Roman Holiday

With a very nice blend of fantasy and reality, and two very likable stars, "Roman Holiday" is both entertaining and thoughtful. Sometimes it is very funny, and at other times it makes you feel a great sympathy and warmth towards the characters. Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck are ideal in the leading roles, and the story is very clever in getting a lot of mileage out of a simple idea without pushing things too far, which makes it quite effective.

The idea of Princess Ann (Audrey) slipping away unnoticed and unrecognized for a day of fun and freedom from responsibility is of course fanciful, but it works for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is Peck's role as a pragmatic newsman. He is a good balance for Hepburn's charm and energy, remaining calm and logical without ever becoming cold or distant. You feel as if you could spend a lot more than a couple of hours in their company. And how could you improve on Eddie Albert's performance as Peck's photographer friend? The movie also adds in the atmosphere of Rome itself, with some creative scenes that make good use of the setting.

There are many fine moments in a story that at times seems almost like a daydream, and then it brings the characters back to reality in a moving way. It's not an easy combination to pull off, but here it all fits together very well, to make the kind of classic worth remembering, and one which you can watch and enjoy more than once.

After Trumbo we decided to watch one of the films of which Dalton Trumbo wrote the screenplay for. Roman Holiday is a 1953 American romantic comedy directed and produced by William Wyler. It stars Gregory Peck as a reporter and Audrey Hepburn as a royal princess out to see Rome on her own. Hepburn won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance; the screenplay and costume design also won. It was written by John Dighton and Dalton Trumbo, though with Trumbo on the Hollywood blacklist, he did not receive a credit; instead, Ian McLellan Hunter fronted for him. Trumbo's credit was reinstated when the film was released on DVD in 2003. On December 19, 2011, full credit for Trumbo's work was restored.

The DVD sat on my shelf for the longest time and I am so glad I took it out to watch. The screenplay is subtle, filled with nuances that Hepburn and Peck teased them out beautifully. I can hardly detect an air of pretension and emotional manipulation. This is as romantic as it gets between a princess and an everyday man. The ending in the big hall really hits the spot. So much is left unsaid but yet what is said speaks volumes. It never betrays the tone of what the film sets out to be but yet my heart was beating with the full desire of wanting to see the relationship go a certain more familiar way. This is an amazing date movie with oodles of intelligence.

This charming comedy is justly famous as the film that made the whole world fall in love with Audrey Hepburn and half the world want to run out and buy a Vespa scooter. Hepburn was always beguiling, but in some of her later roles she tended to overplay the winsomeness. Here every note she hits is just about perfect.

And speaking of notes, pay special attention to the score by the great Georges Auric. If the film had been produced in the manner of modern romantic comedies, the sound track would have been larded with pop hits by Perry Como, Dinah Shore, and Frankie Laine, which would have done an awful lot to destroy the magic. Instead Auric's complex, vibrant, evocative music complements the story's inherent lyricism without upstaging it. In an era of bombastic film scoring, this seems a miracle.

Someone once said that Audrey Hepburn's was the beauty of possibility and transformation -- she was always in motion, always becoming something else. "Roman Holiday" is very much of a piece with that notion. On the surface, the film is about a princess who disguises herself as a "commoner". But in truth she's actually pretending to be a princess, at least at first. She finally becomes authentic -- is transformed and prepared to deal with her destiny -- only through the ennobling power of love and sacrifice. That's one heck of a mythic subtext and does a lot to explain "Roman Holiday's" enduring power.

As a college aged guy with several younger sisters, I'd seen far too many chick flicks as they were being watched and couldn't get over how bad they were. Even ones they claimed to be good were extremely lackluster and I was beginning to wonder what, if any, good romantic movies existed. Then one afternoon I randomly happened to catch Roman Holiday on TV just as it was starting. For some reason I cant really remember, I sat through and watched it and now am quite glad that I did.

Aside from the romance element, it's essentially the polar opposite of what I despised. Great acting, excellent script, and most importantly, an effective and beautiful story. I won't spoil a thing about the plot here, but it works. While the movie can be called a romantic comedy, the humorous elements aren't the cheesy kind of thing you might expect from recent entries in the genre. I All I can say to you is: coming from a guy, this is the first and so far the only romantic movie I have thoroughly enjoyed watching.

A plot as slender as Audrey Hepburn but oh what magic! If you've never seen this jewel, you're to have one of the best evenings of your week, your month.

Perhaps the key to this movie's success is restraint - in the dialogue, in the music, in the cynicism of Peck and cronies at the movie's beginning. No one gushes - all is understated - but how one feels its power.

I hope everyone has experienced a day such as they - with someone they come to care for - as much as they. It's my wish for the world.