Anniversary of the Breakfast at Tiffany's

On October 5, 1961, exactly 60 years ago, the premiere of Blake Edwards' film "Breakfast at Tiffany's" took place in New York.

The film by Blake Edwards was based on the novel of the same name by Truman Capote, published in 1958. However, the script of the film is quite different from the plot of the book. The most significant differences: the action was transferred from the beginning of the 40s to the beginning of the 60s; the ending of the film allows us to hope for a happy ending, while in the ending of the story the main characters part.

The image of the main male protagonist of the story, and then the film, Capote gave his own character, with the exception of one important detail: Capote himself was gay. And in the image of the main female protagonist, the writer combined the features of several women he knew, each of whom later claimed that Holly Golightly was copied from her. But most of all in this image - from the mother of the writer himself. To the point that even the real name of the main character of the story - Lulamei - is very similar to the name of Truman's mother - Lilly Mae.

Since, as it was said, Capote invested a lot of his own traits in the image of the main character, at one time he wanted to play this role himself. But on condition that the role of Holly Golightly will be played by Marilyn Monroe. But this duet was not destined to come true. The fact is that at that time Monroe had a contract with the 20th Century-Fox film company, and the rights to the film adaptation of the story were bought by the producers of the Paramount film company. Of course, with a strong desire, Paramount could compensate for the costs associated with the termination of Monroe's contract with 20th Century-Fox. But there was no such desire. The reason is that shortly before that the film "Let's Make Love" was released, shot largely on the initiative of Monroe. And this film turned out to be, to put it mildly, very weak. Again, thanks in large part to Monroe. In the American film world, they started talking about the beginning of the decline of the actress' career. Who will take risks in such conditions.

But another version of the reason why Marilyn Monroe did not get into the Blake Edwards film was revealed to the whole world. Allegedly, her theater teacher dissuaded her from this role, because it is not appropriate for a woman of high moral qualities to act in the roles of frivolous persons (ha-ha-ha). As a result, Monroe instead of "Breakfast at Tiffany's" starred in John Huston's film "Misfits".

The role of Holly Golightly was offered to another actress - Shirley MacLaine. But she refused, because at that moment she was busy filming the movie "Two Loves". After her refusal, the offer was made to several more actresses, including Kim Novak ("Vertigo" by Alfred Hitchcock), Jean Seberg ("À bout de souffle (Breathless)" by Jean-Luc Godard). But they also refused. And then the role of Golightly was offered to Audrey Hepburn. What Capote was very unhappy about. Perhaps his pride was hurt by the fact that the fee for this great actress was set at $ 750,000 (the equivalent of about $7 million today), while Capote himself received only $ 650,000 for the sale of the rights to the film adaptation of the story.

The fee for the role in the movie "Breakfast at Tiffany's" made Audrey Hepburn the highest paid actress at that time. But this is completely understandable, because by the time she started working on the film, at the age of 31, she was already the winner of an Oscar and a Golden Globe ("Roman Holiday") and the David di Donatello Award ("The Nun's Story"). In addition, to participate in the filming, she had to fly to New York from Switzerland, where she had given birth to her first child, Sean, three months earlier.

Audrey Hepburn was displeased not only with Capote, but also with another manager of the film company. Or rather, not Hepburn herself, but the song "Moon River" performed by her. The composer Henry Mancini wrote this song especially for Hepburn. Knowing about the actress's not the most outstanding vocal abilities, he did not complicate the melody of the song. And because of this very simplicity, this manager, whose name was lost in the annals of history, insisted on cutting this "stupid song", according to him, from the final version of the film. To which Hepburn stated: "Over my dead body!". And she turned out to be absolutely right, because it was this very song that brought the film one of the two Oscars won. How stupid, it turns out, some managers are.

But the second of the two Oscars won, we can say, was the merit of Audrey Hepburn as well. Received it again by Henry Mancini for the soundtrack to the film as a whole. Moreover, the composer later admitted that it was Hepburn who inspired him to create music for this film.

The role of Holly Golightly brought Audrey Hepburn another award of the Italian Film Academy - David di Donatello. But in the USA, for this role, Hepburn received only nominations - for an Oscar and a Golden Globe. The American Film Academy decided to award its Oscar to Sophia Loren - for her role in the film "La ciociara (Two Women)". And in the dispute for the Golden Globe, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association recognized the primacy of Rosalind Russell for her role in the film "A Majority of One".

The film "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and its director did not have any serious festival success. Only Henry Mancini and Audrey Hepburn got it all. Russian film critic Yevgeny Nefyodov explains this relative failure of the film by the fact that "Blake Edwards and the screenwriter George Axelrod failed to convey in all the nuances the subtlety and bitter irony of the literary original." However, the critic himself explains why it failed: "Truman Capote, the author of the original source, had no choice but to accept the inevitable distortion of his, let's say, bold observations on the characters of the actors, starting with Golightly herself, on the pages of the novel – unequivocally attributed to women of easy virtue, who managed to have an abortion, prone to bisexuality, dabbling in marijuana and drinking heavily. The Hayes Code did not allow such frankness!"

And although everything listed by Yevgeny Nefyodov was not in the film, the Soviet moviegoer without any Hayes code was deprived of the opportunity to watch this film. At least until the beginning of perestroika times.

Among ordinary moviegoers, 60 years ago and today, Blake Edwards' film "Breakfast at Tiffany's" is a constant success. Suffice it to say that with a budget of $ 2.5 million, the film grossed $ 14 million at the box office. 64% of IMDB and Kinopoisk users gave this film scores from 8 to 10.

With that said, the rating of Blake Edwards' film "Breakfast at Tiffany's" according to FilmGourmand was 7,862, which allowed it to take the 909th Rank in the Golden Thousand.