Roman Holiday Movie

Looking forward

This week's happenings in news, sports and more.

MONDAY

Center to host events for veterans

BraveHearts Therapeutic Riding and Educational Center will host a free week of activities for veterans through Friday at the center, 7319 Maxon Road, Harvard.

Registration for the 50 available spots is first-come, first-served.

For information, call 815-943-8226.


Historical society to hold annual meeting

The McHenry County Historical Society will hold its 47th annual meeting on Monday.

The meeting and program will take place at 7 p.m. at the society’s museum, 6422 Main St. in Union.

It is open to the public.

Before the meeting, Northwest Herald Vice President and Executive Editor Chris Krug will be on hand to talk about “The Past and Future” of newspapers.

For information, visit www.mchsonline.org or call 815-923-2267.


TUESDAY

Dundee Library to host annual Safety Day

The Dundee Library is gearing up for the arrival of equipment and vehicles for its 13th annual Safety Day on Tuesday.

The event will run from 10 a.m. to noon at the library, 555 Barrington Ave. (Route� 68) in East Dundee.

The program begins in the library’s meeting room, where local firefighters and police officers will present parents and children (preschool to grade 2) with safety rules, stories and demonstrations of safety gear.

Then it’s out to the parking lot, where all can explore and climb on real rescue equipment.

The event is free, and no registration is required.

For information, call the library at 847-428-3661, ext. 310, or visit www.dundeelibrary.info.


‘Mad City Chickens’ to be shown at MCC

Environmental Defenders of McHenry County, the Lou Marchi Total Recycling Institute at McHenry County College and McHenry County Transition will sponsor a screening of the documentary "Mad City Chickens" 7 p.m. Tuesday at the McHenry County College conference center.

For information, call 815-338-0393 or email mcdef@owc.net.


WEDNESDAY

‘Transformers’ opens in theaters nationwide

"Transformers: Dark of the Moon," starring Shia LaBeouf and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, opens in theaters.

Roman Holiday (1953) | Can't Stop the Movies

Is the film that introduced Hepburn to Hollywood. Selected by legendary director William Wyler to give his new film an air of untapped allure, Hepburn plays Princess Ann, royalty of an unnamed European nation. She is forced through ritual and routine, much to her consternation.

Unable to keep her enthusiasm bottled up, she escapes into the Roman night only to find the influence of a sleeping pill she’d been fed soon leaves her more than a little goofy.

Hard lucked Joe Brady, played with a wry grin by Gregory Peck, is losing another game of poker to his fellow journalists. He’s been working on getting the money to get out of Rome and back to America, but him and cash were always going in the wrong directions.

Leaving the game, he finds Ann next to a fountain, lazily drifting to sleep. Unable to leave the girl there with a clean conscious, Brady sets her up in his apartment for the evening. The next day, when Brady finds out who it is who’s asleep in his bed, he sets out with a plan to catch the princess unguarded and earn a payday for an expose.

The day revolves around the two covering up their mutual pasts in an attempt to earn a chance to experience mutual innocence; she wants the real world experience, and he wants to get her getting that experience. That they fall in love in the course of the day is of little surprise to anyone but them.

functions as many things: a fairy-tale, a travelogue, and a definition of responsibility, desire and real love.

Filmed around the city of Rome, the movie is a tribute and a time capsule of post-war Italy. All of the sights are here, from the fountains to the Colosseum. One of the first films shot on location, Wyler is freed from the studio, and as such turns in a movie with a hand-held feel that undoubtedly influence the Nouvelle Vogue movement in France a few short years later.

With Rome as the sensual backdrop, it’s the actors that bring this film to life. Audrey Hepburn, who won the Oscar for her work here, is nothing less than luminous. Wyler takes the same smile that she’d casually dashed off in her British period and lingers on it, allowing Hepburn every frame she needed to get to that charming toothy grin. Her smile is one of innocence and exuberance, and such a simple but beautiful physical act that seeing her smile here is like seeing the very idea of a smile anew.

Her character is held in check by a bemused Gregory Peck, every moment her match and equal. Peck’s acting style can be described as either aloof or stiff; he often gives off a feeling of not taking things seriously, and while that’s been deadly in a few of his films, it works to his great benefit here. Any other actor would either focus on the nastier side of Brady, taking advantage of the princess, or the daffier side, losing all of the tension about the truth between the two characters.

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