Breakfast at Tiffany's
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| Breakfast at Tiffany's | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Blake Edwards |
| Produced by | Richard Shepherd Martin Jurow |
| Written by | Truman Capote George Axelrod |
| Starring | Audrey Hepburn George Peppard Patricia Neal Buddy Ebsen |
| Music by | Henry Mancini |
| Cinematography | Franz F. Planer |
| Editing by | Howard Smith |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
| Release date(s) | October 5, 1961 |
| Running time | 115 min. |
| Country |  |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $2.5 million |
| Gross revenue | $14 million |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Breakfast at Tiffany's is a 1961 American film starring Audrey Hepburn and George Peppard, and featuring Patricia Neal, Buddy Ebsen, Martin Balsam, and Mickey Rooney. It was directed by Blake Edwards. The portrayal of Holly Golightly as the naive, eccentric socialite is generally considered to be Audrey Hepburn's most memorable and identifiable role. She herself regarded it as one of her most challenging roles to play, as she was an introvert who had to play an extrovert. Hepburn's singing of "Moon River" helped garner an Oscar for Best Song for composer Henry Mancini and lyricist Johnny Mercer. The film also featured what was arguably George Peppard's greatest acting role and the high point of his career. The film is based on the novella of the same name by Truman Capote.
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[edit] Plot
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The movie follows the exploits of Holly Golightly, a young woman always on the run from herself. It is based on the true story of Carol (Grace) Matthau, who fell in and out of love among the rich and famous in New York City, before finally settling down into marriage with the older father figure Walter Matthau. During her early socialite years, Carol Matthau relentlessly pursued the passion of falling in love, often falling for and discarding a new person every few months, according to her autobiography "Among the Porcupines: A Memoir." [2]
The fictionalized Golightly lacked a stable childhood, so she marries at the age of 14, has the marriage annulled, moves to Hollywood to start a film career, then suddenly leaves Hollywood for New York. Although the nature of her livelihood in New York is never explicitly stated, it is implied that she makes a living by dating well-off men. Matthau's book also hints at this mistress type of role, where she enchants and financially uses wealthy men, many famous writers and actors, as much as they seem to have used her to willingly gratify every eccentric sexual desire. Mrs. Matthau writes: "It seems strange that everyone I'm writing about was very famous. I wonder about it, too. Didn't I ever find anyone interesting who was not famous? Actually, no, I didn't." The fictional Holly also earns an extra $100 a week by carrying coded messages for an incarcerated mafia boss.
The plot revolves around Holly's relationship with her new neighbor, Paul Varjak, a writer who has only written one book five years before, and has confidence problems of his own. He is, in fact, being maintained by a Mrs. Failenson, and in effect makes his living as gigolo - which creates the first bond between him and Holly, as being "colleagues". The gigolo writer here may be a fictionalized version of writer William Saroyan, an older father figure who she twice married and divorced, despite suffering horrendous abuse. The real Holly, Carol Matthau, often hints, but provides no details, that she suffered from incest or statutory rape during her early life, possibly at the hands of her step-father or during temporary adoptions before her mother remarried.
Carol's primary lovers are old enough to be her real father and seem to all have deviant sexual desires of one kind or another. Carol writes: "I had a lot of beaus and saw a lot of friends and got all dressed up every night after the theater to go dancing... And within a year I would fall in love again. Being in love to me was not only more important than any book, it was more important than anything." One likely interpretation of the character Holly Golightly, therefore, is the adult consequence of incest: A lifelong search for salvation through a loving, however twisted father figure, who will somehow rescue her.
Holly Golightly may be one of the finest portrayals on screen of the adult effects of incestuous rape who likely suffers in secret from Complex post-traumatic stress disorder. Any young incest victim who survives severe childhood trauma has difficulty forming normal loving relationships as an adult. Romantic love, lust and sexual abuse are often confused. Incest trauma can be relived as an adult: Carol Matthau survived an abusive earlier marriage to William Saroyan, and yet remarried him a second time. Such trauma can produce disassociation where the victim tries to forget horrendous abuse, by pretending to herself and others to be a marvelous fantasy character who lives a fairy tale life. (See wikipedia entry on Complex post-traumatic stress disorder with symptoms that may include: Difficulties regulating emotions, forgetting traumatic events, reliving traumatic events, or having episodes of dissociation and alterations in relations with others, including isolation, distrust, or a repeated search for a rescuer).
The story explores the relationship between Holly and Paul, her other paramours and the resolution that occurs within Holly's own mind and between Holly and Paul. The film includes Hepburn singing the original performance of "Moon River," and the closing sequence that shows Paul's "lecture" to Holly and her self-discovery of who she really is and who makes her truly happy. The film ends with a scene in the rain.
