Sunday, 16 September 2012

Breakfast at Tiffany's Movie Review

A timeless classic that everyone should see.  I just discovered it and you should too! Read on to find out why.




I just discovered this for the first time on Blu-ray.  Before getting into the movie I have to comment on how great this looks on Blu-ray.  Normally I would reserve my Blu-ray purchasing for more recent and more special effects heavy titles but this and a few other older titles (Wizard of Oz, Gone with The Wind etc) have helped me to change my ways.  Some scenes were so clear it felt as if I was ‘there’ watching some kind of elaborate theatre production.  So those wishing to discover this for the first time as I did, I strongly urge you to go blue!  It has been restored beautifully!

The movie itself is quite a gem.  From the book penned by Truman Capote, the lead role was originally written with Marilyn Monroe in mind but Audrey Hepburn really made it her own.  Audrey plays Holly Golightly, a New York socialite, fashionista and ‘It’ girl.  I was surprised to say the least; I didn’t know they had ‘It’ girls back then.  The social scene in 1961 New York portrayed in this seems so similar to what we’re used to seeing in much more recent New York based films and series such as Sex and the City.  Holly is wandering from party to party, meeting one guy to the next, and all the while evidently not really finding some missing piece to the puzzle that is her life. 

Holly finds some peace in the calm of the aisles of Tiffany’s Jewelers.  Does she have breakfast there?  Well, only while window-shopping from outside in the movies opening sequence. 

She comes across as an amazingly fickle and at times scatter brained character, qualities which seem to irritate and endear her to us in equal measure.  Holly Golightly was the original ‘My Sassy Girl’.

Queue George Peppard as Paul Varjak.  Having not seen Peppard before without his silver hair, cigar in mouth and A-Team sidekicks, I was surprised by how suave and debonair the young Peppard was with his piercing blue eyes.  Varjak has just moved in to the apartment upstairs, a budding writer fresh to the New York scene, he is quickly thrown into the midst of things when he meets Holly Golightly.

Holly seems to be in search of happiness in all the wrong places, looking for her next Mr Right based on whether he has a healthy bank balance or not.  As an outsider to Holly’s hectic New York way of life, Varjak is able to distance himself from some of the craziness, stand back and generally be more objective.  Varjak becomes a solid pillar for Holly to lean on when no one else is there or when the obviously wrong guy is.  Emotions develop but whether they are reciprocated or not is a different matter altogether.  Narrated by the beautiful track Moon River (Johnny Mercer and Henry Mancini), it’s hard not to get engrossed in what’s going on.

Fans of Sex and the City, The Devil Wears Prada and Confessions of a Shopaholic will find a lot here to enjoy in terms of style.  What we see Hepburn wearing is as relevant today as it was back then.  She exudes a timeless, simplistic elegance, often imitated but never matched.

While the movie may not be the revelation it once was, it’s still surprisingly fresh and very relatable to.  Breakfast at Tiffany’s is the original rom-com and thoroughly deserves its classic status. 

Highly recommended - check it out!

Rating 4.5/5


Bobby

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