BILLY WILDER

Bil’s rating (out of 5):  BBBB.  USA, 1954.  Paramount Pictures.  Screenplay by Billy Wilder, Samuel A. Taylor, Ernest Lehman, based on the play Sabrina Fair by Samuel A. Taylor.  Cinematography by Charles Lang.  Produced by Billy Wilder.  Music by Van Cleave, Friedrich Hollaender.  Production Design by Hal Pereira, Walter H. Tyler.  Costume Design by Hubert de Givenchy.  Film Editing by Arthur P. Schmidt.  Academy Awards 1954.  Golden Globe Awards 1954.  

Glossy, charming romantic film that is one of the hallmarks of Audrey Hepburn‘s career. She plays the title character, daughter of a chaffeur who grows up above the garage and constantly watches the lives of the wealthy family her father works for.  Having long fostered a fixation on the clan’s young prince (William Holden), Sabrina comes back from cooking school in Paris a full-grown woman with a divine wardrobe, finally catching the attention of the man she loves while causing angst among the rest of his family. Holden is expected to marry the daughter of a wealthy industrialist, a merger of both a personal and business nature for their two families, so his older brother (Humphrey Bogart) is enlisted to keep Sabrina out of the way. How long can he spend time with her before falling for her charms as well? Watch this gorgeously shot film to find out (and try not to mind that the male lead is ten thousand years older than his girl).