The surprise success of the year 1963: a charming detective comedy, signed Stanley Donen, the accomplice of Gene Kelly. This is the era of the New Wave, counter-culture, flower power, protest and LSD. “Charade” goes exactly against the current of fashion. Cary Grant is 59 years old, and more than 70 films on the clock, he is the very symbol of old Hollywood. Audrey Hepburn is twenty-five years younger than him, they are a motley couple as public favor goes to new faces, like Steve McQueen, Ann-Margret, Paul Newman, Susannah York, Albert Finney, Sean Connery, Capucine …
“All I want for Christmas is another movie with Audrey. »
Embarrassed by the big age difference, Cary Grant then demanded changes in the script and went to Paris, where the exteriors of the film were to be shot. Luckily: the apartment in which Audrey Hepburn once played “Ariane” with Gary Cooper is free, and the furniture has not been changed. She feels at ease there, and the atmosphere relaxes. No one fully understands Peter Stone’s script (it’s his first, inspired by a short story by Marc Behm, future author of “Deadly Hike”), the starting point of which is as follows: a young woman learns that her husband was murdered while in possession of four passports. Unaware of her husband’s real life, Regina Lampert (Audrey Hepburn) finds herself in the middle of an intrigue where a large sum has been stolen from the Resistance and where the CIA plays an obscure role…
The most amusing thing is the way the filmmaker sprinkles the film with references: a scene takes place on the quays, on the very site of “An American in Paris”; another is reminiscent of Hitchcock’s “Rear Window”; and we let you look for the little jokes on “Psychosis”… As for the cast, it is perfectly incongruous: Walter Matthau, James Coburn, George Kennedy, Chantal Goya, Jacques Marin. Undoubtedly, the film has aged, but it retains a crazy charm. Especially since it is one of the last of Cary Grant, who will only shoot two films before retiring. The agreement between Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant was such that the latter declared: “All I want for Christmas is another movie with Audrey. »
Saturday December 31 at 9 p.m. on OCS Géants. American detective comedy by Stanley Donen (1963). Starring Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn. 1h49. (Multicast and On Demand).
