Althouse: Perfecting Audrey Hepburn...

November 13, 2018

Perfecting Audrey Hepburn...

... using the the Photoshop Surgeon Perfection Mask:

46 comments:

Henry said...: If you did that to a young Brooke Shields would she end up looking like Audrey Hepburn?

* * *

Just a few more iterations and you could turn Audrey Hepburn into Tom Brady.; 11/13/18, 6:19 PM
Rob said...: You'll notice they didn't do it for Grace Kelly, because she was perfect.; 11/13/18, 6:22 PM
Joe Biden, America's Putin said...: Made her someone else.; 11/13/18, 6:23 PM
bagoh20 said...: Comparing before and after, I find her more attractive before the work. I'm not physically attracted to larger women. It's just a innate thing, I can't shake, and I'm very sensitive to that look that tells me a younger woman will explode as she ages. The work done added that look to her. It also made her look more common, and she was an uncommon beauty.; 11/13/18, 6:23 PM
tim in vermont said...: You don't need photoshop to know that the answer is yes. A lot of it is in how she carries herself. Oh and BTW, who sets the parameters in the program? Like the climate models, this program is freighted with assumptions that people pretend aren't there.

There are many other perfect women who don't look like her or each other.; 11/13/18, 6:25 PM
CWJ said...: I had no idea she was in need of perfection. Seriously!; 11/13/18, 6:27 PM
JaimeRoberto said...: I'm not seeing an improvement.; 11/13/18, 6:28 PM
Earnest Prole said...: I think her eyebrows could be a little thicker.; 11/13/18, 6:32 PM
Henry said...: Rob said...
You'll notice they didn't do it for Grace Kelly, because she was perfect.

Perfect.; 11/13/18, 6:35 PM
Henry said...: Who ever looked at an examplar of female beauty and said, "her jaw's not thick enough."

Sounds like something Ivan Drago would say.; 11/13/18, 6:37 PM
readering said...: No argument on Princess Grace; 11/13/18, 6:40 PM
Henry said...: Sounds like something Ivan Drago would say. Or Drax the Destroyer:

People usually want cute pets. Why would he want such a hideous one.

I am hideous?

You are horrifying to look at, yes! But that's a good thing.; 11/13/18, 6:41 PM
rhhardin said...: Too symmetric. Look at Meg Ryan.; 11/13/18, 6:45 PM
Anonymous said...: Henry: Who ever looked at an examplar of female beauty and said, "her jaw's not thick enough."

That's what I was thinking. They masculinized the face. "Blandified" it, too. Not seeing the improvement.; 11/13/18, 6:46 PM
Luke Lea said...: "there is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion"; 11/13/18, 7:08 PM
Darrell said...: The ultimate iteration of that computer program is a male anus.
Be careful who you appoint to define beauty.; 11/13/18, 7:09 PM
rcocean said...: How ridiculous - it didn't improve her looks at all - it just made her look more common.; 11/13/18, 7:11 PM
Molly said...: (eaglebeak)

She looked much better before the "improvement." All her distinctiveness is gone after the meddling, but she looks great before it.; 11/13/18, 7:15 PM
eddie willers said...: You'll notice they didn't do it for Grace Kelly, because she was perfect.

I'll add my "YES" to the others. Of course, I am a caucasian so that shades my opinion.; 11/13/18, 7:18 PM
Howard said...: Blogger Luke Lea said...

"there is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion"

Yes. Uma Thurman is a perfect example. I have a theory that the director Tarantino selects women who look like they belong in a Botticelli painting. Uma is Madonna, Venus and Primavera; 11/13/18, 7:19 PM
D 2 said...: The whole is greater than the sum of parts. They taught us that, when we was young.
I signed the Grace Kelly petition. Wasn't hard to do. But just to show the world how personal this whole beauty thing is, I would have likely said Ms C Hynde was more attractive than Ms S Nicks, circa 1980. I was young. That was then. This is now. They taught us that, too.
The; 11/13/18, 7:40 PM
Ryan said...: Why give her a manjaw?; 11/13/18, 7:43 PM
Maillard Reactionary said...: Looks like she missed the memo about the benefits of eyebrow plucking (joke). A Japanese colleague of mine had a portrait of Audrey as his laptop background. I thought it was an excellent choice. The charm of Nature's happy accidents has appeal across cultures.

Yet, humans think they can improve upon it. Vanity is a rabbit hole that many cannot resist. Sad.; 11/13/18, 8:13 PM
mockturtle said...: It also made her look more common

That was my take, as well. She lost the aristocratic fineness of feature that characterized her face.; 11/13/18, 8:19 PM
Ken B said...: Audrey Hepburn was actually a bit odd looking. Beautiful but oddly so. If you look at Ingrid Bergman from some angles she's really odd looking too, and another great beauty.

Grace Kelly indeed is as close to perfect as can be. Though the woman I find most mindbendingly beautiful is Jodi Foster.; 11/13/18, 8:49 PM
Ken B said...: Howard
Yes. Uma Therman is somehow both perfect and beautiful, and sour and unattractive. The Botticelli thing is right too.; 11/13/18, 8:51 PM
Chris of Rights said...: I agree with the comments that the changes made her look more common. But there's more to it than just that. Audrey Hepburn understood her beauty, and how to enhance it. Part of the problem with the adjusted face is that it no longer goes with her hair. Her original hair is perfect for shape of the face she has. After the change, the hair now looks ridiculous and is why some see her as less attractive.; 11/13/18, 9:06 PM
elkh1 said...: The original Audrey was beautiful. Her nose a bit long, her face a little angular, eyes a bit too big. But all together made her one of the most beautiful women of all times.

