Film
Movie theaters, reviews and showtimes in New York, plus articles, trailers and more
- Home
- Box Office
- Listings
- Trailers
- Features
Bookmark this page- Edition:
Roman Holiday (1953)
Director: William Wyler
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
This has the hallmarks of a Billy Wilder picture - Americans abroad, masquerades leading to moral transformation - and Wilder would doubtless have turned it into a blazing masterpiece. Wyler's style was not particularly suited to comedy - the film is a little long, a little heavy at times, the spontaneity a little over-rehearsed - and he simply makes a wonderfully enjoyable movie. Hepburn is the Princess bored with protocol who goes AWOL in Rome; Peck (Holden would have been better, edgier) is the American journalist who has the scoop fall into his lap; and Albert (the best performance) is the photographer who has to snap all of Hepburn's un-royal escapades. This sort of thing was churned out by Lubitsch in the '30s, on the Paramount back-lot; Wyler went on location, and in 1953 that was a real eye-opener, Hollywood's answer to neo-realism. The movie remains a great tonic.Author: ATu
Cast & crew
Director: William Wyler
Producer: William Wyler
Cast: Audrey Hepburn, Gregory Peck, Eddie Albert, Tullio Carminati, Harcourt Williams, Hartley Power full cast
Genre(s): Comedy
Duration: 119 mins
Most popular on this site
Features
To the letter
Forty years later, Costa-Gavras's Z still brims with fury.
Mind over matter
David Cronenberg reflects on a most bizarre body: his own corpus of work.
Fool's gold
Can an Oscar win lead to a cursed career? Here are five stories of postaward professional meltdowns.
We are the championed
Terrorists and teens abound in this year's "Film Comment Selects."
A history of violence
Matteo Garrone's kaleidoscopic Gomorrah wallops you with Italy's crime crisis.
True romantic
James Gray exchanges urban amorality for amour in Two Lovers.
Playing in the dark
MoMA salutes pianist Stuart Oderman's 50 years as the one-man sound of silents.
Junk bonds
Cast and crew recall the making of the classic NYC drug drama The Panic in Needle Park.
What do you think?
Post your review now