Something for Thursday

I see that filmmaker Blake Edwards died today. I didn't see too many of his movies, but those that I did, I liked immensely. Here are two favorite clips from his movies.

First, the ever-amazing Audrey in Breakfast at Tiffany's:



The way she looks up at the end and says "Hi!" just sends shivers a-tingling the length of my spinal column. Audrey Hepburn always seems so...weary in this film. It's evident in her eyes that she's seen so much, and that a great deal of what she's seen has been sad or traumatic in some way. It always amazes me that she made this movie three years before she made my beloved My Fair Lady, in which her spirit is so youthful in her energy and her exuberance that she seems ready to bubble right off the screen.

And, of course, being right up my alley, there's this little scene from Edwards's zany road-trip comedy The Great Race. It's just the greatest pie fight ever filmed. Huzzah!



Well, maybe it is. I'm not entirely sure what the criteria would be for judging pie fights, but this one's got a lot going for it: duration, amount of edible ammunition, a scantily-clad beautiful woman sustaining multiple hits, and the lead actor almost managing to wander through the scene without getting hit himself. That adds up to a pretty good pie fight!

RIP Blake Edwards.