It’s rather ironic that almost fifty years after its release, Breakfast at Tiffany’s remains Audrey Hepburn’s most iconic piece of cinema – her free-spirited Holly Golightly was intended for Marilyn Monroe by Truman Capote, and even Hepburn herself felt she had been miscast. It hardly matters now though, and it hardly seems possible that anyone but Hepburn could have played Golightly.
Breakfast at Tiffany’s may function as more of a pop culture artifact than a film, but there’s no questioning its cultural footing is due to Hepburn. She’s a joy to behold in the somewhat uneven and inconsistent film. When she gazes through the picture window at Tiffany’s while daintily consuming a pastry, it’s movie magic, and she keeps those moments coming – the raucous cocktail party, the impish thievery in the five and dime store, the desperate hunt for a cat in the rain.
Hepburn’s sweet naiveté is totally believable, and the budding relationship between her and George Peppard makes Tiffany’s a winning love story, even if I wish the ending would have gone in another direction.
Breakfast at Tiffany’s has seen many DVD releases over the years, with the most recent coming only three years ago to celebrate the film’s 45th anniversary. Paramount’s Centennial Collection edition seems rather unnecessary, but it’s not totally a blatant money-grab, with a number of classic Hepburn films being released in this series (Funny Face, Roman Holiday, Sabrina) along with other Paramount classics (Sunset Boulevard).
Also, Paramount is providing more than just a repackaging, with four new featurettes – three of them worthwhile – present on the second disc of special features.
“A Golightly Gathering” reunites a number of the extras and the bit part actors from the cocktail party scene in Holly’s apartment. Initially, the piece seems to be a waste of time, but as it progresses, the interesting anecdotes start to flow. Typically, you’d expect the best behind-the-scenes trivia to come from the film’s real stakeholders – the director, the leads and the primary crew – but the perspectives provided from those on the very fringe of the film experience are very worthwhile. This is a solid extra that shows some nice creativity from its creators.
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