In 1954, when ‘Sabrina‘ was made, the film’s director, Billy Wilder, and the three actors who played the lead roles (Audrey Hepburn, Humphrey Bogart and William Holden) had each won at least one Oscar. ‘Sabrina‘, an entertainment movie, a romantic comedy of sorts that would have no chance at such awards nowadays, was also nominated for six awards. In the end, it won just one, for the best costumes, the film marking the beginning of Audrey Hepburn‘s collaboration with the fashion house of Givenchy. This is probably the only award that the film would have deserved. ‘Sabrina‘, seen 67 years after its premiere, has some interesting qualities, but these are not necessarily the ones that were appreciated at the time.
Wilder‘s ‘Sabrina‘ belongs to the genre of escapist films set in the world of the rich, a genre that enjoyed great success in the United States in the 1930s – the years of the economic crisis and the long period of recovery that followed. The war brought other topics to focus in the next decade, but the genre reappeared in the early 1950s. Success was not the same an America that had changed a lot, much more prosperous and socially dynamic. The Cinderella story we are wittnessing, set in the luxurious East Coast mansion belonging to the Larrabees, a tycoons family, and their sumptuous Manhattan offices, is as unbelievable as the fairy tale that inspired it. It is proof that the gap between some of the products of the Hollywood film industry and reality is not something new, but rather a permanence in the history of American cinema.
Films of this kind largely relied on the personal talent and charm of their stars, and ‘Sabrina‘ was no exception. The problem could have been that when the film was made, the couple to fall in love was played by Bogart who was 55 and Audrey who was 25. The writers tried to alleviate this difference by creating for Bogart a role of ‘corporate beast’, a workaholic aging man whose life was dedicated to the family business, but the change of affection of the girl embodied by Audrey Hepburn is still not convincing. Like in the legend and the movies about ‘Beauty and the Beast’, to use another comparison with the world of fairy tales and fairy tale-inspired movies. Instead, in the perspective of the 67 years since its making, another unexpected effect appears. Humphrey Bogart‘s Linus Larrabee, a rather atypical role in the actor’s filmography, looks unexpectedly contemporary, a corporate capitalist that today, if a remake was made, the screenwriters would put at the top of the pyramid of a global hi-tech corporation and not many other things should be changed. Audrey Hepburn is a charming and out-of-this-word, as in all her appearances on screen. Charles Lang‘s cinematography offers a few unexpected glimpses of beauty, and so does the music with a few songs composed by Friedrich Hollaender that play an important role in the story. ‘Sabrina‘ looks obsolete in many ways, but re-viewing it today we can understand many of the reasons why it was successful at its time.