Freeze Frame: BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY’S

Sometimes a film’s legacy is more hinged to its embodiment of style than it is to be “a good film”. While I’m usually the one frothing at the mouth when modern audiences have the gall to shrug off a classic, it is true that some films have gained a legacy they don’t truly deserve. These films, while still iconic for one reason or another, haven’t aged well. However, they remain engaging for one reason or another.

BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY’S is a film I don’t particularly like. There’s no denying that Audrey Hepburn is iconic in the film; seldom have an actor and a role become so intertwined. She turns Holly Golightly into the original Manic Pixie Dreamgirl; charming the living hell out of the audience as she bites on her sunglasses and nurses her drinks. Unfortunately, she does all of this while occasionally interacting with one of the most racist character portrayals that drag down the whole film.

Focusing on Hepburn though, what she does with the part of Holly brings me pause. A few years ago, I finally got to read the Truman Capote novella this film is based on. In it, Holly Golightly is drawn rather differently. She’s a flake, a user, a mess. She’s more destructive and more overtly a call girl. The charm and breeziness Hepburn brought to the part are nowhere in sight, leaving Holly darker and more destructive a character. So much so, that there are few amazing shots in the film that she isn’t part of, though as you can see below, I did find one.

This brings me to the photo I have chosen.

I am drawn towards it because it feels like it’s the first time in the film – and possibly the only time – we see Hepburn’s Holly in a moment of destruction and darkness. It’s the moment where her usual carefree nature is nowhere to be found, and her impulsiveness has given way to a moment that would give one pause. In short, it’s the moment where Audrey Hepburn seems to come closest to portraying the character Truman Capote wrote.

We don’t see Holly trash the room after getting news of her brother’s death, but we can envision her doing it. A few too many drinks and it’s an easy leap from what we’ve come to know of her to the scene we see before us. In this shot, she doesn’t even move – she’s physically and emotionally spent, and reduced to collapsing into the rubble she has created. For the first time in the entire film, we’re looking down upon Capote’s Holly Golightly – Hepburn’s Holly is nowhere to be found.

Even the way José’s shadow stretches towards her from the door frame suggest something far more ominous than this film ever touches upon. He is standing there looking over the carnage Holly has turned the room into, frozen in thought as he tries to think of what to do. However, if one didn’t know that – if one only looked at the still image above – one might feel a great deal of worry from that stranger standing in the doorway, and the long shadow he casts.

As charming as Holly is, it’s reasonable to assume that a New York call girl in this era would have found herself in such a scenario – panicked while a stranger’s shadow looms over her. Blake Edwards’ film doesn’t want us to think about that. It doesn’t want us to think about the dangerous realities that come with being an escort. It only wants us to delight in Audrey Hepburn’s pluckiness. For just one moment though, it gives us a glimpse.

The way this one moment stands apart from the rest of the film’s (truly handsome) iconography is what draws me to it. It’s the singular reminder of just how destructive a life Holly Golightly is living, and how close she really is to true danger. To paraphrase a whole other film, it reminds me that without the bitter, the sweet is never as sweet.

Here’s three more from BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY’S for the road…

This series of posts is inspired by the “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” series at The Film Experience. Do check out all of the awesome entires in their series so far