Honestly, this was pure sacrilege.

Author Truman Capote wrote the screenplay keeping Marilyn Monroe in mind, but when she turned down the part -- legendary acting coach Lee Strasberg declaring the role of a call-girl (ahem) unsuitable for her image -- the Roman Holiday star stepped in, and immediately dismissed the director attached to the project because she hadn't heard of him -- John Frankenheimer, who went on to direct classics like The Manchurian Candidate and Grand Prix -- and chose instead the decidedly flaky Blake Edwards, the man eventually known for the Pink Panther series.

Literary critics too were in arms, as the sparkling novella about an inimitable woman and her relationship with a gay man was turned into a conventional romantic comedy.

And what a comedy it turned out to be.

The film's first frame shows New York's famed jewellery store, Tiffany's. The hour is early, so early that even the mythical Fifth Avenue is deserted -- until a yellow cab pulls up. A ridiculously lithe woman, clad in a gorgeous black dress designed by herself and Givenchy, walks to the store window. She fishes her elegantly gloved hands into a paper bag, discovers a danish, which she holds in her mouth while taking out a cup of coffee, as the film's perfectly suited name appears next to her.

The film was groundbreaking not just because it remains the most sophisticatedly crafted romantic-comedy of all time, but more crucially because it is a landmark drama -- a bitter and often cynical look at life, love and the Big Apple -- hidden behind conventional smiles. It is an ancestor to the genre we trendily now call 'the dramedy.'

Breakfast At Tiffany's is a masterpiece of style and grace -- and comedy so effortless it blends right in. Holly Golightly is one of modern literature's greatest heroines, and who better to play the irresistibly phony oddball than the most beautiful woman of all time, looking at her finest? Audrey Hepburn literally sparkles with an inimitable performance as George Peppard valiantly plays the straight guy trying hard to keep up.

Appropriate to the leading lady, the detailing is astonishing. Hepburn, unable to find a dress for a party, saunters around wrapped in a bedsheet, looking drop dead unbelievable as she places a novel decoratively next to a bottle of champagne.

Her insanely fashionable couch is a traditional bathtub sliced halfway down the middle. The dialogues are plain delightful. With the exception of Mickey Rooney's hideously caricatured Mr Yunioshi -- Blake Edwards wasn't one to shy away from offensive shockers -- this film stays superbly subtle yet mired in subtext, the characters amusing yet cryptic, constantly open to reinterpretation.

Here, then, is the mentioned scene with Audrey at the party in her sheet, while Paul -- whom she constantly calls Fred -- tries to get a glimpse into her world. Click here for video. Martin Balsam is in fine fettle as OJ Berman. And as for Audrey, well -- she even makes a cigarette look sexy.

Also read: Making Breakfast At Tiffany's iconic

Back

|

Next