Breakfast at Tiffany's

I rewatched Breakfast at Tiffany's tonight. The first time I saw it, I must've been around 10 or 12. I didn't remember much about it except that it was sorta confusing and there wasn't really a plot. When you're 10 or 12, you kind of need a plot to keep entertained. But it's considered a classic and so when I was at the library picking up a hold on It Happened One Night, I decided to check it out too since I was on this whole classic movie roll (if a roll consists of one classic movie...rolling into two classic movies...yah!). So, there was a lot of stuff that I hadn't picked up on when I first watched it.

First of all, I didn't pick up on the basic facts about each character.

This is kind of what my 10/12 year old mind remembers from the movie: Holly Golightly (Audrey Hepburn) is a flighty, charming party girl who gets paid $50 each time she goes to the powder room with someone. And Paul or "Fred" Verjak (George Peppard) is one of her neighbours who is also a writer and has an older lady friend. And there's also this weird neighbour, Mr. Yunioshi (Mickey Rooney), who's dorky and threatens to call the police on Holly all the time. Oh yeah, and Holly also had a cute cat, named Cat.

But now in my "mid to late 20-something" mind, I now realize that Holly's powder room visits and Paul in his bed with his older lady friend leaving money on the nightstand actually mean other things. Hmm, it's similar to when, after watching Dirty Dancing a million times in my childhood, I realized that Penny had an abortion and that Robbie got her knocked up but wasn't taking responsibility and that's why Baby poured that pitcher of water all over him. I'd watched that scene in Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story where Bruce Lee and his girlfriend watch Breakfast at Tiffany's in the movie theatre but leave when Mickey Rooney appears on screen (first reaction when I watched that Dragon scene, to be honest, was, "What's the big deal?") bur I was still shocked and appalled and angered, etc. whenever Mr. Yunioshi appeared. With his coke-bottle glasses, buck teeth and pidgin English, he represents the worse of the yellow-faced actors. And they'd toss in things like him waking up and knocking his head against a paper lantern or him performing a tea ceremony (but spilling the tea because of getting startled by one of Holly's parties). Ergh! It almost makes you think that it's impossible for this movie to still be considered a classic! Almost...if Audrey Hepburn wasn't so impossibly beautiful, effortlessly chic, charming, etc.

I'm sure there have been other classic movies that have rage-inducing stereotypes in them although I can't think of any right at this moment (Sixteen Candles's Long Duk Dong? Is that movie a classic?). But the Mr. Yonioshi performance was a black stain on any enjoyment I could feel about the film overall and each Mr. Y. appearance pulled me out of the movie. I'd feel like calling someone an idiot but I didn't know who. Was Mr. Y actually in the original Truman Capote book? Or was he just added to the movie for "comic relief"?

I guess my memory of Cat was the only one that stayed intact.

I'd give it a 7 out of 10 with a mental suppression of the Yonioshi scenes.

P.S. To top it off, there is also a nasty librarian stereotype! You know, the bespectacled, shushing librarian with her hair up in a bun who yells out "Whaaaat are you doing to that book???" when all you're doing is trying to autograph it (but I guess for me, occupational stereotypes aren't really as offensive as race stereotypes).
And then Audrey Hepburn says that Tiffany's is a nicer place than the library. Tsk. You can't borrow jewelry, you know (unless you're a famous actress, I suppose).