Skip to main content

Moon River

By


Breakfast at Tiffany's was about as far away from the book as you can get, but combine Audrey Hepburn, a cat and the recurring theme of Moon River and you have a wonderfully engaging film that still lingers today like a soft refrain.  Hard to believe it was 53 years ago that this film premiered.  A nasty literature teacher might assign this novel to her students and see what she gets back in the way of book reports.

As the story goes, Truman Capote wanted Marilyn Monroe for the lead roll in the adaptation of his novella, but rather than a big blowsy blonde that would have been more in keeping with Capote's Holly Golightly, Blake Edwards went for a soft charming brunette in Hepburn.  But, the biggest character makeover was the creation of Paul Varjak, played by George Peppard.  In the novella, "Fred" was gay and had no love interest beyond that of "older brother" in the novel.  Hollywood wasn't ready for such a character, so Edwards rebuilt this relationship in the movie, turning it into a classic romance.

Nevertheless, the film is a gem in its retelling, pulling bits and pieces from the novel and reassembling them into a wonderful movie that has captivated audiences for generations.  So much so that no one has tried to remake the film, even though a director today could tell Fred's story as it is in the novel.  The image of Holly Golightly has been indelibly stamped by Audrey Hepburn.


There are many memorable characters from the film, ranging from Mickey Rooney's oddball Mr. Yunioshi to Martin Balsam as O.J. Berman, who remade Holly from a country girl into a New York "socialite."  We won't say call girl, which is what she was in the novel.  You can't beat the party scene.  It is as hip as it comes.  However, it is Audrey's movie from beginning to end.

Happy Birthday, Holly!

Comments

  1. TripplerOctober 7, 2014 at 12:11 AM

    Yes it was a great movie with superb characterization and acting. But I honestly thought the book was even better than the movie. Strangely enough (and you know how strange I can be), I am likely the only person who has ever said that. 99.99% of everyone else prefers that sterling movie.

    A few years ago I read where Holly Golightly was voted the most interesting fictional character, ever. And that could very well be true as she was quite a character.

    ReplyDelete
  2. James FergusonOctober 7, 2014 at 7:27 AM

    I don't think very persons have read the book.

    ReplyDelete
  3. James FergusonOctober 7, 2014 at 10:19 AM

    BTW, that German stamp has an interesting history,

    http://www.pinterest.com/pin/59813501273243969/

    A little bit like Charade.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

By
  Welcome to this month's reading group selection.  David Von Drehle mentions The Melting Pot , a play by Israel Zangwill, that premiered on Broadway in 1908.  At that time theater was accessible to a broad section of the public, not the exclusive domain it has become over the decades.  Zangwill carried a hopeful message that America was a place where old hatreds and prejudices were pointless, and that in this new country immigrants would find a more open society.  I suppose the reference was more an ironic one for Von Drehle, as he notes the racial and ethnic hatreds were on display everywhere, and at best Zangwill's play helped persons forget for a moment how deep these divides ran.  Nevertheless, "the melting pot" made its way into the American lexicon, even if New York could best be describing as a boiling cauldron in the early twentieth century. Triangle: The Fire That Changed America takes a broad view of events that led up the notorious fire, not...
228 comments
Read more

Dylan in America

By
Whoever it was in 1969 who named the very first Bob Dylan bootleg album “Great White Wonder” may have had a mischievous streak. There are any number of ways you can interpret the title — most boringly, the cover was blank, like the Beatles’ “White Album” — but I like to see a sly allusion to “Moby-Dick.” In the seven years since the release of his first commercial record, Dylan had become the white whale of 20th-century popular song, a wild, unconquerable and often baffling force of musical nature who drove fans and critics Ahab-mad in their efforts to spear him, lash him to the hull and render him merely comprehensible. --- Bruce Handy, NYTimes ____________________________________________ I figured we can start fresh with Bob Dylan.  Couldn't resist this photo of him striking a Woody Guthrie pose.  Looks like only yesterday.  Here is a link to the comments building up to this reading group.
182 comments
Read more

Team of Rivals Reading Group

By
''Team of Rivals" is also an America ''coming-of-age" saga. Lincoln, Seward, Chase et al. are sketched as being part of a ''restless generation," born when Founding Fathers occupied the White House and the Louisiana Purchase netted nearly 530 million new acres to be explored. The Western Expansion motto of this burgeoning generation, in fact, was cleverly captured in two lines of Stephen Vincent Benet's verse: ''The stream uncrossed, the promise still untried / The metal sleeping in the mountainside." None of the protagonists in ''Team of Rivals" hailed from the Deep South or Great Plains. _______________________________ From a review by Douglas Brinkley, 2005
293 comments
Read more