Director: Blake Edwards
Country of origin and year of release: US, 1961
Adapted from Truman Capote's novella of the same name, it feels only fair to state at the outset that Breakfast At Tiffanys the film is a very different beast to Breakfast At Tiffanys the novella. Both are equally enjoyable, but for different reasons.
Given the gritty reality of Capote's Holly Golightly, and her world, it perhaps doesn't seem surprising that the author had very clear ideas about who he wanted to play her. And it wasn't Audrey Hepburn.
Instead, Capote's stated preference is widely reported to have been Marilyn Monroe, an actor whose background and biography would have placed her closer to the reality of a female hustler such as Holly.
Hepburn is perfect (nay iconic) as the Hollywood version of Holly Golightly, but that Hollywood version is, alas, a Holly defined and restricted by the expectations of Hollywood and the confines of the Hays Code. Which is a long way of saying that the character is much nicer, and is more appealing, in the film than she is in the book. Similarly, it's never really clear in the film just where she's getting her money from, and the screen version features a traditional Hollywood ending that certainly isn't in the book.
The film begins with George Peppard's character, Paul, moving into a New York brownstone and meeting his neighbour, the charming Holly Golightly, an adventurer with a series of male friends who holds loud parties and keeps him awake at night. He first meets her properly when she climbs in through his open window from the fire escape in order to escape from the man she's left downstairs in her apartment.
Later, he is invited to a party at her apartment, and the viewer witnesses one of the most entertaining moments of the whole film in the form of a hedonistic, cigarette and alcohol fuelled post war blitzkrieg that only ends when the police are called. It's a vision of a bygone world and, for this reason alone, you should watch this film.
In the film Paul is definitely heterosexual, meaning that the story can take a more romantic turn than Capote's original story did. Rather than being simply fascinated by his neighbour, Paul is now free to fall in love with her, and can be seen to be acting out of a sense of love and chivalry rather than simply friendship. Their relationship is also complicated on screen by the presence of Patricia Neal's character, a distinguished older married woman who has some kind of interest in Paul that the viewer guesses at rather than knows for certain. As with Holly's men, we kind of know where her interest in Paul lies, but it's never made explicit within the film. What it does is place them on a more even footing as characters: He may have a more comfortable life than her but, ultimately, are they so different? Seems to be the question that is being asked.
Hepburn's Holly is an irresistible mix of charm, chic and exuberance that carries the film but - Mickey Rooney's disastrous casting aside - this is a film in which nobody is bad and everyone, however small their part, turns in an excellent performance. A case in point would be Dorothy Whitney as Mag Wildwood, who embodies the part perfectly, being both very funny and also true to what you suspect would be Capote's vision of her. Similarly, Neal - playing a character written for the film - purrs and vamps her way through every scene and Martin Balsam, as Holly's agent, is perfect in this cigar chomping, fast talking character part.
The element of the story that adds the most pathos has always been Holly's aspect of little girl lost vulnerability and (implied) mental instability, both of which Hepburn nails completely. And it is for this reason that the romantic aspect of the film works so well, up to and including the ending. We can believe that Holly would lay aside her adventures for the right man because the Hollywood version of her, er, would. Similarly, the Hollywood version would also go back and find the cat that she's just abandoned and would have a happy ever after ending with Paul. And, really, there's nothing wrong with that.
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