Audrey Hepburn stars as Jo Stockton, a bookish Greenwich Village clerk captivated by the French pseudo-philosophy of “Empathicalism” (a playful nod to Existentialism). Her quiet intellectual life is upended when she’s discovered by photographer Dick Avery and the formidable Maggie Prescott, editor-in-chief of Quality Magazine. Swept off to Paris, Jo is gradually stripped of her lofty ideals and transformed into the ultimate “Quality Woman,” embodying the era’s glamorous, high-fashion ideal.

The film gleefully satirizes 1950s tropes, culminating in a dreamlike finale where Jo, adorned in a Givenchy wedding dress, drifts off on a river raft into a magazine-perfect fantasy, wrapped in the arms of Fred Astaire’s Avery. Kay Thompson, in her only starring role as the commanding Prescott, rallies “the women everywhere” to “Think Pink!”, while Astaire dazzles in a toreador jazz number, one of his finest screen performances. But the trio truly shines in “Bonjour, Paris!”, a joyful anthem to the “Great American Tourist.” As they marvel at postcard-perfect landmarks—the Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame, Les Invalides—Hepburn and Thompson wistfully sing, “Is it real? Am I here?” The answer? No. This Paris is a dream conjured by postwar American fantasy, brought to life through the shimmering magic of VistaVision.