Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961)

Review Breakfast at Tiffany's

During the last couple of years I’ve seen a lot of classic movies I had never seen before thanks to working through the IMDB top 250 list. Of course amongst those classics there were some which I simply didn’t like, but where I understood why they are so loved by many. Not everyone likes the same things. Breakfast at Tiffany’s was a movie which I hadn’t watched yet. Of course I knew the iconic image of Audrey Hepburn with the jewelery and the cigaret, but I had never seen anything else about the film. When Inspired Ground did a tribute to the movie I decide it was time to finally check it out and try to understand what all the fuss is about.

Review Breakfast at Tiffany's

The story revolves about the character Holly Golightly, a very fashion aware, well dress woman (Audrey Hepburn) who likes to be the centre of attention and who only seems to be interested in wealthy men who will happily buy her nice things or give money to her. With her charm Holly seems to be able to win the heart of any man. When a new neighbour arrives, Paul Varjak (George Peppard), the viewer gets to know her better through him and the two spend a lot of time together. The question is where that will eventually end up

Review Breakfast at Tiffany's

Audrey Hepburn succeeds, partly thanks to the beautiful clothing, to give an iconic performance and with her charm she not only managed to win the men in the movie for her, but the viewer as well. You understand why she is living the way she does even if that is in a very shallow way. She is, to put it simply, a ‘golddigger’ . But even if the role is iconic, the movie is far from it and can’t be called a classic in my book. The movie isn’t funny (and I’m not even going to talk about the role of Mickey Rooney as the Japanese neighbour) and until the last part of the film there wasn’t too much happening that was close to interesting. Although there is some drama near the end I wasn’t invested in the characters enough (partly because of the light tone of the movie) to care enough.

12 thoughts on “Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961)

  1. Nice review. I actually forced myself to watch this movie on Netflix a couple years ago in order to find out what all the fuss is about too. I didn’t care for it at all! I just didn’t find the movie to be a classic even though it’s considered one. You’re right – it is pretty shallow, all in all. The one thing I liked was that Holly was beautiful in it. But really, Audrey Hepburn definitely has better movies worth watching, IMO.

  2. I love the clothes in this film but like you, I’m not in love w/ this film as others do. I much prefer Roman Holiday and My Fair Lady in terms of Audrey Hepburn movies, those two are far memorable to me.

    • So that begs the question, is the movie actually widely loved? 😉 Have seen Roman Holiday (as you know), but never saw My Fair Lady….should I?

  3. Ahah, I can understand. I love the clothes and iconic song, but the movie might be a little overrated. But people was so inspired by it (like you see in my post). Isn’t my fave by Hepburn

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