Breakfast at Tiffanys Essay

The movie begins appropriately with the lead Holly Goligthly having breakfast outside of Tiffany’s in New York and already that sets the tone of the whole movie. She’s dressed in a black Givenchy dress and her hair resembles something of a pineapple. She is looking in to the store and we see her perfectly polished reflection in the well-polished windows. Appropriately I say, since the title says just that, Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Even though is seems unimportant, just a title, Tiffany’s plays a central role throughout the movie but not just as a location for several of the scenes. It represents everything Holly wants and doesn’t seem able to get or allow herself to want. Holly as a character is a very intriguing creature. Her quirkiness and seemingly free-spirit leaves me wanting to emulate her, doing my hair and make-up in the same way and act like she does. It’s not until the middle of the movie when I realize that under that perfect exterior lays a very broken and confused spirit. The ideas of the perfect and glamorous feel of Tiffany’s are nouns Holly tries to apply to herself. The presumed shallowness of the sales people and the expensive merchandise makes me understand that for her, money and the played identity of Holly Golightly, controls her life. It leaves me with a sense of longing to understand this complex personality and question was lies beneath the surface. It becomes clearer throughout the film that even though it seems very shallow there is a compassion and depth to Holly and so also to Tiffany’s. One of my favorite scenes that clearly represent this is when Holly and Paul Varjak spend a day doing things they have never done before and end up at Tiffany’s. Due to the censorship of the time, the movie was released in 1961, it is never outspoken, but definitely clear what lengths both Holly and Paul, will go for money. In this scene money is not the focus, and the ring from the Kracker Jacks becomes a representation of the humanity in not only Holly but Tiffany’s and even the city of New York. Every decision the director has made in this film is very carefully selected, and even though the details are very subtle at first glance, they all support the idea I believe the film is trying to portray. New York as the big, glamorous city where wealth and beauty seem like a commodity. The belief that anybody can pretend to be what they want, or in Holly’s case, hide what they are. Every detail becomes important. Holly dressing almost exclusively in black but when she thinks she has finally gotten what she want, knits a red dress. Her empty apartment that in that same moment gets decorated and the only reason we know it’s not real is because the cat still has no name. There are so many different layers to this film and I guess that is why it has become a classic. Every time you see it you discover new details or change your mind about the mysterious and ever changing Holly.