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Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Breakfast at Tiffany's, or Holly Golightly's heavy heart

[Movie Review, Breakfast at Tiffany's]*

The 1961 movie Breakfast at Tiffany's has, no doubt, one of the most beautiful musical scores in "Moon River", an opening song that intimates the delicacy of this movie. If the movie lives up to this score, then a high level of success has been achieved.

Holly Golightly is a confused, heavy-hearted girl, who hides her confusion and sadness behind a happy-go-lucky, frivolous mask, a mask that has to break if she is to become a genuine person. Her agent, OJ, calls her a phony, but a genuine phony, because she believes all the phoniness. She is living a life totally different from the one she knew as a child, while, deep inside, she is still that child.

Holly's childhood, which is at the crux of her problems, is not dealt with much in the movie, which is perhaps its chief weakness. We simply have to take Holly as she is without knowing much about her. Deep inside, Holly is afraid to love. She substitutes having fun for living. She simply doesn't take life seriously enough. And when she meets up with love, she runs away from it instead of running toward it. How to change directions is at the heart of the movie. Will she change directions? Will she stop running from love and start running toward it? Finding out is really the joy of this movie.

I felt genuine empathy for Holly Golightly. And the movie indeed lived up to the musical score. I could watch it again and again.


* This is a new venture for me: reviewing movies. A lot of writers do so on their blogs, and sometimes I just want to throw my two cents in. Ninja Alex has just run a blog hop in which people list their top ten movies. Pretty interesting to see the lists. Some movies pop up over and over again. Most of them I've never seen, so I've got some catching up to do. Happy movie watching.

16 comments:

Optimistic Existentialist said...

I'm embarassed to say I've never seen Breakfast at Tiffany's. I need to rectify that.

Jon said...

"Breakfast at Tiffany's" is a true classic and I love it - - but I've admittedly never read the book (I'll have to add it to my reading list).

"Moon River" is one of the best songs of the 1960's. I heard that it initially wasn't going to be used in the movie - - and ironically it's what completely makes the movie!

Emily R. King said...

I haven't seen that movie in years. I need to get on that!

Great review, Richard. I hope all is well with you and yours!

writing and living by Richard P Hughes said...

O.E., Jon, Emily, Thank you for commenting. I'm not doing any writing at the moment, so I'm trying something new to add to my overburdened workload. Who doesn't love a good movie?

Emily R. King said...

I agree! A good movie is always good. :)

I added the follow email button on my blog, Richard. Thanks for the recommendation!

Valentina Hepburn said...

Just love Audrey. I have a huge black and white canvass of her in my dining room because my mum looked like her. This film is an absolute classic. Clever writing, clever name. Love the review, Richard. Hope you'll do some more to jog our memories.

Tim Greaton said...

Nice review, Richard. And well said. I always claim I'm going to make some time to view the classics, but then a new Star Trek or Avengers movie comes along! Best of Wednesdays to you :-)

Jessie Humphries said...

I am also embarrassed to say I've never seen it. I remember watching a clip of it in high school, but never the whole thing. Should change that!

Tanya Reimer said...

What a great review seen from a new angle. I like seeing things from a character's view. I'm gonna try looking at a movie as the hero and see if it changes how I feel about it.

Anonymous said...

Absolutely loved this movie! I'm a big Audrey Hepburn fan. And your review makes me want to see it again!

Unknown said...

I haven't seen the movie in a long time. I want to see it again though.

writing and living by Richard P Hughes said...

Emily, Valentina, Tim, Jessie, Tanya, Clarissa, Saumya, thanks for commenting. It was very pleasant watching a good movie and reviewing it. I hope to do some more.

writing and living by Richard P Hughes said...

Helene, hope you watch it soon. It's a beautiful movie.

Julia Hones said...

Interesting theme. Thanks for reviewing it.

Rachna Chhabria said...

I have heard about it but never seen Breakfast at Tiffany's.

Elizabeth Varadan, Author said...

Breakfast at Tiffany's is one of my all time favorite movies. The music, the score, the story, all of it! I've seen it several time. This is a really good review of it, too. Thanks for the reminder of a classic.