10 Best Audrey Hepburn Movies You Need to Watch Right Now

“Breakfast at Tiffany’s” is flawless blend of a crowd-pleasing star-vehicle for the effortlessly charming Audrey Hepburn and a bittersweet, painfully beautiful look at love, life, and happiness. Director Blake Edwards, the man behind “The Pink Panther” series, “The Party”, “Operation Petticoat”, “Victor/Victoria”, etc., has crafted a truly timeless film based on the novella by Truman Capote. Though numerous elements of Capote’s story were altered, the film still has a strong core and message that urges audiences to examine their own lives, loves, and happiness.

Everything about this film is classic! You have the timeless Hepburn and her defining performance as Holly Golightly, a sophisticated, sassy call-girl with a secret past who is ultimately one of the most vulnerable characters Hepburn ever played. Then there’s George Peppard, a vastly under-appreciated actor who manages to hold his own next to Hepburn while playing a struggling writer living off an older married woman. Peppard’s boyish good looks and surprising depth make him the ideal match for Hepburn’s Golightly.

Then of course there’s Henry Mancini’s wistfully romantic score and the tremendously popular theme-song, “Moon River”, a true gem of a song that capture’s the film’s essence perfectly. In addition, you have Hepburn’s fabulous, style-setting wardrobe courtesy of her lifelong friend Hubert de Givenchy. In this one film alone, Hepburn and Givenchy practically invented the “little black dress”, popularized ballet flats, and introduced capris as a stylish alternative to regular pants.  This is number one on our list in the best Audrey Hepburn movies for a good reason.  If you haven’t seen this movie and happen to not like Audrey, you still need to watch this!

You have to be something of a romantic to fully appreciate this remarkable film. It helps a lot to be enchanted with Audrey Hepburn, as most of us are. Her performance as the daughter of a chauffeur who gets to choose between two very rich brothers, David and Linus Larrabee (William Holden and Humphrey Bogart), is subtle, slightly mysterious and delightful. Much of the enchantment of her character is based on things implied rather than things said or acted out. We know that her metamorphose in Paris is guided by the 74-year-old Baron St. Fontanel (Marcel Dalio), whom she meets at cooking school. We can discern that she learned more than how to crack an egg. The transformation of her heart from one brother to the other is revealed primarily in her facial expressions as she measures kisses and the sharp stab of pleasure in the center of her soul. We are kept in limbo about whom she chooses until the very end.

This is a girl’s fantasy for grown-ups, and one of the best of its kind. The script, from the play by Samuel A. Taylor, is well-paced and psychologically true in a way that is not immediately obvious. The dialogue, while clearly dated and somewhat pedestrian at times, nonetheless stands up well. The sets are large, very large (director Billy Wilder loved to give us a sense of the vastness of the American corporate empire at mid-century): the Larrabee offices, the garage where Sabrina starts all the cars (I think her father, sleeping overhead really would have awaken instead of just tossing and turning), the family estate with its indoor and outdoor pools and courts.

This was Audrey Hepburn’s debut in a starring role which she won an Oscar for. She was 24-years-old and had appeared in two or three other movies but just in bit parts. Here she plays a reigning European princess visiting Rome who would like an escape from her daily regime of official duties, thus the title and theme of the movie, a Roman holiday.

Gregory Peck plays an American newspaper reporter living in the Eternal City. We first see him playing poker with his cronies, and losing. His relative “poverty” and Princess Ann’s fabulous wealth and station present a formidable barrier to their ever finding true love and marital happiness. Part of the fun of the script is in seeing how this will play out and how their differences are resolved in the end.

This is the most romantic film I have ever seen, perhaps partly because Miss Hepburn is so wonderful, but also because the script in a sense turns the usual woman’s romantic fantasy upside down. Instead of the woman finding that the man she is in love with has fabulous wealth and position, it is the other way around!

The ending manages to be realistic yet romantic. There is a hint of something almost spiritual beyond what happens. So convincing are Hepburn and Peck that one can almost believe the story is true; and indeed I am sure that Trumbo lifted the essentials of the plot from some ancient tale.
I have a weakness for movies about unrequited love, or love that goes on forever, or love that is caught at some perfect moment and lives eternally in that moment. Roman Holiday is one of those near perfect movies that plays beautifully upon one of these themes.

I know, I know… this is #3 on the best Audrey Hepburn Movies List… I have received a lot of email from all of you saying that Roman Holiday should be at least #2 or #1.  They are all so close that it’s hard to pick.

