Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Audrey and her car

Here is Audrey Hepburn again, in How To Steal A Million. What a gorgeous and unusual spectacle she presents. Excellent costuming.

Not to mention that car. I just love it.
Anybody know what it is?




alex said...
Autobianchi
Apparently they were, in the mid 60's , a FIAT division. So it was an Italian car.
I found the answer on the IMDb page for the film, someone else had asked the question.

Where do you see that? I don't see it.
There's also the car below. It's claimed in the film it will run 150MPH. Its road grip is awful, but it's certainly pretty.
... Ah, found something... it's a Jaguar XK-E, apparently.


13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Audrey in a heist film. Favourite actress, favourite genre. Thanks for the tip.

Did you already see The Thomas Crown Affair (1999)?

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Tim Dalton? Yes I did. Don't remember much about it.

How To Steal A Million is very good. Very charming, funny, and has a lot of art in it.

Anonymous said...

No, Pierce Brosnan. I mentioned it because it's also a heist film and about art.

Alex said...

All these Bonds look alike. I hear they used "Windmills of the Mind" in the soundtrack to both of them, interesting eh?

Looks Italian, though it's a bit curvy for how I picture FIAT, and too diminutive for an Alpha Romeo. Since the film is French I'd possibly say Simca, but that is a guess.

Alex said...

Autobianchi
Apparently they were, in the mid 60's , a FIAT division. So it was an Italian car.

I found the answer on the IMDb page for the film, someone else had asked the question.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

How intelligent of you, that did not occur to me.

I'd love to see a car like that produced today. It could be so excellent with modern engineering.

Alex said...

Check out the
Zebra
.

These were made in the US a few years ago, electric sports car, great performance, 100mile range and the look which, though reminiscent of the last Firebirds predates them. It's pretty much the modern day equivalent of the Autobianchi in concept. The other alternate is the Smart.

No one does chrome these days.

Alex said...

I found it in the message board.

You've never seen an E-Type before? I believe Emma Peel drove one for a bit, they were very prevalent at the time, and cropped up in movies left and right. They were the first Jags with the radiator on the side. There had been some controversy about Jag styling before that.

If you are looking around at 60's cars, there are two which have great styling, the Volvo P1800, made famous by Roger Moore as "The Saint", and the Toyota 2000GT, as seen in "You Only Live Twice", with Sean Connery as the passenger.

My personal faves of the time include the Amphicar, more practical than the contemporary Gibbs Aquada, and the Mini-Moke, an SUV derivative of the Austin Mini



So they don't feel left out, Daniel Craig, George Lazenby, David Niven, Woody Allen.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

"You've never seen an E-Type before?"

Surely I have, but I'm not a big car buff, and I was only born in 1963, so.

Alex said...

I was born in '68. I don't think that enters into it.

I cannot understand how a photographer cannot see cars all the time. They have surfaces which vary in gloss, and curve in ways which tease the light into changing the bodies apparent shape moment by moment as the sun tracks the sky.

There deep gloss, like shop windows, present myriad fun house mirrors do distort our view of the world. Their colours can taint and tint the reflected image in them.

Sure this is seeing the car, and not the makers badge, but the family likeness within a brand will invade the subconscious and register at some level.

Or am I just an autophile?

Anonymous said...

I think it's a genetic thing; either you have the car gene or you don't. And if you don't, car's stats, recognition, etc. don't stick in the memory at all. :o)

Pascal [P-04referent] said...

Cute cars.

Driver ain't half bad, either. :-)

Eolake(1963) and Alex(1968),
I was born too. Can I play that game with you?

Autophilia: that's a fetish we weren't taught about in sex psychology class. Too obvious, perhaps? Too mainstream? Too... standard to be considered a fetish? :-D

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

I tend to look at everything, including cars, in an abstract way, I see shapes, lines, tones, colors.