[edit] Cast
- Audrey Hepburn as Lulu Mae Barnes, alias Holly Golightly
- George Peppard as Paul "Fred" Varjak
- Patricia Neal as Mrs. Failenson
- Buddy Ebsen as Doc Golightly
- Martin Balsam as O.J. Berman
- Orangey as Cat (trained by Frank Inn)
- Mickey Rooney as Mr. Yunioshi
[edit] The screenplay
The Oscar-nominated screenplay was written by George Axelrod, loosely based on the novella by Truman Capote.
Capote, who sold the film rights of his novella to Paramount Studios, wanted Marilyn Monroe to play the role of Holly Golightly in the film. Barry Paris references a quote by Capote: "Marilyn was always my first choice to play the girl, Holly Golightly." Screenwriter Axelrod was hired to "tailor the screenplay for Monroe." When Hepburn was cast instead of Marilyn, Capote remarked: "Paramount double-crossed me in every way and cast Audrey."[1] Aside from being an A-list starlet, Marilyn Monroe may have been Capote's first choice because she herself may have suffered childhood trauma. Like Carol Matthau, Monroe was dragged through a succession of temporary foster homes at age 8. In The Last Sitting taken by photographer Bert Stern weeks before Monroe's death, Stern said he was enchanted by Monroe to a near-intimate encounter after the second day of shooting; he then realized that she was deeply troubled.
A number of changes were made to the storyline to adapt the story to fit the medium of cinema. Capote's novella included language that was toned down for the film. The character of 2E (Patricia Neal) was invented for the movie. This character, Mrs. Failenson, is called 2E because her real name is Emily Eustace. In the novella, Mag Wildwood, a model with a stuttering problem, moves into Holly's apartment after Holly falls out with the novelist upstairs. Wildwood appears briefly in the film, as a guest at the party at Holly's, with her stutter intact. The film also changed the novella's unresolved, open ending to a more conventional "Hollywood" romantic happy ending.
[edit] Production
Originally producers Martin Jurow and Richard Shepherd had picked John Frankenheimer as the director, but as production began they replaced him, fearing that Frankenheimer would make the film "too dark".
Kim Novak was approached to play the role of Holly Golightly, but she turned it down, for fear of being typecast as a scared sex kitten.
It has been rumored that the film's on-location opening sequence, in which Holly gazes into a Tiffany's display window, was extremely difficult for director Blake Edwards to film. Although it was simple in concept, crowd control, Hepburn's dislike of pastries, and an accident that nearly resulted in the electrocution of a crew member are all said to have made capturing the scene a challenge. However, Edwards, in an interview given for the 45th anniversary DVD, said that the sequence was captured rather quickly due to the good fortune of an unexpected traffic lull despite the location in the heart of Manhattan.
Hepburn introduced the film's signature song, "Moon River", by Henry Mancini, with lyrics by Johnny Mercer. Sung by Hepburn herself, it was written to her singing range based on the vocal solos she had performed in 1957's Funny Face. According to Mancini and Edwards, a studio executive hated the song and demanded it be cut from the film; Hepburn, who was present when this proclamation was made, responded to the suggestion by standing up and saying, "over my dead body."
Wisp-thin Hepburn as Holly, carrying a cigarette holder, is considered one of the iconic images of 20th century American cinema. The film rejuvenated the career of 1930s movie song-and-dance man Buddy Ebsen, who had a small but effective role in this film as Doc Golightly, Holly's ex-husband. His success here led directly to his best-known role as Jed Clampett on The Beverly Hillbillies.
Many critics consider the film's sole blunder to be Caucasian Mickey Rooney's "yellowfaced" performance as Holly's bucktoothed, stereotyped Japanese neighbor, a point of contention raised in the 1993 film Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, and on the March 17, 2008 episode of The Colbert Report. In the 45th anniversary edition DVD release, producer Richard Shepherd repeatedly apologizes for this, stating "If we could just change Mickey Rooney, I'd be thrilled with the movie." Edwards does not apologize for the portrayal, although he does say he would cast someone else if he had the chance. He does, however, indicate that he would not cast Peppard in the lead male role of the film if he were to do it over again.
In the commentary on the anniversary edition DVD, producer Richard Shepherd says that 9 different cats were used for the role of "Cat".
Most of the exteriors were filmed in New York City, except the fire escape scenes and the scene at the in end in the rain where Holly puts Cat out of the cab and then Paul and Holly look for Cat. All of the interiors, except for portions of the scene inside Tiffany & Company, were filmed on the Paramount studio lot in Burbank.
One of three dresses designed by Givenchy for Hepburn for possible use in the movie sold at auction by Christie's [2][dead link] on December 5, 2006 for £467,200 (~US$947,000), about seven times the reserve price.[3]
[edit] Awards and nominations
[edit] Academy Awards
[edit] Other awards
- John Addison won the Grammy Award for Best Soundtrack Album or Recording or Score.
- George Axelrod won the Writers Guild of America for Best Written American Drama.
- Blake Edwards was nominated for the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures.
