While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Even though I like both Hepburn and Peck I've always kind of resisted seeing this movie for some reason. It was showing at Film Forum here in NYC the other day and I figured it was time that I checked it out. I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it. I think all of the performances are good, not just Hepburn. Peck and Albert were both good and I think the Albert character was funny and provided an essential element to the success of this film. The only part of the film that does not work are the end scenes where the Hepburn character is publicly shared/introduced as a real princess. Royalty was viewed and revered differently when this film was originally released, but today those scenes feel stilted. Otherwise this is a light, carefree, and fun film.

Roman Holiday (1953) is a Romantic Comedy starring Audrey Hepburn as Princess Ann and Gregory Peck as Joe Bradley. Princess Ann seems to have it all- She's beautiful, she's rich, she's classy, and everybody loves her, but inside she feels that something is missing. Princess Ann is sheltered and she wishes that there were more to her life. She runs away from her guardians and falls in love with an American newsman in Rome. The best things about Roman Holiday are the acting of Audrey Hepburn, the overall mood of the film, and the chemistry between the leads.Princess Ann is stunning and perfect. Audrey Hepburn is perfect in every film so it is no surprise that she is lovely here as well. As you are watching this film you will no doubt relate to how she is feeling inside. She has grown up now and she wants to experience the world- the simple things in life that most people experience. She doesn't want to have to be classy all of the time and keep up an act. Her part is very believable and will have you rooting for her to find love.Roman Holiday is the ultimate chick flick because it is a classic romantic comedy. Like most romantic comedies, Roman Holiday combines an interesting couple with great chemistry and unique personality traits with hilarious situational comedy. The conflicts are generally light and entertaining when done well, making it perfect for a Girl's Night In. The way that the two main leads meet is very funny. She was drunk and laying outside. When Princess Ann meets Joe Bradley, you can instantly tell that he is going to be a love interest of her's because of the chemistry between them. He examines her behaviour and makes observations. He takes her to her house in a taxi cab and continuously makes jokes. The whole scene is hilarious and lighthearted and sweet and it will have you hoping that they will get together. Princess Ann is too drunk to speak and Joe Bradley takes her to his house instead. Both Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck do a good job at acting in love in the movie and they are a great looking couple. Overall, Roman Holiday is a great classic film that I would recommend to anyone who loves watching old movies. Audrey Hepburn is only 22. She looks much older as she has perfectly formed features, is tall and commands the room. She is always classy in everything she does. Even laying drunk in the street, she looks like a goddess. This movie is spectacular even though the plot is simple. It is hilarious. I love the part where Joe Bradley tries to convince his boss that he actually went to interview the princess when he had not. Overall, the acting of Audrey Hepburn, the overall mood of the movie, and the chemistry and believably of the main leads make this an excellent timeless classic movie to watch.

Basically, "Roman Holiday" is one of "those movies". You know the ones. You have seen the picture umpteen-million times and practically can say the dialogue along with the actors BUT it comes on the TV and even though you missed the first twenty minutes and it's on a channel with tons of commercials, you just MUST leave it on and see it again and after you do, you just feel good! Yeah, one of "those".It's a truly wonderful picture. Peck and Audrey and Eddie Albert and all of the supporting cast are terrific.This last viewing, I noticed the hair stylist more than I ever had before and found Ann's reaction to his admiration of her just so... sooo ... well, watch it and you'll see what I mean.All in all, it's deserving of its "classic status" and a "must see"...many times !

