Breakfast At Tiffany’s Anniversary Edition
Such an iconic American movie,
Breakfast At Tiffany’s… So much so that it has been released twice
already on DVD with this latest ‘Anniversary Edition’ designed to commemorate
the 45 years since the film’s theatrical release in 1961. With the film come
more ‘extras’ than before, among them a “nostalgic” commentary by producer
Richard Shepherd, two features on the history of the infamous jewellery store
(where we discover that the family who founded Tiffany’s had their beginnings
in cotton farming, hmmm…), and a short but interesting ‘making of’ documentary,
‘The Making Of A Classic’. It includes present-day interviews with (bizarrely)
a couple of the extras from the infamous party scene,
Audrey Hepburn’s real-life “companion” and son, and director
Blake Edwards.
Who as we find out really only has one regret about
Breakfast At Tiffany’s: the casting of legendary Caucasian comedy actor
Mickey Rooney as ‘Mr. Yunioshi’, the very annoyed Japanese man who
lives upstairs from Audrey Hepburn’s New York party girl Holly Golightly, the
role that helped make the late actress a screen icon. Clearly embarrassed by
this racial “faux-pas”, it seems Mr. Edwards has received a serious lambasting
over the years for “going West” over the Mr. Yunioshi casting decision. Perhaps
deservedly so but to be fair, Rooney’s awful cartoon “Chinaman” doesn’t detract
from this very strong movie which is a bonafide classic whether you’re seeing
it for the first time or revisiting it for the umpteenth.
Yes,
Breakfast At Tiffany’s is synonymous with the term “chick flick” (and
what’s wrong with that?!), and yes, the film is a very cleaned up mild
adaptation of Truman Capote’s 1958 sexually forthright novel, where Golightly
was portrayed as an out-and-out call girl - not the “kept woman” of the film -
and a possible, gulp, bisexual.
Aside from its entertaining, admirably camp quality there is something very
bare bones honest and timelessly authentic about this film (and
Peppard’s performance which is stunning), especially when it comes to
the fear of relationships most go through when it comes to, gulp, falling in
love. Released quite a few years before the more realist
Midnight Cowboy (1969) you could view Tiffany’s as a kind of chaste,
old school precursor to that explosive, grungy portrayal of New York bohemia.
Yet to draw a line from
Breakfast At Tiffany’s to Sex & The City isn’t such a long bow. Without
the existential, sexually adventurous character of Holly Golightly paving the
way on the big screen back in 1961 there certainly wouldn’t be a Carrie
Bradshaw confessing her New York love affairs in explicit detail in prime time
on a weekly basis, four decades hence on the small. Give credit where credit’s
due:
Breakfast At Tiffany’s was a film ahead of its time. It can still shock
as well as make us all reach for the Kleenex, such is its emotional honesty…
- Megan
Megan Spencer has spent way too much of her life in the dark, all for a good
cause though - watching movies as a professional film critic. For the last six
and a half years she has been serving the ever-increasing hunger for film and
DVD reviews as radio triple j's resident film critic, and a year ago joined the
new line up of long-running SBS-TV film review program, The Movie Show.
Every now and then she pops up into the light to make her own films,
documentaries (her latest is 'Fantastic Brutality', a documentary about an
obsessed wrestling fan, to be released next year). She has also written about
film for many publications including J-Mag, Limelight, Inside Film Magazine and
the Age Green Guide.
And the impossible question to ask a film critic: what's her favourite film?
"Blue Velvet would be at the top of the list, so would Fight Club... But then
again American In Paris makes me cry every time."
Megan has also been part of the Foxtel's Project Greenlight Australia as an
on-air panelist and judge.
Ten Classic Chick Flicks on DVD
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Affair To Remember, An (G) 1957
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In this poignant and humorous love story nominated for four Academy Awards, CARY GRANT and DEBORAH KERR meet on an ocean liner and fall deeply in love. Though each is engaged to someone else, they agree to meet six months later at the Empire State Building if they still feel the same way about each ...
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Breakfast at Tiffany's (PG) 1961
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The names Audrey Hepburn and Holly Golightly have become synonymous since this dazzling romantic comedy was translated to the screen from Truman Capote's best-selling novella. Holly is a deliciously eccentric New York City playgirl determined to marry a Brazilian millionaire. George Peppard plays he...
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Casablanca (PG) 1943
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Casablanca: easy to enter, but much harder to leave, especially if your name is on the Nazis' most-wanted list. Atop that list is Czech Resistance leader Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid), whose only hope is Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart), a cynical American who sticks his neck out for no one...especially...
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Farewell to Arms, A (G) 1957
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In the Winter of 1917, an American ambulance driver (Rock Hudson), enlists in the Italian army and is wounded in action. He is gradually restored to health by a beautiful young nurse (Jennifer Jones). When they find themselves falling in love, they try to escape the horrors of the war by fleeing t...
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From Here To Eternity (PG) 1953
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In this landmark film, passion and tragedy collide on a military base as a fateful day in December 1941 draws near. Private Prewitt ( Montgomery Clift from A PLACE IN THE SUN ) is a soldier and former boxer being manipulated by his superior and peers. His friend Maggio ( Frank Sinatra from TH...
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Funny Face (G) 1957
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Paris, the City of Light, shines even brighter when Audrey Hepburn and Fred Astaire team up for the only time and bring their luminous starpower to this exquisite musical featuring songs by George and Ira Gershwin. This dazzling romp - filmed on location in Paris - garnered four Academy Award nomina...
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Gone With the Wind (PG) 1939
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David O. Selznick's production of Margaret Mitchell's Pulitzer Prize winner Gone with the Wind is "the pinnacle of Hollywood moviemaking," Leonard Maltin of Entertainment Tonight said. And in Maltin's view, "it looks better than it has in years." This sweeping Civil War-era romance won an impressive...
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Little Women (G) 1933
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Little Women is a "coming of age" drama tracing the lives of four sisters: Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy. During the American Civil War, the girls father is away serving as a minister to the troops. The family, headed by their beloved Marmee, must struggle to make ends meet, with the help of their kind and ...
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Roman Holiday (G) 1953
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Audrey Hepburn's Oscar-winning performance in her first starring role. Roman Holiday was nominated for ten Academy Awards, and Audrey Hepburn captured an Oscar for her portrayal of a modern-day princess rebelling against her royal obligations who explores Rome on her own. She meets Gregory Peck,...
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Sabrina (PG) 1954
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Sabrina is charming, humorous and aglow with some of Hollywood's greatest stars. Humphrey Bogart, William Holden and Audrey Hepburn star in a Cinderella story directed by renowned filmmaker Billy Wilder ( Sunset Boulevard, Some Like It Hot ). Bogie and Holden are the mega-rich Larrabee brothers...
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Megan's previous editorials...