1961 Breakfast at Tiffany's Pt 2

I just watched Breakfast at Tiffany's last night and...ummmm..well, Audrey was quite the beauty. I hadn't really read much about it, and my perception of what it would be was really "off." Audrey plays a young woman who "plays the field" (escort is a nice word) and the man she befriends who just moved in to her apartment house is a "kept" man by an older, married woman. She keeps hoping to marry one of these rich guys she goes out with, but they all turn out to be "rats" or "super rats" (go figure) and they dump her.

The movie was based on a book by Truman Capote, and I'm betting his story didn't give it the "light touch" that the movie did. My 50th Anniversary Edition DVD has extra interviews with the director (Blake Edwards, who died last December). He hinted that he wasn't able to make her character (visualized by Capote as sexy Marilyn Monroe) like she was in the book. "A big jump from the Capote Holly Golightly to the film Holly Golightly," he said.

I was expecting a light-hearted romp of the early 60s with lovely New York fashion and jewelry. But instead, it was a rather depressing tale of a young woman who escaped a horrible childhood only to have a horrible adulthood. A good story in itself, but when expectations are not met, it is depressing. Not really a movie for kids, although nothing really graphic is shown, and much of the inferences will go right over their heads, but the theme is pretty bleak and of course is about a prostitute trying to keep her head above water and better her lot in life.

I think I'll go watch The Parent Trap now (also 1961). It's just a romp about two parents that split up their twins as babies and never bother to tell them about their other biological parent, much less that they have a sibling. Now that's fun!

Update: I just watched The Parent Trap and the DD and I enjoyed it. Yes, a light-hearted romp. My only objection to it was the occasional violence. But I guess it was PC to slap people around in 1961, huh? The girls slap each other (hard) and start a rolling around on the floor and cake and punch spilling fight. Later, the ex-wife slaps (and punches) the father and when the girls finally upset the fiance enough to make her leave, she slaps one of them (very hard) after saying "Do you two share everything? Then share this with your sister!" SLAP! Really, it's OK to hit a 13-year-old? But again, great to see the fashions, especially the more casual ones for younger kids.

Next up, West Side Story. Just a romp about a couple of groups of kids in a city neighborhood who like to sing and dance, I hear. Maybe it's like Glee.