"A girl can't read that sort of thing without her lipstick."

I received a lot of old movie suggestions, and I'm going to try to watch all of them, for sure.

But this week's movie was one that I've been meaning to watch for the past six years: Breakfast at Tiffany's, from 1961, directed by Blake Edwards.

the 60's aesthetic in this is so pleasant

                                          

Warning: it's gonna be hard to talk about this movie without giving away some spoilers. But, I'll try to keep it as spoiler-free as possible. I'm also probably gonna get into gender and representation issues, cause this movie does stir some conversation.  Keep reading at your own risk. 

she really eats with gloves on?

                   

The story (based on the novel by Truman Capote) follows Holly Golightly (Audrey Hepburn), a bohemian girl from Manhattan, that hunts for a rich husband and goes out with guys for a living (but it's never explicitly stated that she's a call girl); and her neighbour Paul Varjak (George Peppard) an aspiring (and slightly lazy) author that makes a living out of being a lover to a wealthy older woman (Patricia Neal) he says is his "decorator".

Holly loves having breakfast outside Tiffany's, a famous jewellery store in 5th Avenue, and every morning she rings her neighbour Mr. Yunioshi (Mickey Rooney) to open the door for her, because she keeps loosing the keys to the building. She also visits a mafia man, Sally Tomato (Alan Reed) in the Sing Sing prison every Thursday, and gives his lawyer whatever "weather reports" he tells her, and Holly assumes they exist to make sure she's doing the job she's being payed for.

Holly has a cat she calls Cat.

Paul has no option but to be dragged into Holly's life, when, after a somewhat brief encounter to introduce himself in the morning, Holly climbs the fire escape to his apartment and lets herself in through the window, waking him up. They talk, bond, and Holly starts calling him Fred, after her brother in the army, because he reminds her of him.

Paul eventually finds out about Holly's previously life in rural Texas, and how she was married at 14, when her ex-husband, Doc (Buddy Ebsen), shows up in New York to take her home.
She refuses to leave, even when he tells her that her brother is coming home from the army. Doc gets a little frustrated, and states that he won't take Fred in if she doesn't come back to Texas with him.
She still refuses, and Paul is right there to comfort her.

Of course, since this is a romance, Paul falls for Holly. But she wants nothing to do with that, since her goal still is to find a rich husband so she can provide for her herself and her brother Fred.

a gold-digger with no shame

The ending you'll have to see for yourself, but it does involve lots of rain, some animal cruelty (that is redeemed), and a cab. That's all I'm gonna say.  

who doesn't? 

                    

Before I start criticising it, know that I actually liked the movie. The acting was great (we do have a few scenes that felt a little unnatural, but nothing that made me wanna give up on it entirely), and the story was interesting from the beginning. This was actually the first movie I watched for this blog that hasn't made me wanna do laundry at some point.

Holly Golightly as a character showed women in the 60's that they could be opinionated, loud, seductive, naïve, free-spirited, and they didn't need no man to be all of that. She's the main reason I enjoyed this movie so much. 

Also, the 60's fashion in this movie is just amazing. 

a prime example of a 60's nightgown 

Now, I did have some issues. 

First, let's talk about Mr. Yunioshi, Holly's neighbour. 

                                

Yes, it was the 60's and whitewashing was "okay", but Mickey Rooney's character was extremely stereotypical and I can only imagine how insulting it is to Asians. Worst of all, I felt this interpretation of the character didn't add anything to the overall plot. He could've been a crazy white man, or an Asian man with non-stereotypical behaviour, it would've worked just the same. 

The second thing I wanna talk about, and this might deserve a little spoiler-warning, is how Paul reacts to Holly's rejection. 

you can almost see the fear in her eyes

You see, my problem is not him loving her. That's perfectly fine, it happens. My problem is him thinking that because he loves her, she owes him something.  Right after the scene where he says the 3 dreaded words, Holly storms out because she's getting married to Brazilian wealthy man.  And to keep her from storming out, Paul grabs her arm and forces her to look at him, while he screams at her about how they have to be together.

Not. Okay. Man. 

She does love him back, she's just really scared. But that still doesn't make it okay for him to react that way, or in any aggressive way whatsoever. He does leave her alone eventually, but that should've been his reaction from the start. Let Holly think things through by herself, respect her space. 

                 

Despite all this, I'd say Breakfast at Tiffany's is a classic ahead of it's time in many ways.

And it's not perfect, but it's still worth watching.