For her sophomore feature 26 year old British film-maker Helena Coan leaves behind the world of influential car designer Frank Stephenson and enters that of Hollywood’s biggest stars of all time. Audrey Hepburn had kicked off her entry into the big time with her first starring role in Roman Holiday in 1953 picking up her first Oscar, a Golden Globe Award, and a BAFTA Award, and she never really looked back until she decided to retire.
Coan’s documentary however is not just about Hepburn’s reign as the Queen of Hollywood, or being voted one of the Best Dressed Women in the world, it also looks at her personal life story and in particular her constant search for love.
Born in Belgium, she grew up as a child in Occupied Amsterdam during WW2 after her father had just simply walked out on the family. Added to that Hepburn was part of an aristocratic European family that numbered more than a few Nazi supporters in their ranks.. Both facts added to Hepburn keeping quite close lipped on her past right until her death.
It is soon clear that Coan’s film is determined to profile Hepburn in such a flattering light that it borders on being sycophantic at times. Even dealing with Hepburn’s two very different marriages ….. first to actor Mel Ferrer, and then to Italian psychiatrist Andrea Dotti.… Hepburn emerges completely as the innocent party when they both failed.
Coan shows Hepburn as the sublime actress that the camera and the audience loved without hesitation. This adoration not only made her shine but created an aura around her befitting her position as Hollywood royalty. Her special relationship with the great couturier Hubert Givenchy helped enhance this image with a whole array of stunning outfits. Even her ‘off-duty” clothes were immaculately stylish .
When Hepburns second marriage ended because of her husband’s non-stop affairs Hepburn told a reporter “doctors are great with their patients, but they never want to take care of their families”.
She was on the constant quest for love in her life …… she had already tracked down her estranged father but that hadn’t worked out as she had hoped. Hepburn however did get closer to this and a real sense of personal achievement when she turned her back on Hollywood . She had already supported the work of UNICEF, but then she gave up acting to become a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador
She worked with children in some of the poorest communities of Africa, South America, and Asia between 1988 and 1992. Looking at her graceful and impassioned appearances doing this charity work, it strikes one that she may have been the inspiration of the Princess of Wales after her divorce from the Royal Family
In December 1992, Hepburn received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in recognition of her work, and then a month later, she died of cancer at her home in Switzerland at the age of 63.
Coan’s portrayal will no doubt please loyal Hepburn fans, but it adds so little to what we already knew, it can hardly claim to be the definitive documentary of this Icon. Hopefully that is still to come.
Labels: 2020, Audrey Hepburn, documentary
