TUESDAY, 28 OCTOBER, 2003
An elegant life - Audrey Hepburn remembered - THE COMMENTARY
By Joseph Planta
VANCOUVER - Audrey Hepburn was an enchanting actress with near-flawless looks that'd make any pedestrian stop and gawk, much as they do whenever passing something extraordinary. When it came to Audrey Hepburn it was to stop and gaze at her with near awe. That didn't take away from her talents as an actress. In her prime she was at the top of her business becoming a legend at the primacy of her career. Cancer took her life just over a decade ago, never allowing her to age as gracefully as we all expected her to do. For years prior to her death she worked tirelessly championing the cause of helping those less fortunate through her efforts with UNICEF. But first and foremost, and thanks to this new book from her son Sean Hepburn Ferrer, Audrey Hepburn was a mother. And from the book, one can surmise that she was a good mother and not only to her two sons, but those less fortunate children in the world, dying from starvation and poverty.
Audrey Hepburn, An Elegant Spirit by Sean Hepburn Ferrer, published today, is a charming book about his mother. Rather than a conventional memoir, this book is set up like a coffee table-type book, full of photographs, that truly does justice to someone so much in the public eye when she was alive, as well as in death.
One of the interesting things about Audrey Hepburn's life and career was the fact that hers was not a terribly controversial life. She was married twice and in a long-term relationship upon her death, yet there's hardly a word about anything salacious about that. Barry Paris wrote a biography on Hepburn and said that she was without lurid secrets and that there were no "closet cruelties to be exposed." It seems the worst thing she ever did was forget to mention Patricia Neal's name at the 1964 Oscars.
Married to the actor Mel Ferrer, they had one son, Sean Hepburn Ferrer. She subsequently married Andrea Dotti and they too had a son named Luca. One cannot read this book and not come away sensing the tremendous love and affection had by all those in Hepburn's life. Seemingly, everyone got along well, and though imperfect (as is everyone), they seemed to be well-adjusted people. Perhaps this family life that seems the antithesis to most Hollywood relationships we see is thanks to the fact that Hepburn had decided early on that she would set aside her acting career to be a mother, which also saw her decide to raise her children in Europe.
However Audrey Hepburn's life was not without hardship. Having had to flee her birthplace Belgium to escape war, she stumbled into acting, following the extinguishing of her dream of becoming a ballet dancer. Ferrer talks about an emotional hunger that Hepburn had, how her marriages somehow filled a gap that was had following her 20-year separation from her father, who was fascist. Though not supporting the Holocaust and the atrocities of that ideology, Ferrer talks about his grandfather's fascist beliefs by explaining that it was "socially elegant to support" the rise of fascism in Europe in those years prior to World War II. Ferrer goes on to write, about why Communism and Fascism were de rigueur, that they were born out of frustration with the establishment that was primarily rooted in royalty and not characteristic of democracy. Surprisingly, I found it odd that though Ferrer condemns what Communism and Fascism became, he still notes that those rebellious thinkers, as he puts it, "can be acknowledged for their revolutionary instincts." One found the proffered opinion odd, considering it seemed a personal insight rather than one that his mother may have held, considering that he later states that Hepburn resented greatly the political and social views of her parents.
The book is chockfull of photographs, which makes for an entertaining if not aesthetically pleasing book. There are some wonderfully charming drawings that Hepburn drew in her youth which are included here for the first time. As well, I found the photo collage of Audrey Hepburn's passports, most ingenious. It's surprising to realise how much something as mundane as one's passport, when collected together over time, can reveal so much about a person. One sees this in the photographs of Hepburn, not the actress, but the citizen.
Ferrer doesn't set out to write a biography. Naturally, unless one was out to write a tell-all memoir like that writ by the offspring of Joan Crawford or Bette Davis, the books that children write about their parents aren't overly critical or harsh. Then again, Audrey Hepburn had hardly anything harsh in her life to write about. Ferrer is very generous in his description of the relationship he had with her, if not lapsing at times into near-hyperbolic rapture for the goodness embodied by Hepburn, which may be too much for a cynical reader. However, it is very obvious that Hepburn was something remarkable, and Ferrer doesn't disappoint in showing the reader how hard it is to lose someone so special and remarkable from one's life.
Ferrer is short on facts about his mother's life. Then again, this is not a biography. It is a memoir on what his mother meant to him and others, and for that he can be forgiven. What Ferrer lacks in information, he makes up for in interpretation and his insightful narrative in search of the meaning of his mother's life and work, as well as his life. His mother's work for UNICEF is covered; however Ferrer lets a lot of other people do the talking for him. He does that with the hundreds of photos covering nearly every aspect of his mother's life, and he also does that with the inclusion of the writing of others. For example in the chapters devoted on Hepburn's charity work, he reprints in full, a speech that his mother gave on the importance of the non-governmental organisation and the important work it does. In reminiscences of her career, Ferrer allows for her contemporaries to do some of the searching for insight. Included are extracts from memoirs or oral histories of Fred Astaire, her collaborator on the film Funny Face; Henry Mancini, who wrote "Moon River," which she sang in Breakfast At Tiffany's; and Cecil Beaton, who photographed her extensively throughout her career.
On the whole, this is a book that is probably the first personal account of the private life of a very public figure, whom Ferrer writes became terribly bitter at the paparazzi that followed her even as she died from pancreatic cancer. The final chapter, "The Price of Forever," is a particularly moving account of Audrey Hepburn's final days. It makes for good reading, and roots the story back to where it belongs - family. Audrey Hepburn eschewed her film career for family, and would return later to do extensive and impressive work for those less fortunate. Good people don't often make for terribly interesting subjects to read about. This book tries for Audrey Hepburn, and on some levels succeeds.
Audrey Hepburn, An Elegant Spirit by Sean Hepburn Ferrer, published today by Atria Books, a division of Simon & Schuster, is $44.95 CDN ($29.95 USD). (ISBN: 0671024787)
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