Breakfast at Tiffany's
Academy Award × 2·National Film Registry
Rent/Purchase
Holly Golightly is an eccentric New York City playgirl determined to marry a Brazilian millionaire. But when young writer Paul Varjak moves into her apartment building, her past threatens to get in their way.
What critics thought
Broadly well-received on release and enduringly popular since, the film rests almost entirely on Audrey Hepburn's performance as Holly Golightly — critics then and now treat it as one of her defining roles. The main point of contention, noted even by admirers, is how far Edwards softened and sweetened Capote's source material, trading its darker undertones for romantic comedy warmth; Capote himself never forgave it. Mickey Rooney's broadly played Japanese neighbor is the one element critics across the decades have consistently flagged as a jarring miscalculation.
“a completely unbelievable but wholly captivating flight into fancy composed of unequal dollops of comedy, romance, poignancy, funny colloquialisms and Manhattan's swankiest East Side areas captured in the loveliest of colors”
A.H. Weiler·The New York Times
“In the wrong hands, the unconventional, disorganized, sophisticated, innocent, utterly contradictory [lead] character could be a tiresome idiot. Audrey makes her as sweet as she is silly, as appealing as she is affected, a playgirl without scruples, a moth who doesn't quite deserve to die in a flame.”
Mae Tinee·Chicago Tribune
“Rooney is too slapstick as the Japanese photographer”
Henry T. Murdock·The Philadelphia Inquirer
“after that out-of-Capote beginning, Edwards goes on to an out-of-character end”
Time
Genres
Comedy, Drama, Romance
Cast & Crew
DirectorBlake Edwards
StarringAudrey Hepburn, George Peppard, Patricia Neal, Buddy Ebsen, Martin Balsam
ComposerHenry Mancini
Breakfast at Tiffany's
Academy Award × 2·National Film Registry
Holly Golightly is an eccentric New York City playgirl determined to marry a Brazilian millionaire. But when young writer Paul Varjak moves into her apartment building, her past threatens to get in their way.
What critics thought
Broadly well-received on release and enduringly popular since, the film rests almost entirely on Audrey Hepburn's performance as Holly Golightly — critics then and now treat it as one of her defining roles. The main point of contention, noted even by admirers, is how far Edwards softened and sweetened Capote's source material, trading its darker undertones for romantic comedy warmth; Capote himself never forgave it. Mickey Rooney's broadly played Japanese neighbor is the one element critics across the decades have consistently flagged as a jarring miscalculation.
“a completely unbelievable but wholly captivating flight into fancy composed of unequal dollops of comedy, romance, poignancy, funny colloquialisms and Manhattan's swankiest East Side areas captured in the loveliest of colors”
A.H. Weiler·The New York Times
“In the wrong hands, the unconventional, disorganized, sophisticated, innocent, utterly contradictory [lead] character could be a tiresome idiot. Audrey makes her as sweet as she is silly, as appealing as she is affected, a playgirl without scruples, a moth who doesn't quite deserve to die in a flame.”
Mae Tinee·Chicago Tribune
“Rooney is too slapstick as the Japanese photographer”
Henry T. Murdock·The Philadelphia Inquirer
“after that out-of-Capote beginning, Edwards goes on to an out-of-character end”
Time
Genres
Comedy, Drama, Romance
Cast & Crew
DirectorBlake Edwards
StarringAudrey Hepburn, George Peppard, Patricia Neal, Buddy Ebsen, Martin Balsam
ComposerHenry Mancini
Rent/Purchase