FUNNY FACE was one of my first Audrey Hepburn films.  It’s a musical and I use to hate musicals, but the movie has turned me to the other side.  It is one of the most enjoyable and delightful of Hollywood musicals. Featuring an immortal George & Ira Gershwin score (“He Loves and She Loves”, “S’Wonderful”, “Let’s Kiss and Make Up”, “How Long Has This Been Going On?”); the smartly-written screenplay by Leonard Gershe also marks this film with a strong storyline. I’ve yet to meet anyone who doesn’t like this movie.

When Quality Magazine invades a pokey Greenwich Village bookstore for a photo shoot, it’s the “dowdy intellectual shopgirl” Jo Stockton (Audrey Hepburn) who gets unwittingly discovered. Photographer Dick Avery (Fred Astaire) finds something special in this “funny face” and jets her off to Paris as the new model for Quality’s beauty campaign. Of course love comes knocking for Jo and Dick, but not before some marvelous songs have been sung, and showstopping dances have been performed.

Audrey Hepburn’s early ballet and dance training came in handy with making FUNNY FACE, her “Basal Metabolism” routine is SPECTACULAR (and she sings quite well too). Filmed on location in Paris, the entire movie definitely has the proper European Travelogue feel to it.

This really is a personal favorite of mine, that I hold dear to my heart.  I can watch this movie and Breakfast at Tiffany’s on repeat, it never gets old. I’m thinking that I should rank this higher in my best Audrey Hepburn movies list I have going on here.

Winner of 8 Academy Awards including Best Picture, MY FAIR LADY proves that there is still plenty of life in musicals.  This is a extremely elegant and stylish movie – the kind of spectacle that you just don’t see any more, in a certain type of Technicolor that just isn’t duplicated these days. Extremely witty and classic songs, a swish script, and gorgeous costumes. Admittedly, it is eye candy, but what eye candy! George Cukor directs it with true aplomb, turning “Titanic-era” London into a stylized and colorful melee, bringing out the humor and joyfulness of the screenplay, and Cecil Beaton’s extravagant and yet, somehow, chic costumes and sets form a perfect setting for the actors – and the actors themselves are superb. Rex Harrison is totally believable as Henry Higgins, mixing crustiness with a very dry humor, whereas Audrey Hepburn looks just right as Eliza Doolittle.

One is forced to ponder what Julie Andrews would have done in the role, following her playing the part on stage, but I just can’t see Eliza played by anyone other than Audrey Hepburn, who is, quite simply, delicious. From the mawkish, ramshackle flower-girl, to the rebellious pupil, to the cool and composed “lady” of the title, she is perfectly credible, whether throwing a Cockney temperament, or floating through the conservatory, calmly sending Professor Higgins about his business. I am told her Cockney accent is awful, but I can’t tell the difference between a good and bad accent so  I cannot comment; no more than I can comment upon the fact that apparently her recording of “Oh Wouldn’t It Be Luverly” has been reinstated upon the soundtrack. The appeal for this film lies in its spectacle – I saw it at the cinema once, in an arthouse revival, and it was utterly amazing – and in the speech therapy storyline, which has a lot of relevance to me. “My Fair Lady” is simply… a cinematic glory of a particular type that would be impossible to duplicate ever again. The Ascot scene is worth the money alone, a refreshing, gliding harmony of black and white, choreographed and stylized escapism, totally summing up the essence of a musical.
“Ah, it’s lu-ver-ly – Lu-ver-ly – Lovely!”

“The Nun’s Story” is probably Audrey Hepburn’s best dramatic film and by far the one which shows to best effect her enormous acting talent. Audrey Hepburn is best known for her light romantic comedies. Everybody loves them. She dresses up in some Givenchy outfits and blows the audience away with her beauty and charm. In “The Nun’s Story” she completly sheds that image and immerses herself in the role of the conflicted Sister Luke, a Belgian nun torn by her obligations to her church and order, her duty to her patients as a nurse, and her duty to her country during the Nazi occupation.
This a long and very introspective film that is not for everyone. It contains a detailed look at life in a Belgian convent and a Congo hospital in the years before WWII which may bore some people. Also some of Audrey’s fans looking for her as Princess Anne or Sabrina Fairchild or Holly Golightly may be disappointed to find only the determined, reserved, and prideful Sister Luke. (Although Audrey does make radiant looking nun.) The length, the slowly paced style, the subject matter, and the unusual role for its star have combined to keep it off the list of Audrey Hepburn’s best known films.
Personally, I think this Audrey’s greatest dramatic performance and maybe her best performance ever. She very ably conveys Sister Luke’s inner conflict between her oath as a nun and her duties as a nurse, daughter, and Belgian citizen. That she is able to do so in a film that has long stretches where there is no dialogue is remarkable. She was nominated for Best Actress for this role, and she more than deserved to win, but came up short. “The Nun’s Story” illustrates that Audrey Hepburn certainly had the ability to flesh out dramatic characters and that she was more than just a charming and beautiful woman in a Givenchy outfit. She was a great actor as well.

