Donen 's next film was at Paramount Pictures for producer Roger Edens . '' Funny Face '' ( 1957 ) contains four of the original George and Ira Gershwin songs from the otherwise unrelated 1927 Broadway musical of the same name that had starred Fred Astaire . Loosely based on the life of fashion photographer Richard Avedon , who was also the visual consultant and designed the opening title sequence for the film , it was written by Leonard Gershe and included additional music by Gershe and Edens . Donen and Edens began pre-production at MGM , but had difficulty juggling Astaire and Audrey Hepburn 's Paramount contracts , the Warner Brothers-owned rights to the Gershwin music that they wanted and their own MGM contracts . Eventually a deal was reached that both released Donen from his MGM contract and allowed him to make his next two films at Paramount and Warner Brothers respectively . Astaire plays an aging fashion photographer who discovers the intellectual bohemian Hepburn at a used bookstore in Greenwich Village and turns her into his new model while falling in love with her in Paris . Donen , Avedon and cinematographer Ray June collaborated to give the film an abstract , smokey look that resembled the fashion photography of the period despite protests by Paramount , which had recently invested in the sharp VistaVision film format . '' Funny Face '' was screened in competition at the 1957 Cannes Film Festival and received good reviews from critics like Bosley Crowther . '' Sight & Sound '' , in contrast , accused it of being anti-intellectual
1957 Cannes Film Festival
1957 Cannes Film Festival
Stanley Donen