Roman Holiday (1953) was filmed on location in Rome, Italy and, per TCM's host, was shot in black-and-white vs. Technicolor for budgetary reasons. Accordingly, since Gregory Peck had already been hired to play an uncharacteristically light (for him) Cary Grant- like role as the male lead, his romantic counterpart would have to be played by a relative unknown (e.g. someone producer-director William Wyler could get cheaply).Enter Miss Audrey Hepburn, who had appeared in barely (or should that be "barely appeared in") a handful of movies since her debut in 1951. But despite her short resume, the actress so impressed her co- star during the course of filming this one that Peck convinced Wyler to put her name above the title with his. Subsequently, the Academy endorsed the actor's assessment when they awarded Hepburn the Best Actress Oscar for her performance.She would go on to earn four more Best Actress nominations, among them the title role opposite Humphrey Bogart and William Holden in Billy Wilder's Sabrina (1954) the following year and as the iconic Holly Golightly (opposite George Peppard) in Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961), though Hepburn failed to earn a nomination for perhaps her most famous part as Eliza Doolittle in the Warner Bros. musical (adaptation of George Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion) My Fair Lady (1964). She was later voted the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award (e.g. for her work with UNICEF etc.).Hepburn's unique, regal beauty made her perfect for the role of Princess Ann in Roman Holiday (1953). The story opens with the young princess at the end of an exhausting, repetitious "public relations" tour of Europe. Having been sheltered all her life, she's quite naturally bored. She'd love to find excitement given her present routine, which is so mundane that a simple faux pas (such as her losing track of a high-heeled shoe before dancing with a head-of- state) causes a stir. Tired of it all, Princess Ann becomes tearfully hysterical at bedtime while going over the next day's agenda with her secretary.Borrowing a plot device from director Norman Krasna's Academy Award winning Original Screenplay for Princess O'Rourke (1943), blacklisted writer Dalton Trumbo and screenwriters Ian McLellan Hunter and John Dighton utilized a hypodermic administered sedative (in lieu of too many sleeping pills) to handicap their princess in this one. But that's not where the similarities end: as Krasna did with his title character (played by Olivia de Havilland), once she's out of her protective custody environment, the seemingly inebriated princess falls into the hands of the unawares male protagonist who, fortunately, is chivalrous instead of lecherous, and the romance part of the comedy begins. From there the plots of these two movies diverge - Robert Cummings is a pilot and the conflict is a familiar commoner-that-wants-to-marry-into-royalty routine whereas Peck plays newspaper reporter Joe Bradley who, after learning the identity of the sleeping beauty that just spent the night in his apartment is Princess Ann, fully intends to exploit the situation by selling her exclusive story to his publisher for $5,000 (he doesn't let on that he knows who she is; the princess says her name is Anya and cuts her hair to keep from being recognized in public) - but the end of Roman Holiday (1953) is remarkably similar to a famous romance drama classic.Princess Ann's whirlwind twenty-four hour vacation in Rome includes Hepburn's spontaneous reaction to Peck's appearing to lose his hand in the Mouth of Truth and several other slapstick sequences: Joe interrupting his photographer friend Irving Radovich (Eddie Albert's first Oscar nominated Supporting Actor role) to keep him from spilling the beans (e.g. that they know her identity) on several occasions, a harrowing ride on a motorbike through several street vendors such that the three of them end up appearing before a local police chief, and a comedic brawl at an open air nightclub where the princess's countrymen find her (and try to compel her to return with them). She and Joe escape via a canal (my daughter laughed out loud when the princess grabbed her nose and jumped into the water), swimming to the other side, which is (at the very least) a more original way to get the two leads wet for their first kiss than the more stereotypical rainstorm, right? But alas, even though they've fallen in love, it's an impossible situation, so it must end.In a twist on Casablanca (1942), it's her (the princess), not him, with a sense of duty that stops the romance in its tracks ... but they'll always have Rome. Upon her return to the embassy, it's clear that she's matured quite a bit (after just one day on the outside) as she alters the bedtime ritual. But he too is noble and later - when they meet again while back in their respective roles, and Princess Ann learns that Joe is a reporter - he conveys that her secrets are safe with him (e.g. he isn't going to write about their exploits together, despite his need for the money), and then Irving gives the princess the pictures he'd surreptitiously taken as mementos of her holiday.Like Grant before him, Peck's understated performance in this romantic comedy went unrecognized in a year in which actors in two different war movies, and two others featuring Romans, were instead. Edith Head won her fourth of eight Academy Awards (from 34 nominations) for her B&W Costume Design (love those striped pajamas!), and Trumbo's widow was eventually presented the Oscar for his Motion Picture Story, which was originally given to Hunter, who'd fronted for the blacklisted writer.The film was also nominated for Best Picture, as was director Wyler, the aforementioned screenplay writers, editor Robert Swink, its B&W Art Direction-Set Decoration & Cinematography. Plus, it was added to the National Film Registry in 1999. At least AFI voters did recognize it as the fourth best love story of all time.