Frühstück bei Tiffany

Even now 57 years after its original release, Breakfast At Tiffany's remains a charming love story between two hustlers of sorts. Audrey Hepburn is not the Holy Golightly that Truman Capote intended, she couldn't be but she was Audrey Hepburn in all of her 1961 glory. Amazing how it still works that Audrey Hepbun touch. George Peppard is gorgeous but impenetrable. Mickey Rooney, unforgivable. Henry Mancini, opportune but. strangely enough the character that fascinated me the most in my latest viewing is Patricia Neal. I would love to see a full movie about that woman. She exudes sensuality and smartness. Blake Edwards concocts a lighter fare from Capote's book and as it happens, it's still very much alive and surprisingly relevant.

Checking out both the original novel and the Wikipedia article on Breakfast At Tiffany's I was surprised to see how different Truman Capote's vision of this story was. Capote who wanted Marilyn Monroe cast as Holly Golightly lived to see Audrey Hepburn make his literary creation one of her best cinematic creations. I think given Marilyn's track record for behavioral problems on film sets, Capote, Blake Edwards the director, and everyone else concerned with Breakfast At Tiffany's probably dodged a bullet.

Capote's story is set in the Forties and the film is contemporary 1961 when it was filmed. There's no real plot to it, Capote did a character study and so is this. It's about two people and the fascination that George Peppard's character develops for the unconventionality of Holly Golightly as Hepburn essays her.

Hepburn is the kept woman of a cross section of the male species and Peppard is the boy toy of another woman who rents in their apartment, Patricia Neal. Neal who would win her Oscar the following year for Hud has her character as curiously underdeveloped. It's the main weakness of Breakfast At Tiffany's.

The strength is of course Audrey Hepburn who took Capote's character completely over and it's her vision of the story that we see when the film is broadcast. She's an amoral minx who in the end realizes that her life is really meaningless.

Breakfast At Tiffany's won two Oscars both for Henry Mancini for Best Musical Scoring and Best Original Song for Moon River. That song is best known for Andy Williams's rendition, but there are also superb recordings by Frank Sinatra and Tony Martin. Hepburn got a nomination for Best Actress and the film was also nominated for Best Art&Set Decoration for a color film and Best Screenplay adapted from another medium, in this case Capote's novella.

Considering all the changes made, maybe the credit should have read inspired by Truman Capote's work. In any event this film belongs in the top rank of the works of Audrey Hepburn.

Often listed as a top 100 film of the 20th Century, Tiffany's features a flighty socialite who I became more frustrated with than anything else. We all have watched clips of Hepburn signing Moon River, but really the story plot is not that deep. The Rooney character, as the annoying Japanese neighbor is cringe worthy in today's standards, but it was made to be comic relief in its time.

Decent film , but I wouldn't rank it as iconic for the century.

This film is an amazing achievement for Audrey Hepburn. The part was clearly written for Marilyn Monroe. (To think of Hepburn as a backwoods girl is absurd.) Monroe would have made a meal of this and it would have been her signature role. But she was in the midst of her emotional troubles at this time and the role was given to a very different actress in Hepburn who produced a very different Holly Golightly. And yet she did it so well that it became HER signature role instead. It's not unusual for an actor to make a role his own such that you can't picture someone else in the role even thought there are actually many who could have played it. But to take a role intended specifically for another, one for which one does not appear suited, and make that your own…well, that's a great acting achievement. It certainly is Audrey Hepburn's greatest role, a performance with many more complexities than any other she ever gave.

It's also a fabulous film. I love beauty emerging form contradiction, like a rhapsody emerging from apparently unrelated themes and musical noises. Here we have something that is at times a wacky comedy, a breezy romance and yet is full of depth and drama. So many things have happened and we have been introduced to so many characters at the end, it's amazing they all fit together. I also like the bravery of doing a story about two people who are basically prostitutes in 1961. It's daring yet there's nothing sleazy about he film because it concentrates on who these people are as people- what they are, not what they do.

And the film has the most eclectic cast I can imagine. Romantic heroine Audrey Hepburn. Method actor George Peppard. Sleek man-killer Patricia Neal. Actor's actor Martin Balsam. Old reliable Buddy Ebsen, just before he hammed it up as Jed Clampett, playing a subtle and touching version of the same thing. Mickey Rooney provides the only jarring note with his scenery chewing performance as the Japanese landlord, something we could surely have done without. Did you know that Audrey's gangster sugar daddy is played by Alan Reed, the voice of Fred Flintstone? And don't forget John McGiver's delicate turn as the clerk at Tiffany's.

You can debate the virtues of a film into the night. What really counts in the end is: Does it stay in the memory vividly years later? Would you like to watch it again? And when you watch it again, does it take you back to when you first saw it? Breakfast at Tiffany's certainly does. It will always be the prize in the cracker-jack box.

There are movies that are loved because of the cast, the music and style, not for the interesting plot, wonderful characterizations or snappy dialogue. This famous movie, Breakfast at Tiffany, has been lovingly regarded for years because of the wonderful Audrey Hepburn and the talented Henry Mancini. Moon River is one of the best movie songs ever. But there is, surprisingly, not much to say overall about this movie.

Two prostitutes become friends. George Peppards' role could have been played by anyone breathing and Micky Rooney was too ridiculous to be funny. The always superb Patricia Neal did not have much to do. Only Buddy Epsen moved me.

There are a few noteworthy scenes. But, Breakfast at Tiffany's is the best example I've seen of a lovely cake with a big hole in the middle.