3. Funny Face (1957)
Funny Face is a dazzling delight of a musical, full of heart and wit as well as joyous dancing and singing. Hepburn plays Jo Stockton, a bookish intellectual who finds herself the unwitting and initially unwilling muse of fashion editor Maggie Prescott and famous photographer Dick Avery as they journey across Paris to display their everything-or-nothing fashion show and series. The film itself is gorgeous and sumptuous in its display of the bustling metropolis of NYC and of the hazy, dreamlike and idyllic Paris. The three main leads are all perfectly cast - Fred Astaire's Dick is a snappy, dry counterbalance to Audrey Hepburn's fierce intelligence and underlying sweetness. Best of all is Kay Thompson's tour de force performance as Maggie, a breezy, snarky dose of pure fun that doesn't so much chew the scenery as shred it to pieces with an acerbic comment before dressing it in Givenchy and kicking it down the catwalk. An absolute toe-tapping delight.