[edit] Soundtrack chart positions
| Year | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|
| 1962 | Billboard Pop Albums (Billboard 200) (stereo) | 1 |
| Preceded by Holiday Sing Along with Mitch by Mitch Miller |
Billboard 200 number-one album (stereo) February 10 - April 27, 1962 June 30 - July 6, 1962 |
Succeeded by West Side Story (soundtrack) by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim |
[edit] DVD availability
Breakfast at Tiffany's was one of the first Hepburn films to be released to the home video market in the early 1980s, and is also widely available on DVD. On February 7, 2006, Paramount released a 45th anniversary special edition DVD set in North America with featurettes not included on the prior DVD release:
- Audio Commentary - with producer Richard Shepherd
- Breakfast at Tiffany's: The Making of a Classic - a making-of featurette with interviews by Edwards, Neal, the "laughing/crying" woman from the party, and Sean Ferrer, Hepburn's son.
- It's So Audrey! A Style Icon - a short tribute to Hepburn.
- Brilliance in a Blue Box - a brief history of Tiffany & Co.
- Audrey's Letter to Tiffany - an accounting of Hepburn's letter to Tiffany & Co. on the occasion of the company's 150th anniversary in 1987.
- Original Theatrical Trailer
- Photo Gallery
[edit] Musical adaptations
In 1966, David Merrick produced a Broadway musical of the same name starring Mary Tyler Moore as Holly Golightly. The troubled production closed after four previews.
In 2004, a new musical adaptation of the film made its world debut at The St. Louis Muny.
[edit] Cultural references
- In 1995, the Texas band Deep Blue Something had a hit with a song called "Breakfast at Tiffany's." The song was inspired by Hepburn's performance in the film Roman Holiday, but the author, Todd David Pipes, thought that one of Hepburn's other films would make a better song title.[4] The song reached the top five in the United States and number one in the United Kingdom.
- The band Jets to Brazil takes their name from the poster seen in Holly's apartment.[5]
- The Japanese toy company Jun Planning produced a doll based on Holly Golightly, for the March 2006 Pullip doll.[6]
- The song "Let Me Entertain You" on the Queen album Jazz references the movie with the line "We'll Breakfast at Tiffany's, we'll sing to you in Japanese, we're only here to entertain you."
- In the 1993 film Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, Bruce Lee and his girl friend, Linda Emery, watch the film at the theater, but Linda suggest they leave midway after she notices that Bruce is upset at the stereotypical depiction of an Asian man portrayed by Mickey Rooney.
- Lisi Harrison's 9th Clique story is called Bratfest at Tiffany's.
- The iconic image of the movie was once duplicated by Shinya, the male drummer of a Japanese band, Dir en grey.
- On Google Calendar, the example event is "Breakfast at Tiffany's."
- Another film starring Hepburn, Paris, When It Sizzles (1963), references Breakfast At Tiffany's indirectly when Holden describes the classic character of the "prostitute with a heart of gold".
- On episode 6.05 of Seinfeld, entitled "The Couch", George joins a book club and has to read Breakfast at Tiffany's. However, George tries renting the movie instead so he doesn't have to actually read it.
- Episode 3.02 of CSI: New York, "Not What It Looks Like", features a trio of women who dress as Holly Golightly and rob a jewellery store.
- In The Simpsons episode "I'm with Cupid", several of the men are spying on Apu at Springfield's Tiffany & Co. Instead of buying a diamond like they expect, he comes out with a croissant. Chief Wiggum says "Aw, that's right, they have breakfast at Tiffany's now."[7]
- Both the book series and TV series of Gossip Girl make many references to Audrey and the film. The character Blair Waldorf considers Audrey an idol and frequently watches Breakfast at Tiffany's.
- Episode 1.04, "Bad News Blair", opens with a dream sequence recreation of the film's opening scene. Blair Waldorf is dressed as Holly, and she exits a taxi cab with coffee and pastry in hand. She stares up at a store, but instead of Tiffany & Co., it's Henri Bendel.
- Episode 1.14, "The Blair Bitch Project", also opens with a dream sequence, but this time of a recreation of the film's final scene. Blair Waldorf is again dressed as Holly, and she runs down a back alley after a cat like in Breakfast at Tiffany's. She shouts "Cat... CAT.." whilst crying in the same way as Holly in the film.
[edit] References
- ^ Barry Paris (1996). Audrey Hepburn. Berkley Books.
- ^ [1][dead link]
- ^ Auction frenzy over Hepburn dress. BBC NEWS (2006-12-05).
- ^ British Hit Singles & Albums (Edition 18), Guinness World Records Limited
- ^ Biography of Jets to Brazil. rateyourmusic.com. Retrieved on 2007-12-22.
- ^ Pullip
- ^ http://www.snpp.com/episodes/AABF11
[edit] External links
- Breakfast at Tiffany's at the Internet Movie Database
- Breakfast at Tiffany's at Allmovie
- Breakfast at Tiffany's at the TCM Movie Database
- Breakfast At Tiffany's On The Cast Album Database
- Breakfast At Tiffany's Literapedia Summary
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