Filmed entirely in Rome in 1953, Roman Holiday follows Audrey Hepburn’s runaway princess as she escapes the stiff, formal aristocratic life and goes missing for a day in the crowded streets of the eternal city. Aided in her adventure by Gregory Peck’s journeyman newshound, a romance blossoms – but it is as much a romance between the girl and the city as it is between Hepburn and Peck.
From the moment Anne gazes out of her window at the vibrant, dancing nightlife, the film celebrates the intoxicating possibility of Rome. And from the moment Hepburn is give a drastic haircut at the Trevi Fountain – to enable her incognito “holiday” – the film applauds the liberating anonymity and reinvention afforded by a city. Rome hands her a gelato on the Spanish Steps, serves champagne and cold coffee at Rocca’s sidewalk cafe in the Pantheon. Rome gives her the freedom to zip through its aged streets on a Vespa, to wander through its ancient Coliseum and to dance deep into the night atop barges backdropped by the Ponte Sant’Angelo.
From the first meeting between Peck and Hepburn in the artists’ enclave of Margutta 51 to their bittersweet parting at the Sala Grande Galleria in the Palazzo Colonna, it is the chic, buzzing Rome of the 1950s – elegantly framed in monochrome by director William Wyler – that catches the eye. The film launched Hepburn as a star, and Peck is at his sleek best, but it is the Italian capital that is the film’s true star. Hepburn herself knew it: she returned to live there for 20 years.
• My favourite city film is ... Wings of Desire
• My favourite city film is ... Blade Runner
• My favourite city film is ... The Third Man
• My favourite city film is ... Chinatown
