Ask any Audrey Hepburn fan what they love most about her, and you’ll get a variety of responses: her undeniable beauty and imitable style. Her magnetic presence on film. Her girl-next-door appeal. For so many of her fans, especially women, she wasn’t just a glamorous movie star and humanitarian—she was the embodiment of perfection. But in Audrey, director Helena Coan’s enthralling new documentary, the late superstar’s flawless veneer gently drops away to reveal something far more stirring: authenticity.
Success is very much in the eye of the beholder,” Hepburn says in the film, her words culled from interviews and media appearances throughout her lifetime. It’s an intimate detail nestled at the center of a 100-minute narrative about the woman behind the celebrity, someone whose image of herself was much less complex than how others perceived her.
Featuring commentary from fellow actors and filmmakers including Richard Dreyfuss and Peter Bogdanovich, as well as family and close friends who examine her influence in fashion and cinema, Audrey primarily tells Hepburn’s story in her own words—and they’re often in contrast to her legacy.