The ups and downs of matrimony are deftly explored via vacations past and present in the lives of affluent couple Joanna (Hepburn) and Mark Wallace (Albert Finney). We see the bloom of early passion recede as over time the couple adjusts to new life priorities, struggling to maintain their intimacy and affection. This smart, knowing romance projects director Stanley Donen’s signature style, with Hepburn the essence of sixties chic, and Finney (in his prime) the epitome of a salty, rugged leading man. European locales and a memorable Henry Mancini score add the requisite zing to this mature, nuanced love story. William Daniels and Eleanor Bron are also memorable as another married couple who cause Joanna and Mark to examine the state of their own union.

This is one of those movies I didn’t expect to hit me the way that it did. I love Hepburn and MacLaine and so I was anticipating finally getting to sit down and watch this film, but I truly had no idea what to expect. Hepburn was such a wonderfully light actress, an actress who filtered in and out of breezy comedies with such effortless charisma, so I was expecting something a little less dramatic and little more entertaining. What I got instead was one of those films that socks you in the gut and leaves you pondering issues and consequences that never seem to leave your head afterward.

`The Children’s Hour’ is haunting.

The film tells the story of Karen Wright and Martha Dobie, two young women who run a boarding school for young girls. Little Mary Tilford is quite the troublemaker and is constantly finding herself in trouble, and this moves her to tell a little lie (or more like a major embellishment) in order to free herself of trouble. This lie spreads quickly and threatens to destroy the lives of Karen and Martha.

What is so amazing and in the end captivating about `The Children’s Hour’ is that it never becomes predictable but from beginning to end keeps the audience in anticipation. The relationship between Karen and Martha is a huge question mark to the audience, which helps with our understanding of the lie, and this also keeps us wondering how much validity there is to the accusation. This is a brilliant tactic used to keep the audience hooked, and it works on all levels.

I saw it on AMC in August at midnight, and that was a mistake. This movie scared me beyond my expectations. Audrey Hepburn was fantastic as Susie Hendrix, the recently blinded woman persued by Alan Arkin, a narcotics dealer who will stop at nothing to get to a stash that is in Susie’s apartment.
Many claim this movie isn’t scary, but coming from a generation that grew up on Scream, Halloween, Nightmare on Elmstreet and other cheap movie’s that use gore and `don’t-turn-that-bend’ suprises for scares, it doesn’t mean much.
`Wait Until Dark’ is so much more than the typical slasher flick, it is a psychological thriller that takes the viewer on a roller coaster ride to hell and doesn’t stop turning and tossing until the last frame of film fades to black. On second viewing, if you feel the *sparkle* is fading, just position yourself in Susie’s shoes, and you’re in for a whole new experience.
Praise `Wait Until Dark’ – and trust me, if you wait until dark to watch this, you’ll be rewarded greatly with a heart-stopping finale!

Out of this list of best Audrey Hepburn movies, I love this one too. It has everything: romance, comedy, quirkiness and a kissing-in-a-closet scene! Audrey Hepburn was as adorable and entertaining as ever, and this was the first time that I’d ever seen a Peter O’Toole movie and he was fabulous! He’s extremely funny and pretty darn spunky! You could just instantly fall in love with him, the second you saw those bewildered round blue eyes peering over the top of the “Van Gogh” painting. I didn’t find this movie boring for an instant and I loved watching them steal back the “Cellini” sculpture, using, amongst other things, a bucket, a magnet and a boomerang! I think that this is now my favourite Audrey Hepburn movie. They make an extremely likable couple and their exploits in “How To Steal A Million” are engaging and engrossing.

With the absense of elegant comedy with beautifully dressed people in elegant settings nowadays movies like this one are like a glass of water in the desert. I love most sophisticated comedies and while not the best ever made, if you love Paris and Audrey Hepburn like I do you can’t help but be enchanted by William Wyler’s “How to Steal a Million”. Open the champagne and sit back and enjoy!