| Overall Grade: |
A |
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| Story: |
A |
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| Acting: |
A |
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| Direction: |
A+ |
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| Visuals: |
A+ |
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Hepburn's "Hustler".
by Yahoo! Movies User (movies profile)
May 25, 2008
10
of
15 people found this review helpful
Even as Paul Newman was creating a male archetype for the Sixties in "The Hustler", so was Audrey Hepburn doing the same for the female of the species in "Breakfast at Tiffany's". She was, of course, already a major star, but in the Fifties Hepburn had established a sense of aristocratic innocence, of fawn-like vulnerability, of pixieish charm blended with vixenish soul. By that decade's end it was clear Ms Hepburn would soon be too old to play such ingenuous parts and, wisely, she started searching for something different. Hepburn needed a vehicle which would provide the proper translation into more mature, sophisticated roles without ever turning her back on her old screen image. Luckily, she happened on Holly Golightly, the unforgettable female created by Truman Capote in his delightful novella.
For audiences, she captured something of the spirit of the times: Holly is as amoral as Fast Eddie Felsen and, in fact, compliments him as the first significant female role of the new decade. Holly stands as a precursor to the liberated woman who would appear in the films of the late Sixties, insisting on living her own way yet deeply in need of a man's love and companionship. Holly, one realizes at the end, is not as tough, or independent, as she would have us believe.
The conclusion marks the only major departure from Capote's book, and while it did provide audiences with the happy ending Hollywood producers insisted audiences still desired, it nonetheless detracted from the story's power. Other than that one weak moment though, George Alexrod's screenplay captured the ambiance of Manhattan's East Side with an array of effective satirized character types, while Blake Edwards established his reputation as a director of sophisticated comedies with his handling of the varied confrontations between actors. Most important of all, a new kind of woman made her first significant appearance on the screen.
With his landmark score for "Breakfast at Tiffany's," Henry Mancini truly established himself as the eminent composer of film music for the early part of the 1960s. Mancini radically challenged the entire era that movie music should provide background and exist as a secondary and relatively formulaic accompaniment to the picture and dialogue. Mancini wanted his music to be conspicuous; he was at the forefront of shifting the aesthetic of motion picture music in Hollywood toward this concept. Mancini's impact in demonstrating that the times were truly changing for Hollywood movie music was evidenced when "Breakfast at Tiffany's" lapped up the film industry's approval by winning the Academy Award for best original score. His winning of this particular category with a score that was entirely jazz/pop-oriented, and beating out traditional powerhouse Hollywood composers that year, including Miklos Rozsa ("El Cid"), Elmer Bernstein ("Summer and Smoke") and Dimitri Tiomkin ("The Guns of Navarone"), also marked the beginning of a new era for movie music in the United States. [filmfactsman] |
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