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How I made it to 42 years old without having seen Breakfast at Tiffany’s is beyond me, and now it’s been newly released in a 2-disc set as the Breakfast At Tiffany’s – Paramount Centennial Collection–and best of all, it’s only $12.49 on Amazon.com! It would be the PERFECT Valentine’s Day movie!

Breakfast at Tiffany’s stars Hepburn as Holly Golightly, a New York City party girl who embarks on a wildly entertaining, comedic adventure to find love in the big city, when all she really has to do is look next door. Directed by Academy Award nominee Blake Edwards, the film also stars George Peppard, Patricia Neal, Buddy Ebsen and Mickey Rooney. The film earned Oscars for Best Song (“Moon River”) and Best Score, and was nominated for Best Actress, Best Writing and Best Art Direction.

Did you know that Breakfast at Tiffany’s was a short novel published in a book of stories by Truman Capote? I had no idea! I thoroughly enjoyed this movie, I can see it being added to my go-to list of romantic movies I watch over and over, along with You’ve Got Mail and When Harry Met Sally. I took a lot of notes while watching, things like “self-professed wild thing learns that love doesn’t mean being caged up” and “learns the hard way that depending on rich men to take care of her ultimately leads to heartbreak”.

Capote created a character who had a down-on-her-luck background so that she wouldn’t seem completely unsympathetic. A wife and stepmother at FOURTEEN, she escaped to New York and although we don’t know how she survived at first, we now see her living the party-girl life in an apartment paid for by a mobster’s lawyer and flirting with rich men to get money for cab rides and to tip the matrons in powder rooms. She has a cat that followed her home one day, but she just calls him Cat because she says she “has no right to name him since they don’t belong to each other”. She has loads of acquaintances but no real friends until writer Paul Varjak moves into her building.

Holly moves Paul into her circle, calling him “darling” and letting him buy her drinks and meals, flirting outrageously but keeping him at arms length, until her past finds her in New York and she needs Paul’s help. She is looking for her “big score”, a really rich man to sweep her off her feet, but doesn’t seem to care at all whether there is love involved.

What I had to remind myself while watching this movie was that it was released in 1961, a time when women were still expected to find a man to marry them, settle down, and have babies, and not expect much personal success. The audience might find themselves incredulous that Holly would charm fifty dollars out of her dinner companion on the pretense of needing it to tip the powder room matron but really spending it on herself, but at that time, most women looked to men to take care of them. It would have been “beneath” Holly, after all she had gone through to get to where she is now, to go get a job as a secretary or waitress. Sad, but true for that time.

The title of the movie comes from the opening scene, when we see Holly, still in her evening gown and jewels, walking down what I assume is New York’s Madison Avenue, stopping in front of the window display at Tiffany’s, and eating a pastry and sipping a cup of cofffee. We later learn that she never goes to bed on Wednesday nights because she has to get up early on Thursday for her trip to Sing Sing prison to visit “Sally Tomato”, the mobster who advises her on her spending and gives her a “weather report” that she passes to his lawyer. We find out later that it’s not just a weather report, surprise surprise.

The other main character in the movie is Paul Varjak (played by George Peppard), a published writer who is basically a “kept man”. His rich benefactor is a married woman who lives in the same apartment building as he and Holly, and until he gets something new published, Paul is dependent on “2-E”, which is a situation he would very much like to get out of.  It’s obvious he’s fallen hard for Holly practically from their first meeting.

I could tell you the whole plot of the movie and what I thought of every scene, but instead, I’m going to just say if you haven’t seen Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and you like romantic movies with charming co-stars, rent or buy it. The 2-disc Centennial Collection has commentary by the producer on disc 1 and 8 featurettes, the original trailer, and still galleries on the second disc. Best of all, Amazon.com has this 2-Disc collection for the unbelievably low price of $12.49! You can’t beat that price!  Make it part of your romantic evening with your sweetie for this Valentine’s Day

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