As one of the most well-known actresses of Hollywood’s Golden Age, Audrey Hepburn’s name is well-known across the globe. With her charming smile and her elegant style, the young actress made herself stand out from the other actresses of the Hollywood crowd: not the perky girl next door, but a princess come to life. She looked the part, sounded the part, literally acted the part in her most famous film “Roman Holiday,” but beyond all that, Audrey Hepburn was, like everyone else, a complex person with heartbreaking loss and heart-rending love.
The latest Netflix documentary, “Audrey,” (dir. Helen Coan) focused on these complexities with the gentle touches reminiscent of an old friend or family member. This is probably closer to the truth than not—the documentary interviewed a handful of family friends, as well as Hepburn’s own children and grandchildren. Each person interviewed had nothing but praises for their dear friend or family member—however, the amount of praise given on behalf of Hepburn did not make such seem insincere or insignificant.
The documentary started with a careful examination of Hepburn’s beginnings: how, as a child, she endured starvation in Nazi-occupied Holland. She would carry messages to the Resistance in her shoes, and she would perform dances and plays in the dark to distract people from the horrors outside. The documentary then transitioned to her big breaks—from performing on stage to performing on the big screen, Audrey Hepburn’s name seemed to be everywhere. People couldn’t help but look at her when she entered a room: she was the glowing personification of grace and gentility.
But the documentary also showed that Hepburn had so much more to offer the world than just her acting and grace. She was an absolute icon, of course—the documentary does not disagree with that—but what was worth more discussion was the fact that Audrey Hepburn was someone who loved.
That was what the documentary boiled down to: Audrey Hepburn was someone who loved.
That might seem a little odd, and perhaps a little cheesy. In an age where an increasing amount of celebrity documentaries seem focused on revealing heartbreakingly shocking truths about the pretty faces in magazines and on television screens, this documentary celebrates this deeper, more poignant side of Audrey Hepburn that might not have been discussed as often before. The latter half of the documentary especially, and perhaps its most touching section, exemplified this the most. The emphasis on Hepburn’s work as a UNICEF ambassador is a touching and a chilling one, considering that Hepburn herself had been helped by UNICEF when she was a child in Holland all those years ago. The documentary explored how Hepburn, upon realizing that mass child hunger was still an issue in the world, took to UNICEF’s mission and used her influence as an actress to raise aid for children in countries all around the world.
This passion and, more importantly, this love for children and the world as a whole, compelled Hepburn to do the most she could. She learned about all the political situations of the countries she visited so that she could better understand her role in these relief situations. She stood before Congress and urged them to donate funds to these causes. One of the most haunting and noteworthy lines of her own was added to the documentary: “I hope that instead of the politicization of humanitarian aid, we have the humanization of politics,” which, given today’s toils and troubles, strikes a deeper chord than ever. One cannot help but wonder what Hepburn herself would have to say about the politicians and news anchors today who would tell actors and actresses to “stay out of politics”—because it seems that Hepburn would have been a force of nature even now.
Audrey Hepburn is timeless in this documentary. Her love and passion for the world shines through—something that, as her granddaughter notes, is impressive, because if one had a childhood as hard as her own, what with surviving a war, a father’s abandonment, an unhappy marriage and a miscarriage… one would think that the world would turn someone like Hepburn cold. However, the documentary showed that despite all the trauma and struggles she endured, Hepburn remained a light till the very end. A light that believed in helping people—a light that, the last clip of Audrey’s voice exclaims, “loves unconditionally.”
Love unconditionally, even if the world does not always love you back. It would be so easy to scoff at those words—after all, Audrey Hepburn was a Hollywood star. It would be easy for her to love the world when she has things like money and power—but the documentary reminds us that this was not always the case. Like anyone else, Hepburn suffered through hardships. She had a husband who had affairs with over 200 women. She had a father who pretended to not know her when she reunited with him. She had a childhood of starvation and terror. Despite the smile she put on for the cameras, she was anxious all the time. And yet.
And yet, for all the hardships that she’s endured, Hepburn proved herself to love where it might not have been easy for her. This documentary will make viewers feel as though Hepburn herself has come down to grace us with her presence one last time. It will make viewers feel as though Hepburn gave us all yet some more love from beyond.
