Breakfast at Tiffany's- not a love story

[Gahhhhereheisagain]

I should start by saying I'm a big fan but isn't it kind of fucked up? The kind of film which people rave about and you don't know if they've actually seen it or remember it, or have considered it by today's standards.
They're kind of both prostitutes.
I love Holly Golightly but she must be maddening to live with, or next door to!
Her and Fred would never work, what would they do? Get jobs? Who would hire the work shy pair?
Much prefer the grittier novela.

It's a misogynist, racist male fantasy - the gorgeous, damaged, fragile yet spirited prostitute who needs rescuing. Same as Pretty Woman, Moulin Rouge and god knows how many other films with the same tropes.

I never understand why women like these films.

I always get upset about the cat being dumped out in the street in that film, don't know why but it always distresses me

Because it's just a film - it's not reality.

the cat is the only thing I remember, and cat made me feel bad

I absolutely love old classic movies but I was terribly disappointed when I watched this. It's put me off anything with Audrey Hepburn ever since.

I don't remember any of the plot now but I do remember feeling sad about the cat.

Me too. And in the rain. Holly was a self-absorbed and cruel character who was oblivious to everything and everyone else around her.

Yes, the treatment of the cat is the main reason (among many) that I hate the movie so much. Someone should've dumped Holly in the rain, see how she likes it. Then there is the racism. And then, prostitution.

So it begs the question; why does anyone like this movie when there is NOTHING remotely likeable about it?

Fred's Holly's brother. You mean Paul Varjak.

I recognise a lot of the criticisms voiced on this thread and agree with a lot of them. Nonetheless, I still like it. I see it as a fairytale of New York and as a film of its time. I like Audrey H and I like the clothes, the settings, the music.

They do go back for the cat!

I just found it boring. The male lead is so completely blank - is George Peppard just a bad actor, or were they so busy trying to remove the character’s gayness that they forgot to put in any personality traits? It’s a ‘love story’ in the sense that it ends with two people smushing faces in the rain, but I don’t remember there being any interesting sense of what is drawing these two people together. It’s about as romantic as watching two mannequins being pushed together into a kiss position in a shop window.

It is terrible isn't it.

I didn't think Holly was supposed to be likeable, though, was she?

They do go back and get Cat in the end though.

I feel like they get drawn together fairly convincingly. They have great fun and there's a lot of warmth in the sequences where they go to the five-and-dime and muck about, and to Tiffany, when they explain that they haven't got much money and the assistant is impeccably polite and non-snooty and suggests a Tiffany phone dialler

I said that!

I do think Paul has a personality. He’s just sad and stuck and hates himself for being the play thing of the rich, older woman and meeting Holly makes him come to his senses. Sort of ditto for Holly too with her and her various men.

Oh sorry!

The point is that Holly’s been thrown away so she repeats that to the cat. Being a victim doesn’t mean you’re a nice person.

The short story/novella is brutal. Holly’s a damaged bird who remakes herself in NY, home of transformations, and tries to
fly. She’s a source of fascination to her GBF hooker mate.

It’s sweet and sad, and Audrey Hepburn didn’t get it - but the thing about feeling safe in a smart shop is so true.

S' OK
I agree with you about Paul and Holly's personalities. Paul reminds me a bit of Brian in Cabaret.

I like it, it’s a far more complex story than the glamorous posters imply.

Holly has a very tragic backstory and it’s made clear that everything she is doing is for her brother. Her devastation is clear when she learns of his death.

She is selfish but only because she has had to be to survive and it is clear that she is scared to let anyone in including cat so that she can’t get hurt, basically self preservation.

The film does try to explain her accent which was Audrey Hepburn’s real one.

In real life she had lived in the Netherlands during the war and came and had mixed British/Dutch heritage. You should read about her ear years all very tragic.

I think yabu as it’s not supposed to be a love story is it? It’s a film about damaged people and a callous society.

The horrendous racist depiction of Mickey Rooney’s character sadly makes it unwatchable.

I thought the 50 dollars for the powder room reference was pretty clear. The racism was awful and Hepburn woefully miscast - same with My Fair Lady. Julie Andrews would have made a much better Eliza!

100% this.

Dull dull and more dull.
Even as a child i thought they were both idiots.

I think she's perfectly cast in BaT. It says a lot that the images of her (in that dress with the cigarette holder, gloves et al, where she's eating the croissant outside Tiffany and where she's singing 'Moon River') have become and remain so recognisable and embedded in the general culture (although I agree with those saying that the images/posters do not get across the whole of the film or story).
My Fair Lady – it'd be interesting to see Julie A in it, yes, but I don't watch it and think Audrey H is awful.

Nope. I do not like it at all. A drivelly, whiny and self absorbed film.

I think I’m the only one who still likes it! And I do think it’s a love story, two lost souls finding each other.

I think Nine Lives would take off and they would give the cat a name.

I also love the book but they are completely separate in my head as they are so different!