Breakfast at Tiffany's / Bonequinha de Luxo (completa 50 anos)

Breakfast at Tiffany's is a 1961 romantic comedy film starring Audrey Hepburn and George Peppard, and featuring Patricia Neal, Buddy Ebsen, Martin Balsam, and Mickey Rooney. The film was directed by Blake Edwards and released by Paramount Pictures. It was loosely based on the novella of the same name by Truman Capote.
Hepburn's portrayal of Holly Golightly as the naïve, eccentric café society girl is generally considered to be the actress' most memorable and identifiable role. She herself regarded it as one of her most challenging roles, since she was an introvert required to play an extrovert.^[1] Hepburn's performance of "Moon River" helped composer Henry Mancini and lyricist Johnny Mercer win an Oscar for Best Song. Despite her remarkable performance and the central theme of the love story between Holly and Paul (George Peppard), the film would in later years become notorious for the Asian character, I.Y. Yunioshi, played by the caucasian actor Mickey Rooney in yellowface makeup, and become an example of Hollywood's history of stereotyping of that racial group.
In the early morning, a taxi pulls up at Tiffany & Co. on Fifth Avenue in New York City and Holly Golightly (Audrey Hepburn) emerges. She eats a pastry and drinks coffee while standing outside the shop window, then strolls home. At her apartment building, she fends off her date from the disastrous night before, who has been waiting in his car all night. The next morning, she is awakened by new tenant Paul Varjak (George Peppard) ringing the doorbell. The pair chat as she dresses to leave for her weekly visit to Sally Tomato (Alan Reed), a mobster incarcerated at Sing Sing prison. She is paid to pass on coded messages for his drug ring but plays dumb regarding her visits.

Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly.

As she is leaving for Sing Sing, Holly is introduced to Paul's "decorator", wealthy older woman Emily Eustace Failenson (Patricia Neal), who Paul nicknames "2E". That night, Holly goes out onto the building's fire escape to elude an overly eager date. She peeks into Paul's apartment and sees 2E leaving money and kissing Paul goodbye. After 2E leaves, Holly enters Paul's apartment and learns that he is a writer who has not had anything published in five years since writing a book of vignettes titled Nine Lives. Holly, in turn, explains that she is trying to save money in order to support her brother, Fred, when he gets out of the Army. The pair fall asleep, but are awoken when Holly has a nightmare about Fred and leaves the apartment. She later buys Paul a new typewriter ribbon to apologise and invites him to a party at her apartment. At the party, Paul meets her Hollywood agent, O.J. Berman (Martin Balsam), who describes Holly's transformation from country girl into Manhattan socialite. He is also introduced to José da Silva Pereira (José Luis de Vilallonga), a rich Brazilian, and Rusty Trawler (Stanley Adams), a rich American.
In the days that follow, Paul and Holly become closer. One day, 2E enters Paul's apartment, worried that she is being followed. Paul tells her that he will investigate and eventually confronts the man, who introduces himself as "Doc" Golightly (Buddy Ebsen), Holly's husband. Doc explains that Holly's real name is Lula Mae Barnes, whom he married when she was 14, and that he would like to take her back to Texas. After Paul reunites Holly and Doc, she tells Paul the marriage was annulled and asks him to accompany her and Doc to the bus station. There, she tells Doc she is not returning. He tells her that if she does not return, he will not support Fred on his imminent return from the Army. She still refuses, and tells him she plans for Fred to live with her in New York. Doc leaves brokenhearted.
After drinking at a club, Paul and Holly return to her apartment, where she drunkenly tells him that she plans to marry Rusty Trawler for his money. A few days later, Paul learns that one of his short stories has been accepted for publication. On the way to tell Holly, he sees the newspaper at her door, its headline stating that Trawler has married someone else. Holly and Paul agree to spend the day together, taking turns doing things that each has never done before. At Tiffany's, Paul has the ring from Doc Golightly's box of Cracker Jack engraved as a present for Holly. After spending the night together, he awakens to find that she has returned to her apartment. Soon afterwards, Paul ends his relationship with 2E.
Holly schemes to marry José for his money, which angers Paul who has firmly decided on his love for her. After Holly and José return to her apartment to find a telegram notifying her of Fred's death, she trashes her apartment in grief, her behavior disturbing José. Months later, Paul has moved out of the building. He is invited to dinner by Holly, who is leaving the next morning for Brazil. However, they are soon arrested by police in connection with Sally's drug ring and taken to the 19th precinct. Yunioshi re-introduced the unmentioned theme from the Capote novel and insinuated that they are smoking narcotics when they were arrested. Holly spends the night in lock-up.
The next morning, Holly is released on bail with help from O.J. and finds Paul waiting in a taxi for her outside. He has her cat and a letter from José explaining he must end their relationship due to her arrest. Holly insists she will go to Brazil anyway and releases the cat from the taxi into the rain. Paul confronts Holly about her behavior and leaves the cab, tossing the ring he had engraved for her into her lap and telling her to examine her life. She quickly runs after him and together they find the cat, look into each other's eyes and embrace.

