PROFILE: AUDREY HEPBURN

 

The style queen of Hollywood

Photo: Paramount Pictures Publicity Still. Circa 1954
 

As the NFT prepares its Audrey Hepburn season, David Gritten recalls the Continental poise that captivated the world

Think of Audrey Hepburn, and any number of words and phrases come tumbling into the mind: elegant, touch of class, gamine, clothes horse, sophisticated, chic, innocent beauty. And above all, a good person, thanks to her tireless work in her later years as a special ambassador for Unicef. Posthumously she has achieved the status of secular saint.

Audrey Hepburn: innocent beauty and secular saint

This adds up to a complex set of associations, a fact that attests to the power of Hepburn's presence on screen in a film career that scaled the heights for 15 years. But these same associations mask her acting abilities. This makes the National Film Theatre's retrospective of her work especially welcome. Starting on Monday, the NFT's Hepburn season encompasses 18 of her films, ranging from big successes to rarely seen obscurities. Rachel Moseley, a film lecturer at the University of Warwick, who presents an introduction to the actress's career at the NFT on Wednesday, argues that Hepburn always seems to be herself on screen, rather than acting. But she also suggests that the season of films "demonstrates a range and depth of achievement in her performances". That sounds about right. Hepburn was no dim-witted ingénue, and in the 1950s and 1960s it was no accident that Hollywood's most accomplished directors - Billy Wilder, John Huston, Stanley Donen, Fred Zinnemann, King Vidor - queued up to work with her.