Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Women

What a fantastic film. This work of art is by no means the shallow, fun-loving movie that many people take it to be. Sure it has its points of light-hearted humor, but there are some very important social commentaries to be found in this 1961 classic.

Before you read on, please note that this blog has sat unfinished in my queue for a number of weeks. In no way do I consider this to be complete. I’m not sure that I ever could. The tone comes off a bit like that of a schoolmaster. This is not my intent, and the entire blog is meant to be taken with affection.

In my earlier viewings of this film, the depth of the storyline eluded me to some degree. It is not unreasonable that people would miss the importance of what they’re watching. This movie is a lot like placing very deep lyrics to a summertime melody. Most people didn’t realize what they were really listening to the first time they heard “Semi-Charmed Life” by Third Eye Blind. Likewise, few people “take it all in” when they find this movie.

The overall directing style matches the light-hearted feel of Holly Golightly, Audrey Hepburn’s on-screen personality. Holly plays the part of the hip, got-it-together, upbeat, fun-loving, neighborly city dweller. “She’s a phony. But she’s a real phony,” comes out as one of the key descriptors of Holly during multiple conversations in the movie. Via a clever parallel, the directing style of the movie is a phony too. But it also, is a real phony.

It’s useful being top banana in the shock department.
– Holly Golightly

Holly lives her life behind a cardboard facade of “always having fun.” For the most part, and to the untrained eye, she is able to hide her internal strife. Holly has never learned to love herself, nor has she learned to let another love her.

Yes, it’s a funny comment, and draws a laugh from me when Audrey Hepburn spits it out. But, the comment is actually a weighty one, and very indicative of where her heart and self-image are at. Unfortunately, this comment also sounds a lot like the reality that I see lived out by many female friends and acquaintances.

Many women in our modern culture try to put out this jazzy line in their social profile. Naturally, this type of thing usually boils down to some scarring incident (or series of incidents during childhood. This level of depth is not what the blog is about however – and for good reason. We’re all too familiar with the analysis. We see it in movies, we hear it in songs, and we talk about it with our psychologists and best friends (BFF tattoos, anyone?).

What we’re not familiar with is where to go from there. We all know we’re scarred, but who has a solution?

Although I certainly don’t have a solution for myself, I will say that the movie presents a fantastic end-game for many of my opposite-gendered friends.

You know what’s wrong with you, Miss Whoever-You-Are? You’re chicken. You got no guts. You’re afraid to say, “Okay, life’s a fact. People do fall in love. People do belong to each other, because that’s the only chance anybody’s got for real happiness.”

You call yourself a free spirit, a wild thing. You’re terrified somebody’s going to stick you in a cage. Well, baby, you’re already in that cage. You built it yourself. And it’s not bounded by Tulip, Texas, or Somaliland.

It’s wherever you go. Because no matter where you run, you just end up running into yourself.

Absolutely brilliant. Fred Baby pops out this monologue toward the end of the movie as Holly is trying to run away from her own life for the Nth time. Stops her dead in her tracks… or at least, dead in the middle of apply her lipstick.

I really hesitate to add to this mini-lecture. I feel that it truly speaks for itself. However, I will try to add my own translation for those of you who don’t find this to be anything but a lover’s spat on the big screen.

Also, for anyone who might think that I’m writing this blog for the benefit (or spotlight) of specific individuals, please know that I’m not. I’m actually secure enough in this theory to make some broad-stroke comments about women of my generation.

What’s actually happened here is that he has called her out on being an alcoholic. I mean this figuratively – as Holly is not actually addicted to alcohol. Like many young women of 2008, she is adicted to having fun. She drowns her immaturities and her lack of core identity in the arms of her favorite lovers: dancing, drinking, parties, movies, the next boyfriend, etc. There are no laws against these types of activities, and, actually, I don’t personally think any of it is wrong.

What I find to be wrong is when people hide behind these activities for prolonged periods of time. When young women become “too chicken” to face up to the mirror. This is not gender-isolated by any means. Many young men are in a state of “got no guts” as well. Usually, however, the expression is different.

In the end, we all need a little AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) in our lives. For people addicted to fun as a means of hiding from their own person, AA means getting up in the morning, looking in the mirror, and having the guts to say the following:

“You know what, life is a fact. I call myself a free spirit, a wild thing. I say that I’m terrified someone will put me in a cage. Well, I’m already in that cage. I built it myself. And it’s not bounded by Nordstrom, Chocolate Truffles or the nearest Night Club. It’s wherever I go. Because no matter where I run, I’ll just end up running into myself. So it’s time to work on some of that maturing that I forgot about so long ago. It’s time to admit that maybe I need something real after all.”