Sabrina (1954)

I love black-and-white old movies, they have a flavour of their own, partly -  I guess - because the actors had to make up for less special effects coming to their rescue and ... colours.
The other night in one of my nostalgic dive into a past that is older than my own, I decided to watch - again - Sabrina in the original version of 1954. It's true, I can also do with the more recent remake, but the taste is not the same . It's like baking using ready-to-use powder as against fresh ingredients.
Sabrina played by Audrey Hepburn has all the grace and innocence that she was always able to put into her characters and her elegance in the Givenchy dresses she chose herself are something making any woman feel a bit like Cinderella reborn.
Of course, one wonders why Humphrey Bogart was given the part of Linus; he was the director's second choice after Cary Grant refused the part but I wonder if as a second choice they couldn't get someone a bit more ... good-looking. Not very handsome but something in between Cary and Humphrey.  But love is not about being good-looking and probably this movie is closer to reality than else. Humphrey is not a charmer, is goofy enough with women, stiff as stiff can get and he does look and sound as grumpy as they say he was on the set of the movie. In the end, after so much complaint from him, he thanked the director since the movie was one big hit and one of his best performances ever.
My favourite quote from Sabrina (1954) comes from the cooking school in Paris. An old student who came to school just to review is souffle' making ability, turns to Sabrina while she looks helpless to her souffle' which didn't change shape. He suggests next time she turns on the oven and asks if she is in love and unhappily so.
"How do you know?" she asks in surprise, thinking of David back home
"A woman happily in love, she burns the souffle'. But a woman unhappily in love, she forgets to turn on the oven."