BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S
US, 1961, 115 minutes, Colour.
Audrey Hepburn, George Peppard, Patricia Neal, Buddy Ebsen, Martin Balsam, Mickey Rooney.
Directed by Blake Edwards,
Breakfast at Tiffany's is based on a story by Truman Capote. The main character Holly Golightly has become famous as a kooky type - the transformed hillbilly girl who is a genuine phoney, aping the mannerisms of New York till they are really part of her. The kook is a person of surface eccentricity, gaiety, happiness masking insecurity and a longing for stable happiness,
Many sequences in Breakfast at Tiffany's are eccentric: the opening sequence, the party, Holly's and Paul's day out in New York. But the mood of the film changes from irresponsible gaiety and phoney living it to pathos for the girl who wanted to be someone and to be loved. By the end of the film, there is a sense of real feeling. The film takes our responses quite some way.
The adaptation of Capote's story was made by George Axelrod, writer (and sometimes director) of eccentric and imaginative comedies like The Seven Year Itch, Paris when it Sizzles, Lord Love a Duck, The Secret Life of an American Wife. Audrey Hepburn seems to fit the part eventually. She is always better at pathos than comedy. George Peppard is very good as the writer, Paul Barjak. There are good supporting roles by Patricia Neal and Buddy Ebsen and an out of place Japanese caricature by Mickey Rooney.
Director is Blake Edwards - famous for The Pink Panther, A Shot in the Dark, The Great Race. Altogether, Breakfast at Tiffany's is an entertaining experience of the surface life of the 20th century city, the phoney who is innocent and the slightly-soiled contemporary Prince Charmings who rescue maidens into human feeling. Audiences wondered at the time of release, but it makes sense now.
1. What impression does the sequence behind the credits make? What mood is set - dawn, 5th Avenue, city, Tiffany's, jewels, evening dress, breakfast bags, eating, dark glasses?
2. What did you think of Holly Golightly when we first meet her - likeable? eccentric? irresponsible? $50 for the powder room, cavalier attitudes to her landlord?
3. The sequence from Paul's knocking at Holly's door, her awakening, chit-chat (about the cat and Sing-Sing), dressing, finding shoes, and then emerging glamorously for Sing - Sing. What did it reveal about Holly? About Paul?
4. Did you like Paul? As a person? In his relationship with hie lover? (What kind of woman was she?) How normal was he? How irresponsible and dependent?
5. Why did Holly like him - her visit to his room, thinking of him as Fred, her fear and need for support?
6. The Party - how typical of New York? What did it show of Holly's character? Was she genuine or was she phoney? Berman says she is a genuine phoney - she did all these things with affectation but not with affected intent?
7. What was the role of the cat? Why did it have no name? Note, Paul's book was Nine Lives)?
8. What was the meaning of Holly's having breakfast at Tiffany's? How did she explain it? (The 'mad reds')? Why did she need it? How did her singing of "Moon River" fit into this theme?
9. How much was New York part of her life and atmosphere? The day she and Paul spend together - the streets, shoplifting, the masks?
10. How did the Doc episode change the mood of the film? Comment on how it changed audience knowledge of and attitude towards Holly (although Berman had given some clues earlier), on Holly as a 'wild thing'. How did the episode affect Paul - especially going to the bus with her?
11. What decision did Holly make by not going with Doc?
12. Why did Holly have such ambition to marry money? Why was she so serious (and so callous to Paul) about it?
13. Was her reaction to Fred's death reasonable? Why?
14. Why did Holly act as she did when arrested – odd kookiness and people noticing her or what?
15. How attached had she been to going to Brazil? Why did she not respond to Paul in the taxi?
16. What did Paul mean by telling her that, although she was a 'wild thing', she was not free, that she did not belong to herself but was keeping herself in her own prison?
17. The final sequence - was it sentimental? Why was the cat brought into it? Why was it done in the rain?
18. How typical were Holly's basic attitudes (not necessarily behaviour) of modern city girls and their preoccupations and ambitions?