The "perfected" Audrey is just a pretty face, a dime a dozen, sold in Hollywood. No character, no individuality. Awful.; 11/13/18, 9:14 PM
William said...: It was the minute imperfections that drew attention to her beauty. There was something haunting about her beauty. Grace Kelly was perfect, but she did not possess the true royal blood of Avalon......If you factor in t&a, I think the award for most beautiful woman would go to Bridget Bardot, but perhaps her sensuality was not such to inspire Godly quests and transcendent love.. Ditto Marilyn Monroe and Sophia Loren.......Audrey Hepburn is what courtly love is all about.; 11/13/18, 9:48 PM
Guildofcannonballs said...: I've never conceived "there is the food, let's delicatly not envour it.; 11/13/18, 9:54 PM
Guildofcannonballs said...: The odear [ep'; don't know KOlly Go Lightly but Kelpurn is absurd.; 11/13/18, 9:55 PM
Guildofcannonballs said...: rEALLY COCO; 11/13/18, 10:18 PM
Guildofcannonballs said...: Govenror Polis on Ross Kaminsiki today was good.

Good for everyone.

Even bakers.

I (we) hope.

He's got all the power now he coveted in D.C. but it's only Colorado.

But, he sounded really really great to a reactionary like me. Polis sounded like Obama sounded but not before but after the win.

Polis wasn't rubbing salt in any way and sounded ultra-informed.

May God continue to bless him and America and Colorado.; 11/13/18, 10:23 PM
Guildofcannonballs said...: https://khow.iheart.com/featured/ross-kaminsky/content/2018-11-13-colorado-governor-elect-jared-polis-discusses-major-policies-with-ross/; 11/13/18, 10:25 PM
eddie willers said...: If you factor in t&a

Then it's Marilyn....hands down.; 11/13/18, 11:48 PM
Openidname said...: Guy who knows PhotoShop likes chicks with big chins. End of.; 11/13/18, 11:55 PM
dustbunny said...: The program made her look like a run-of-the-mill Kardashian. Extraordinary women like Audrey had imperfections in unusual ways.; 11/14/18, 2:24 AM
Paul Sand said...: I'm rewatching Heat, so my take was: "Huh. Made her look like Diane Venora."; 11/14/18, 6:42 AM
Joe Biden, America's Putin said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 11/14/18, 6:58 AM
Joe Biden, America's Putin said...: A computer might be able to make you look better, but in real life, I have yet to see any cosmetic surgeon pull it off.; 11/14/18, 7:00 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "Audrey Hepburn was actually a bit odd looking. Beautiful but oddly so. If you look at Ingrid Bergman from some angles she's really odd looking too, and another great beauty. Grace Kelly indeed is as close to perfect as can be. Though the woman I find most mindbendingly beautiful is Jodi Foster."

I think the word is photogenic. And even that is wrong, because, as you say about Bergman, it's not every photograph. The photographer is making choices — angles, lighting, expression. It's an art form. The face is only part of it, and the spirit behind the face is an important part of the face. I find Ingrid Bergman to be the most beautiful actress, but part of it is the acting, the expression. If I were given the choice to magically have the face of some actress, I probably would pick someone else. The most beautiful actress in the history of movies was most likely a bad actress and not even the one you'd pick out as especially beautiful. She was never photographed to her best advantage and she didn't project a beautiful spirit through expression.; 11/14/18, 7:15 AM
Bad Lieutenant said...: Dickin'Bimbos@Home said...
A computer might be able to make you look better, but in real life, I have yet to see any cosmetic surgeon pull it off.

11/14/18, 7:00 AM

No kidding! What rockstar plastic dreams he could execute that? They lost me as soon as they started to play with her eyes. Show me one result IRL that suggests that could be delivered as opposed to a Jocelyn Wildenstein result. One.; 11/14/18, 7:46 AM
Seeing Red said...: I once read the Japanese love or at that time loved long necks as a feature and Audrey had a long neck.; 11/14/18, 8:13 AM
mockturtle said...: Grace Kelly in To Catch a Thief is beauty to take one's breath away. But aside from mere beauty, there were other stars who just lit up the screen. Audrey Hepburn, obviously, and Marilyn Monroe to name a couple. You seldom notice anyone else in a scene.; 11/14/18, 8:14 AM
Magson said...: "Grace Kelly indeed is as close to perfect as can be. Though the woman I find most mindbendingly beautiful is Jodi Foster."

Hedy Lamarr for me. Something about her face just gets me.

For a more "modern" actress, I'd have to go with Bridget Regan or Laura Benanti.; 11/14/18, 5:45 PM
Jamie said...: There used to be a... blog? I think? that talked about how the world of (female) clothing design and modeling had been taken over by angry gay men who were trying, on purpose, to masculinize the ideal woman. Look at Gisele as an example (said the blog). And now society has swallowed it whole and we have Photoshop algorithms that make Audrey Hepburn into a pretty, young boy.

I can't speak to the accuracy of the blog's hypothesis, but the effect seems to be right on.; 11/15/18, 12:46 PM