Breakfast at Tiffany's

Often listed as a top 100 film of the 20th Century, Tiffany's features a flighty socialite who I became more frustrated with than anything else. We all have watched clips of Hepburn signing Moon River, but really the story plot is not that deep. The Rooney character, as the annoying Japanese neighbor is cringe worthy in today's standards, but it was made to be comic relief in its time.

Decent film , but I wouldn't rank it as iconic for the century.

The celebrated author on whose novel it was based despised the film version, describing it as "mawkish." The star wasn't much more enthusiastic; she never considered it among her best work. And the reviews were mixed. But regardless of what Truman Capote, Audrey Hepburn, or the critics thought about it, the public adored it--and the image of Audrey Hepburn wearing a black evening dress, nibbling pastry, and window shopping has passed into our cultural iconography.

The film is indeed lightweight stuff. Audrey Hepburn is a New York good-time girl who makes a living by clipping her wealthy escorts for fifty here and fifty there. When she meets handsome George Peppard--a writer who makes ends meet by trading favors with society matron Patricia Neal--can love be far behind? But Audrey's mysterious past and her determination to marry rich, George's status as a kept boy-toy, and their occasionally questionable associates provide plenty of complications to fill out the story.

What makes the film work is the remarkable charm of its two stars. Most of the attention goes to Audrey Hepburn and the film shows her to remarkable advantage: she is a remarkable actress, personality, and beauty, and she works wonders with the ultralight script. But when it comes to charm, George Peppard is no slouch either: the film catches him at the height of his early golden-boy good looks, and he is the perfect foil for Hepburn in both their comic and dramatic scenes. Mickey Rooney's excessive performance as Yunioshi aside, the supporting cast is also very entertaining, with Patricia Neal, Buddy Ebsen, Martin Balsam, and Dorothy Whitney all give enjoyable turns. The film looks great (make sure you get the widescreen version), the score (which includes "Moon River") is excellent, and director Blake Edwards keeps everything moving at a pleasant pace. This a great film to cozy up with on a cold night--romantic, entertaining, and as comforting as a cup of hot chocolate. Recommended.

Gary F. Taylor, aka GFT, Amazon Reviewer

This film is an amazing achievement for Audrey Hepburn. The part was clearly written for Marilyn Monroe. (To think of Hepburn as a backwoods girl is absurd.) Monroe would have made a meal of this and it would have been her signature role. But she was in the midst of her emotional troubles at this time and the role was given to a very different actress in Hepburn who produced a very different Holly Golightly. And yet she did it so well that it became HER signature role instead. It's not unusual for an actor to make a role his own such that you can't picture someone else in the role even thought there are actually many who could have played it. But to take a role intended specifically for another, one for which one does not appear suited, and make that your own…well, that's a great acting achievement. It certainly is Audrey Hepburn's greatest role, a performance with many more complexities than any other she ever gave.

It's also a fabulous film. I love beauty emerging form contradiction, like a rhapsody emerging from apparently unrelated themes and musical noises. Here we have something that is at times a wacky comedy, a breezy romance and yet is full of depth and drama. So many things have happened and we have been introduced to so many characters at the end, it's amazing they all fit together. I also like the bravery of doing a story about two people who are basically prostitutes in 1961. It's daring yet there's nothing sleazy about he film because it concentrates on who these people are as people- what they are, not what they do.

And the film has the most eclectic cast I can imagine. Romantic heroine Audrey Hepburn. Method actor George Peppard. Sleek man-killer Patricia Neal. Actor's actor Martin Balsam. Old reliable Buddy Ebsen, just before he hammed it up as Jed Clampett, playing a subtle and touching version of the same thing. Mickey Rooney provides the only jarring note with his scenery chewing performance as the Japanese landlord, something we could surely have done without. Did you know that Audrey's gangster sugar daddy is played by Alan Reed, the voice of Fred Flintstone? And don't forget John McGiver's delicate turn as the clerk at Tiffany's.

You can debate the virtues of a film into the night. What really counts in the end is: Does it stay in the memory vividly years later? Would you like to watch it again? And when you watch it again, does it take you back to when you first saw it? Breakfast at Tiffany's certainly does. It will always be the prize in the cracker-jack box.

Even now 57 years after its original release, Breakfast At Tiffany's remains a charming love story between two hustlers of sorts. Audrey Hepburn is not the Holy Golightly that Truman Capote intended, she couldn't be but she was Audrey Hepburn in all of her 1961 glory. Amazing how it still works that Audrey Hepbun touch. George Peppard is gorgeous but impenetrable. Mickey Rooney, unforgivable. Henry Mancini, opportune but. strangely enough the character that fascinated me the most in my latest viewing is Patricia Neal. I would love to see a full movie about that woman. She exudes sensuality and smartness. Blake Edwards concocts a lighter fare from Capote's book and as it happens, it's still very much alive and surprisingly relevant.

BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY's is an exciting and entertaining romantic comedy about a charismatic girl from high society and an unrealized writer. Film is loosely based on Truman Capote's novella of the same name.

A young and elegantly dressed lady walks around and looking in a shop windows in an early morning. After looking into the shop's windows, she strolls home. Outside her apartment, she fends off her date from the disastrous night before. Later, she meets, a pleasant and somewhat confused writer, the new tenant in her building. They develop a special relationship. She wants to marry a rich man. However, her new friend slowly falls in love with her. Both must give up of some important goals in their lives for the sake of love...

This is an unconvincing and provocative story with a touch of an inappropriate comedy, romance and melodrama. However, this distorted reality has a certain depth. The story of a nobody's-but everyone's girl is, given her past, a naive and painful at the same time. A quiet and insecure writer with an obvious problem of writer's block and hands of a beautiful and rich older lady around his neck enters in her life. It is a quite confusing situation in life.

Costume design is exquisite, the song "Moon River" is haunting as a reflection of fears, turmoil and friendship.

Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly / Lula Mae Barnes is an irresistible, irritating, bumbling and gentle woman with two names. She constantly flees away from itself. Holly is "the real fake" and "a wild thing" at the same time. Lula Mae is a person from whom Holly escapes. Ms. Hepburn is a beautiful and gentle actress, exceptional comedienne, who is an ideal choice for this role. George Peppard as Paul Varjak is often set aside as an observer. He was not the right choice for this role. George just can not follow a "twisting" step of the unreliable Holly. Mr. Edwards has tried to equalize their characters. They are unhappy, unfulfilled and they differ from some moral standards. Their relationship is based on an unconditional friendship. There is no a chemistry or love sparks. He has, in an elusive and unreliable girl, found an inspiration in his life. She has found a man who will, regardless of her excesses and lies, always be beside her and lend her a hand when she falls.

Their support are Patricia Neal (Mrs. Emily Eustace "2E" Failenson) as a cool rich woman with a beautiful smile and a magnetic gaze. Martin Balsam as O.J. Berman is very funny as a Hollywood agent. Mickey Rooney as I.Y. Yunioshi is an inappropriate and hackneyed cliché.

This is an odd collection of turbulent and false feelings, which is a comic and melodramatic at the same time, and even occasionally pleasant to watch.