MUBI

The film that launched Blake Edwards’ film career and gave us perhaps Audrey Hepburn’s most memorable character. A pitch perfect romantic comedy sans the mania that developed in later Blake Edwards and later romantic comedies. The charm and grace that seemed to come so naturally to Ms. Hepburn and dominates so many of her roles can make us forget that she was a fine actress. The moments when the fear slips through the desperate-for-security Holly Golightly’s facade of good spirits are all the more powerful because we forget that the actress is capable of such fine craft.

The film includes the requisite Blake Edwards extended party scene but this was when he was still fresh with ideas and not desperate for laughs so it fits naturally into the story.

Holly Golightly (Audrey Hepburn) as her name suggests lives carefree and emotionally detached from one man to the next. She is a free spirit living it up in a hip and happening New York city. The opening scene we see Holly out front of Tiffany’s Jewelers in her famous Givenchy black dress with pearls and you begin to realize it’s not breakfast she is having.

Expecting the usual romantic comedy from the 60’s I was intrigued to find a sugar coated story of sin city. Holly runs away from her pedophile husband (married at 14) to the city where she learns to become a gold digging socialite, passing on drug messages for the mafia. Living one big party she meets Paul Varjak (George Peppard), a gigolo novelist living off a bored married woman’s money, and find they have a lot in common.

Based on Truman Capotes book, they washed it up a bit and the big bad city doesn’t look that bad after all. It’s got a really great 60’s feel to it and I can see why it was and still is such an iconic film as Audrey Hepburn really sets trends. Very chic… http://bit.ly/brk-tiffanys