Roman Holiday (1953)

Director:William Wyler; Screenplay: Ian McLellan Hunter & John Dighton; Cinematography: Henri Alekan & Franz Planer

Cast: Audrey Hepburn, Gregory Peck, Eddie Albert

    Roman Holiday is to say the least  - legendary. For the Oscars received total of three and a shining performance by Audrey Hepburn it can be called iconic. It tells a story of a young bored princess who sneaks out from her palace and gets into lots of trouble.  The story unwinds like a typical present Disney movie – princess walks free around city without no one really recognizing her or merely calling her a ringer, gets a makeover and falls in love with a commoner. Though in no way it can be called the original Disney movie. Sure it most probably has influenced them but this burger has no Disney cheese in it. What it has is real dialogue, intelligent jokes and a surprisingly decent ending.

    Roman Holiday was the first American movie to be filmed entirely in Italy on beautiful-beautiful locations. The more it was disappointing to lose the liveliness of Rome to black and white. Cinematography was quite inconsistent throughout the movie hence the fact that the original cinematographer had to leave the movie halfway through. Neither of the cinematographers brings much innovation into the picture, with The Graduate being the last movie I watched where the cinematography was top notch, Roman Holiday was just weak and honestly I don’t see why it got an Oscar nomination. In my opinion it was undeserved. What it did deserve was the Oscar for Best Writing. It had cute sense of humor what may not make you laugh on top of your lungs but it makes you chuckle and in altogether it works the best that way.

    At first I couldn’t decide wheter Audrey Hepburn was undescribably annoying or just brilliant. It was a great performance but I’m still at doubt in what end. I can’t say there was a strong chemistry between her and Gregory Peck. There just wasn’t the passion nor fire. My favorite character in Roman Holiday was Irving Radovich. Eddie Albert brought this light into the rather unnecessary character and made the story more loveable.

    The strongest part of the movie was staging. It felt like a theater inside of a movie. The physical expression was real while remaining enough dramatic to translate well into motion picture.

    Roman Holiday was full of surprises both good and bad. Even though it felt like Hannah Montana goes to Italy it can’t be blamed for it. We should rather look at it like the predecessor for all those Disney movies we love to hate and romantic comedeys no one can do well anymore. Had it been done nowdays, it would fall straight into the buckets of clicés which thanks to the era, avoids. I won’t be watching it again anytime soon - I guess it’s too sugary for my taste. But if you love yourself a good 50s movie with well balanced humor and bit romance, then...

written & edited by: Benni

links: IMDb