"It's always open season on princesses."

When my "Introduction to Scriptwriting and Storytelling" teacher recommended us Roman Holiday (1953) because it is very dialogue driven, I needed no more convincing.

This movie felt like a culmination of what I previously watched for this blog, since I was introduced to Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn on To Kill a Mockingbird and Breakfast at Tiffany's respectively.  Roman Holiday awarded Audrey her only Oscar for best actress; and it has a 8-year-younger version of Gregory (which made me understand why he was the sweetheart of the 50's).

This is the mother of romantic comedies, and it sets high standards.

The movie is a classic "I'm incredibly bored with my life so I'm gonna run away for a few days" kinda story, and it follows Ann (Audrey Hepburn), a Princess of a never mentioned kingdom on a goodwill tour around Europe. She's exhausted from her busy tour schedule, and after getting a shot from her doctor to help her sleep, she sneaks out of Castle Sant'Angelo (not a very smart move but it's forgiven because it drives the plot). She ends up literally falling asleep in the streets of Rome.

everyday mood

That's when Joe Bradley (Gregory Peck) finds her. He's an American reporter stationed in Rome, addicted to gambling. He takes pity on the poor drunk creature sleeping in the streets, so he puts her in a cab. At first, the cab takes him home and he pays the driver to continue the journey wherever she wants to go, but Ann is fast asleep and incapable of expressing will. So he takes her to his house, where he lends her the couch. 

Next morning, Joe wakes up to realise his alarm didn't go off and he missed his interview with the Princess. He proceeds to his office to try and bullshit his way out of problems with his boss, but the boss is way ahead of him. The interview was cancelled due to the Princess coming down with an illness (which is also a lie, she's just MIA). That's when Joe sees a picture of Princess Ann and realises it's the same person sleeping in his house. 

To make up for missing the interview and lying to his boss, Joe promises he'll get an exclusive interview with the Princess. 

That's when the stalking begins. 

After she leaves his house and borrows some money, Ann starts perusing the streets of Rome. She buys sandals, goes to a barber and gets short hair, and buys some ice cream. 

And while all this is happening, Joe is following her because he still needs that interview. 

So they "accidentally" meet at the Spanish Steps, and Joe offers to accompany her in doing whatever she feels like doing for a day.  They start by going to a sidewalk café where Joe's photographer friend Irving (Eddie Albert) joins them to discreetly take pictures of the undercover princess. 

They proceed to live the best day in Ann's life (including a Vespa ride), but of course at some point she'll have to go back to her royal duties. Even if she were to fall for Joe, which is exactly what happens.

This movie was just adorable, I couldn't keep from smiling through it. And for the first time ever I actually enjoyed a romance made before the 70's; not very cringe worthy, misogynistic or lacking in chemistry. It's Cinderella-ish, but in reverse.

Audrey Hepburn's acting was incredible, and Rome is one of my favourite cities, so what's not to like? If you're still unsure about this, Roman Holiday won the 1954 Oscar for Best Writing.

Just watch it.





Tiny P.S. about my final task: I'm having a great time talking to people. This is a very broadening experience overall for me. Also, I've decided to incorporate my final task for "Introduction to Web Tools" into this task also, so two birds one stone. It means that I'm also creating a webpage to host the pictures, since we had to come up with a theme for a static website for that course's assignment.
After I'm done with the interviews, I have to go through the audio recordings and select quotes, edit the pictures, and finish the website. Still loads of work, but I'm enjoying it so far.