My Fair Lady, dir. by George Cukor, 1964
Relates to:
My Fair Lady, dir. by George Cukor, 1964.
George Cukor's 1964 film My Fair Lady, starring Rex Harrison and Audrey Hepburn, was adapted from the 1956 Broadway musical by Lerner and Loewe. My Fair Lady is a musical adaptation of the play Pygmalion, by George Bernard Shaw (1912). Both the play and the later musical spin the myth of Pygmalion, substituting an English phonetics professor (Henry Higgins) for the artist Pygmalion. His modern "Galatea" is instead a Cockney flower girl, Eliza Doolittle. Higgins makes a bet that he can transform Eliza into a proper lady and pass her off as a duchess in high society, by teaching her how to speak "correctly." True to the story of Pygmalion, he eventually falls in love with Eliza, however, the story also takes on issues of class and women's independence.
This clip is from the later part of the film, after Higgins' triumph: his self-congratulatory attitude and celebration drive Eliza away, as she becomes aware of Higgins' objectification of her.
Julie Andrews originally played the part of Eliza in the Broadway musical, however, when the film was made, the studio feared she was not a big enough name to draw crowds, and the decision was made to cast Audrey Hepburn instead (who does not sing, but lip syncs).