BONEQUINHA DE LUXO

O filme que definiu para toda a eternidade o mito Audrey Hepburn é hoje uma comédia romântica simpática, charmosa e pasmem, ingênua. Muitos anos antes da prostituta sonhadora vivida por Julia Roberts em “Uma linda mulher”, a doce e melancólica party girl Holy Golightly interpretada por Hepburn e criada pelo escritor Truman Capote já havia conquistado o público apesar, ou talvez por isso mesmo, de sua profissão, a mais antiga do mundo (ainda que, para melhor combinar com a imagem pública de Hepburn, o flerte da personagem com a bissexualidade tenha sido completamente limada do roteiro final).

O livro de Capote, de tintas bem menos leves que as pintadas pelo roteirista George Axelrod, conta a história de uma garota de programa que conquista o amor do novo vizinho, um escritor sustentado pela amante casada. O filme, dirigido pelo mesmo Blake Edwards da série “A pantera cor-de-rosa”, deixa de lado os sentimentos pesados e trágicos da trama e se concentra no que ela tem de mais arejada, ou seja, nada de dramas de consciência: a palavra de ordem aqui é romantismo.

Logo na primeira cena somos seduzidos pela bela melodia de “Moon river”, música de Henry Mancini que ganhou o Oscar e virou marca registrada do filme: nesta cena a doce protagonista dá sentido ao título original da história, bebericando seu café da manhã em frente à vitrine da Tiffany’s, uma das mais famosas joalherias de Nova York (que permitiu filamgens em seu exterior em um domingo, dia da semana em que nunca é aberta ao público).Este glamour, perseguido pela personagem de Hepburn durante todo o filme (e fartamente ilustrado pelo figurino criado por Givenchy especialmente para a atriz) dá o tom exato da quase superficialidade que o filme pretende imprimir na memória de seus espectadores. Apesar disso, em alguns momentos, a alma dos protagonistas acaba exposta e salva a obra de Edwards da de sua aparente nulidade dramática. A protagonista, por exemplo, não é a feliz e despreocupada Holy Golightly desde que nasceu. Vinda do interior, onde se chamava Lula Mae e era casada com um homem muito mais velho, ela busca na futilidade e na falta de compromisso com o mundo ao seu redor uma forma de impermeabilizar a si mesma do sofrimento. Essa sua aparente ambição (apenas dinheiro lhe interessa), no entanto acaba começando a lhe afastar de Paul Varjak (George Peppard), seu vizinho de apartamento, que lhe lembra seu irmão querido e com quem ela consegue, por alguns momentos, dar um vislumbre de sua verdadeira alma. Os momentos em que Golightly sofre, paradoxalmente, são os momentos mais marcantes do filme e que causam a empatia do público com o romance entre os protagonistas.

Audrey Hepburn começou a filmar "Bonequinha de luxo" apenas três meses depois do nascimento de seu primeiro filho, Sean e assumiu a personagem que o próprio Truman Capote admitiu ter escrito pensando em Marilyn Monroe. Marilyn chegou a pensar em fazer o filme, mas foi desencorajada por seu mentor Lee Strasberg, que achava que o papel de uma prostituta mancharia sua imagem. Hepburn ficou com o papel, com o maior cachê pago a uma atriz na época (750 mil dólares) e de quebra levou uma indicação ao Oscar de melhor atriz. Melhor é impossível!

Quanto a seu parceiro de cena, George Peppard, a coisa não foi assim tão simples. Adepto do Método do Actor's Studio, Peppard encontrou dificuldades em contracenar com Patricia Neal, que vivia sua amante e que chegou a declarar que trabalhar com ele era insuportável. Com Audrey, Peppard (que assumiu o papel depois que Steve McQueen declinou do projeto devido a outros compromissos) manteve uma amizade até o final da vida e, na tela, a química entre os dois é doce e verossímil.

Como comédia, “Bonequinha de luxo” consegue arrancar algumas risadas. Como drama, falta densidade e um pouco de complexidade. Mas é como romance que consegue ser inesquecível. Afinal, é impossível resistir a Audrey Hepburn e sua inacreditável Holy
Golightly.

 

IT'S DELICIOUS! 

SIMPLESMENTE DELICIOSO!