It’s no shock to those of you who’ve spent time on my blog that I am a big Audrey Hepburn fan. My favorite movies starring her are Sabrina, Roman Holiday, and Charade. When I was in university, pretty much every girl’s dorm room had a poster from Breakfast at Tiffany’s in it. And hey, I’ve got a plaqued photo of Holly Golightly looking into the window at Tiffany’s hanging over my stove - and I regret nothing!
This movie is so iconic to the point that when people think “Audrey Hepburn”, they picture her with an updo in pearls and a black dress. This movie, though, is her most famous so I figured it deserved some reflection.
You may not know exactly what the movie is about, or even why it’s such a phenomenon, but I hope this’ll enlighten you into what all the fuss is about and why it’s worth watching.
Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961)
A young writer, Paul Varjak (George Peppard) moves into a new apartment building in New York City and unbeknownst to him becomes involved in the unbelievable life of Holly Golightly (Audrey Hepburn), a beautiful and outgoing girl, who just so happens to be an escort. She immediately takes to him and treats him like she’s known him for years - she even calls him “Fred”, after her older brother. As he gets to know her, he learns about her nameless orange cat, her long standing feud with their Japanese landlord* (Mickey Rooney), her interesting friends - who include models, millionaires, and a mob boss - and her fascination with Tiffany’s. Despite her larger than life personality, he makes it his mission to find out if it’s just a façade to protect herself from becoming attached to anything or anyone.
*By today’s standards, Rooney’s portrayal of Mr. Yunioshi is completely racist, but it was definitely a notable celebrity cameo.
Why You Should Watch:
Breakfast at Tiffany’s was a novella written by Truman Capote in the late 1950s. Capote’s novella was narrated by “Fred”, an Holly was a call-girl in her late teens who befriended him. Marilyn Monroe was obvious for the part, but the director, Blake Edwards, wanted to find someone different. It was Paramount that suggested Hepburn. It was certainly a big jump from the Capote Holly Golightly to the one who’s now become so iconic, but the two texts are often conflated. Hepburn’s Holly was naive, almost playing against the original character. Since no one could think of Audrey Hepburn playing a call girl, she became an escort - the type of girl you give $50 to go to the powder room.
The thing that always bothered me about this movie, especially before in my mid-teens, was that I couldn’t figure out what was so attractive about Holly. She’s beautiful and has great fashion sense. But she seemed like a pathetic character to me; one who ran away from her problems, refused to confront reality, and whose foremost goal above her own happiness was to marry rich. While some of these are true character flaws, I learned very recently that I had missed the point.
People often forget what the film is really about, just like I did. When you think of Audrey Hepburn, you think of Breakfast at Tiffany’s. You think of her in the black Givency dress with a tiara, sunglasses, a cigarette holder, and Cat. She’s almost eclipsed the movie itself. I think it’s funny too because Hepburn never again played a role like this - the closest she may have come was Charade, made the year before in 1960.
So here’s my theory: Audrey as Holly represented - a continues to represent - something that women can relate to. We understand her tough exterior to protect her own vulnerability. Her persistence innocence and blissful ignorance. We realize that Holly Golightly isn’t a perfect character, she’s flawed. But we can also aspire to look and act as fabulously as she. There is something so romantic about the idea that a man like Paul (or “Fred”) would walk into your life, after so many before him, and take a genuine interest in your happiness. Maybe that’s why people love Holly Golightly and maybe those are the things they admire about Audrey Hepburn in the role.
By no means do I mean to “solve the mystery” of the Holly Golightly phenomenon, but this is something I’ve been reflecting on since I’ve gotten better acquainted with Audrey Hepburn’s films. You should watch to take a look for yourself.
Scenes to Look Forward To:
The most obvious is the opening of the film where we meet Holly for the first time. We find her there in her iconic outfit, eating her breakfast outside of Tiffany’s on Fifth Avenue in the wee hours of the morning. There’s no dialogue, we just watch her in a private moment while she window shops for diamonds.
When Holly decides to introduce “Fred” to her friends, she invites him to a party at her apartment. Turns out that they really did throw a party on set! There are so many shenanigans because Edwards asked the actors to improvise. A scene that could have taken up to two weeks to film was done in just a few days. Some of my favorite moments are when a lady’s hat catches on fire from a cigaretter and it is accidentally extinguished when someone spills their drink while checking their wristwatch for the time.
Aside from the opening, the “Moon River’ scene is probably the most iconic. Paul finds Holly singing and playing a melancholy song on her guitar. She’s not dressed up, she’s vulnerable, and he becomes even more intrigued. The song was written by Henry Mancini, who scored the entire film, specifically for Hepburn. She even sang it herself, which is a rare occurence - she was dubbed in almost every other musical she did, including Funny Face and My Fair Lady. They offered to have her dubbed, but she told them, “Over my dead body.” Even though the song and the scene is so important, tt was almost cut by Paramount. Hepburn had to personally fight for it to stay in the film. Good thing she did, because Mancini won an Oscar for the song, as well as the Oscar for the Best Score.
The first half of the movie is completely ridiculous and nonsensical. A woman who keeps shoes in her fridge? A cat named Cat? But the second half is dramatic, the the awakening of a girl who thought she knew it all but realizes that vulnerability isn’t so bad after all.
I’d love to hear what you think about the Holly Golightly phenomenon. Why do or don’t you like it?
