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Roman Holiday at 70: Audrey Hepburn’s star-making role remains luminous | Audrey Hepburn | The Guardian

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The 1953 romantic comedy may lack heft but the Oscar-winner’s charming lead turn makes it an escape worth taking again W hen Roman Holiday was released, 70 summers ago, the monarchy was having a fashionable moment. Two months before, the world had watched the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, a relatively young, glamorous face for a fusty institution: the first such event to be globally televised, it made the very principle of royalty seem less like the realm of ancient history. I say “relatively”: the frilly pomp and ceremony of English royalty can’t have been much sexier in 1953 than it was in 2023, though at least they didn’t have official broad-bean quiche to contend with. There was certainly ample scope for Hollywood to prettify the notion a bit, which is where Roman Holiday proved most fortuitously timed. A romantic comedy that set a quasi-fantasy template for the genre that has endured to the modern era – take Notting Hill, a veritable homage – it played on a mid-century fascina

Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck in Roman Holiday. Photograph: Cinetext/Paramount/Allstar View image in fullscreen Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck in Roman Holiday. Photograph: Cinetext/Paramount/Allstar Audrey Hepburn This article is more than 2 years old Roman Holiday at 70: Audrey Hepburn’s star-making role remains luminous This article is more than 2 years old The 1953 romantic comedy may lack heft but the Oscar-winner’s charming lead turn makes it an escape worth taking again Guy Lodge Sun 27 Aug 2023 04.03 EDT Last modified on Sun 27 Aug 2023 20.27 EDT Share Prefer the Guardian on Google

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