Breakfast at Tiffany’s, based on the novel by Truman Capote - Nine out of 10

Breakfast at Tiffany’s, based on the novel by Truman Capote

Nine out of 10

Holly Golightly aka the aristocratic, fabulous, sophisticated, noble, outstanding Audrey Hepburn is one of the most delightful, serene, attractive, provocative, intriguing, sunny and seductive protagonists of a book or film.

http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/03/breakfast-at-tiffanys-by-truman-capote.html

The film has been appreciated; it won two Academy Awards and was nominated for Best Actress in a Leading Role – the splendid Audrey Hepburn – Best Writing and Art Direction and some other prizes, including two Golden Globes.

Holly Golightly is not just absolutely charming, she has a side that is less bright, given her superficiality, careless attitude, tendency to get involved in murky, subterranean arrangements – with Sally tomato – acceptance of 4 50 bills whenever she gets to the powder room and a rather immoral, materialistic, money orientated attitude towards life, in spite of the other side of her that ignores almost anything that happens around, including the manifestations of wealth and power.

When she accepts to visit the mobster – that would be proved to head a narcotics operation from prison – Sally Tomato at Sing Sing – with her acute sense of humor, Holly remarks upon the ironic name of the infamous jail – she insists it was the romanticism of the proposal, for the one hundred dollar bills she is paid after each trip to see the gangster is not justification enough, given the ease with which she gets fifty dollars whenever she walks to the lavatory.

In the first scenes, the heroine does not have the key for the front door and hence calls upon Mr. Yunioshi to open it for her – this character is played by Mickey Rooney and it has made history for the reason that the reputed actor has made a terrible decision in painting a repulsive stereotype, insulting for Asian people, a ridiculous depiction of a figure that speaks bad English and looks awful.

A writer moves in the apartment above, Paul Varjak, who has in turn to call upon Holly Golightly to open the front door for him, since he has received only the key to his apartment and nothing else – a place that is paid for and decorated by 2E Failenson, a married woman that seems to support the author.

Paul has written a book with seven stories that is now part of the collections in public libraries, as the heroine would discover when she visits one for the first, during a challenge to involve in first time events with her neighbor and new friend.

Nevertheless, the young, handsome writer has failed to create anything else, suffering from blockage, lack of inspiration and relying on 2E to provide money, up to the point where he finds he is in love.

Holly Golightly does lead an easy going life as her name makes clear – she has another name, Lulamae Barnes and her husband appears one day at the entrance of the building, explaining the situation to Paul, how he had married a girl that was not yet fourteen – amazingly, many states in America do not consider illegal a marriage where the girl is under age.

Doc Golightly wants his wife to return to Texas, where he is a veterinarian and has four children and cares for Fred, Holly’s or Lulamae’s brother – this is the reason why she calls her new friend Fred – but the young woman tries to explain that she is not the girl he used to know.

She is a wild thing and he should know better, given the experience he has had taking an eagle with a broken wing in and a wild cat.

Holly intends to marry one of the fifty richest men in /America, under the age of fifty, Rusty Trawler, but he turns out to be a super rat.

The heroine does receive many banknotes, but her free spirit, expensive habits leave her with no more than two hundred dollars in the bank account.

She then decides to partner with the handsome Brazilian Jose da Silva Pereira, a man who has problems with the law.

During the party where he has the chance to meet Holly, the always-aggravated Yunioshi calls the police.

The would be president of Brazil is so worried that he finds his escape through the fire escape ladder.

Furthermore, when Holly is under scrutiny and suspicion in her turn, because she had been visiting the mobster and the police think that she offered help in contraband with narcotics, Jose abandons the woman he claimed he wanted to take to his country.

The heroine was reading books about South America, listening to tapes to learn Portuguese and then she is disappointed.

She should have seen that she has the most deserving knight in writing armor near her, all this time.

Paul Varjak is much more deserving than any of the claimants, suitors, rich useless figures that populated the life of the protagonist.

She refuses to see the obvious, the light, the good, and the worthy and in a scene-taking place in a taxi, the hero is finally overwhelmed and disgusted by this permanent refusal and throws a ring down.

Breakfast at Tiffany’s is a rewarding, wonderful motion picture, a classic one could say with confidence.