Roman Holiday

Lighthearted and enjoyable comedy featuring two wonderful and charismatic performances by Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn in her first major role. Last saw this 12 years ago and still fun to this day. 4.5/5

Audrey Hepburn is the visiting princess "Ann" whose whistle-stop tour of Europe reaches Rome. Put to bed, as usual, she decides to don some ordinary clothes and venture out for a bit of exploring. Now, initially I thought she was going to hook up with some swarthy, tousled, Lothario but nope - she meets American journalist Gregory Peck - quite the epitome of the ordinary "Joe"! Full of the sedatives that her people gave her before she snuck out, she ends up crashing at his apartment and next morning he realises whom she is, and that his boss wants an exclusive! Just about penniless, she leaves and tries to make her way home - but again "accidentally" bumps into "Joe" and together with his photographer pal "Irving" (Eddie Albert), the three ...

Considered by many to be the first and greatest film of Audrey Hepburn's career.

What is special about this film? Really, little. The story is very simple: it is the almost adolescent escape of a young princess who, tired of the responsibilities and visibility inherent in a crown, decides to distract herself and live her youth for a few hours. The problem is that she ends up, inadvertently, at the home of an American news journalist in charge of interviewing her, and who wants to take advantage of the situation. Of course, anyone hoping for an interesting dalliance between the princess and the commoner will be rewarded, to some extent. Predictable? Cliché? Of course, but it was with illusions like these that cinema fed the magic of t...