of "The Red Balloon"

by Cláudio Alves

Last time we explored the history of non-English speaking films at the Academy Awards, we looked at the success of Japanese cinema in the Best Costume Design category. In 1956, two years after the historical victory of Teinosuke Kinugasa's Gate of Hell, the Academy finally inaugurated the Best Foreign Language Oscar as a competitive category. Federico Fellini's La Strada was the first winner and, like Gate of Hell, it also scored a nomination in another category, Best Original Screenplay. This time around, though, the foreign film champion lost that additional statuette. However, it didn't lose to a Hollywood production or even an English-language one. Instead, that year's prize for Best Original Screenplay went to one of the weirdest Oscar winners of all time. 

We're talking about a nearly dialogue-free French short film about a magical balloon directed and written by the creator of the Risk board game… 

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