Hollywood extras

REVIEWS BY MICHELLE JONES

When it was announced that the black Givenchy evening gown Audrey Hepburn immortalized as Holly Golightly would be auctioned off this month, many fans mused about owning it. The Audrey Hepburn Treasures: Pictures and Mementos from a Life of Style and Purpose is not a bad consolation prize; in fact, sitting down with the book is like being granted access to Hepburn's own scrapbooks. The disparate aspects of her life—aristocratic forbears, wartime deprivation, professional ambition, devotion to family, iconic glamour and UNICEF missions—are well chronicled in this lovely gift book written by Ellen Erwin, executive director of the Audrey Hepburn Children's Fund, and Jessica Z. Diamond, archivist and curator of both the Fund and the Audrey Hepburn Estate.

There are numerous photographs from Hepburn's childhood, movie stills and informal photos of her on-set, snapshots of her playing with her sons and hanging out with friends. Of course, part of the allure of Audrey Hepburn Treasures are the facsimiles stored in the book's glassine envelopes: a contact sheet of photos from Hepburn's wedding to Mel Ferrer, a shooting schedule from Sabrina, a receipt for her Roman Holiday Best Actress Oscar, marked-up Breakfast at Tiffany's script pages and other memorabilia. A postcard of Hepburn and Givenchy walking along the Seine sent to the actress by Givenchy himself is a wonderful touch. The book's introduction was written by Hepburn's eldest son, Sean Hepburn Ferrer, and a portion of the proceeds benefit the Audrey Hepburn Children's Fund.


Spoiler alert

Hepburn was never one of Hitchcock's leading ladies, though he worked with several other fashionable actresses. Style is obviously not the focus of pop-up legend Kees Moerbeek's Alfred Hitchcock: The Master of Suspense. Each of the seven spreads in this appropriately bizarre tribute highlights a different movie with scenes rendered in 3-D, an overview of the plot and details about casting and filming. Though one might question the omission of North by Northwest (think of the pop-up possibilities—the crop duster, Mount Rushmore) or The Man Who Knew Too Much (oh, well, que será, será), there's no denying that Moerbeek captures the essence of Vertigo with an impressive re-creation of the tower and the falling man of the opening credits. He evokes the terror of The Birds with menacing black specimens and a window onto the gas station fire, while the Psycho pages are appropriately in all black-and-white (almost). Curiously missing in Alfred Hitchcock are the A-listers who appeared in the films, but that does leave the focus all on Hitch. As in the films, his cameos, interpreted as mini pop-ups, are not-to-be missed treats.


© 2006 ProMotion, inc.