SABRINA
Review by Peta Jinnath Andersen
Paramount (1954)
Humphrey Bogart, Audrey Hepburn, William Holden. Directed by Billy Wilder. Adapted from the Samuel Taylor play, Sabrina Fair. Note: review contains spoliers.
Once upon a time, on the north shore of Long Island, some 30 miles from New York, there lived a small girl on a large estate. The estate was very large indeed and had many servants. There were gardeners to take care of the gardens, and a tree surgeon on a retainer. There was a boatman to take care of the boats: to put them in the water in the spring, and scrape their bottoms in the winter. There were specialists to take care of the grounds: the outdoor tennis court and the indoor tennis court, the outdoor swimming pool and the indoor swimming pool. And there was a man of no particular title who took care of a small pool in the garden for a goldfish named George. Also on the estate, there was a chauffeur by the name of Fairchild, who had been imported from England, years ago, together with a new Rolls Royce. Fairchild was a fine chauffeur of considerable polish, like the eight cars in his care, and he had a daughter by the name of Sabrina.
Deciding on movie reviews is hard. Most of the obvious films within the fairy tale genre are produced by Disney or associated with children. And yet, there is so much more to the fairy tale film than “Snow White” or “Sleeping Beauty”—in fact, many movies, modern and classic alike, follow recognisable fairy tale themes. And so, this month’s movie review is Billy Wilder’s Sabrina—a classic Cinderella story.
Sabrina Fairchild (Audrey Hepburn) is in love. The chauffeur’s daughter, she’s been in love all her life. He’s handsome. He’s charming. He’s witty, idle, and a known womaniser. But he’s also David Larrabee (William Holden) one of the Larrabees, the well-to-do family who employ Sabrina’s father.
David, of course, is entirely unaware of Sabrina’s feelings, seeing her as nothing more than a nice, green girl.
As Sabrina’s condition worsens—she goes so far as to attempt suicide—her father and the Larrabee staff decide she needs some time away, and arrange for her to attend an ecole de cuisine in Paris. When she returns, she’s a beautiful and sophisticated woman immediately noticed by David. Difficulties ensue—David is soon-to-be-engaged, forming an important business connection for the Larrabees.
Enter Linus Larrabee (Humphrey Bogart), David’s elder brother and sometime caretaker. Worried about the state of David’s would-be engagement, Linus steps in, offering Sabrina money, then, despite his reserved nature, attempting to woo her. But somewhere along the way, Linus too falls in love.
Aside from the clear Cinderella theme of the movie—poor maiden meets a prince, goes to the ball, falls in love, and has a happily ever after—there are other fairy tale elements sprinkled throughout. Most noticeable is the shift in Sabrina’s hair—she starts as a girl with a long “horse’s tail”, and ends with a neat Parisian haircut (for more on the symbolism of hair in fairy tales, see Saviours with Razors and Maids with Braids). We also see Sabrina performing domestic tasks often associated with Cinderella, and that she too is positioned in the lower working class.
One of the more well-known aspects of the film is Sabrina’s singing of the Edith Piaf song “La Vie en Rose” (The Life in Pink, see above). The song is a fitting symbol of the coming change in Sabrina’s life—it’s from this point on that things truly begin to happen for her.
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