Iconic Comedy, Drama, Romance, and Fashion in Full HD

By Christopher P. Jacobs
Movies Editor

Independent video distributors like Criterion, Kino, MPI, VCI, and Image, among others, have been steadily expanding their selection of hi-definition classic films on Blu-ray the past year. However, with the exception of Warner Brothers (who also own old MGM and RKO titles) and to some extent Disney, the major studios have been notoriously reluctant to give Blu-ray releases to movies more than a decade or two old. MGM/UA has recently begun to dust off some classics, Columbia has several out, Fox has done a few but not much lately, and while Universal put most of its major classics onto DVD, the oldest titles it’s put onto Blu-ray are “Psycho” and “Spartacus,” although “Psycho” was actually a Paramount production Universal acquired and the “Spartacus” transfer was only so-so.

Paramount, once Hollywood’s biggest studio, has been the slowest to open its vaults, especially for Blu-ray releases - until this year. Several relatively obscure Paramount titles have been licensed to smaller companies, and Paramount itself has undertaken impressive full-scale restorations of some of its most famous titles, quite possibly in anticipation of the studio’s 100th anniversary celebration next year. The spectacular Blu-ray releases of the “Godfather” trilogy a couple years ago and then “The Ten Commandments” (both the 1956 and 1923 versions) last spring proved that they could treat their properties with the care they deserved rather than rushing out a quick transfer to see if it might make a quick dollar. A half-year later, Paramount has finally come out with another memorable release in time for its 50th anniversary.

“Breakfast at Tiffany’s” (1961) debuted on Blu-ray last month. Based upon Truman Capote’s novella, this definitive Audrey Hepburn film is a simple but surprisingly subversive story for late 50s/early60s mainstream Hollywood, with its capricious, amoral young heroine who lives off income from random men and compares herself to a wild animal. And her co-protagonist is a low-key intellectual would-be novelist who finds it more convenient to write if he is being kept by a wealthy married woman so he doesn’t need to work for a living (yet never manages to buy a ribbon for his typewriter).

However, Hepburn as Holly Golightly and George Peppard as Paul Varjak are both so endearingly vulnerable and sincere that viewers can’t help but be drawn into their lives, hoping they’ll find happiness and excusing their faults. A perfect example of Hollywood going lightly, the script adaptation got an Oscar nomination. It would certainly have been interesting if Capote’s original model for the role, Marilyn Monroe, had played Holly. Although Hepburn makes the part her own (and earned an Oscar nomination for it) there are still hints of a Monroe-type character that come through. And though the dialogue often sounds theatrical, the actors make it work. Hepburn and Peppard get excellent support from Patricia Neal, Buddy Ebsen, Martin Balsam, and John McGiver, among others.

Under the direction of Blake Edwards, the plot shifts effortlessly from drama to comedy and back again, always with a strong undercurrent of romance, if not always what one might expect or want to see next. Some things are just a bit too obvious, while others are genuine surprises. Edwards’ most memorable contribution departs from the main story for the famous 10-minute cocktail party scene, full of his comic touches and actor ad-libs. The casting of Mickey Rooney as a broadly stereotyped caricature Japanese photographer who lives upstairs today raises a number of eyebrows (at the very least), but because other than his physical appearance and accent, none of Rooney’s dialogue or slapstick comedy schtick is really linked to any race or culture, it’s more of a minor annoyance. The incessant smoking and drinking are likely to raise nearly as many objections from the PC-police.

One of the film’s five Oscar nominations was for its art direction. “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” is a great time capsule of 1961 attitudes, but also of architecture, automobiles, home decor, and of course fashion designs, enhanced all the more by the crisp, clear image and vivid colors. The two Oscars it actually won were for its memorable Henry Mancini score and for the song “Moon River,” which typically had nearly been deleted by the producers.

Paramount’s Blu-ray is a wonderful 2011 restoration with a superb HD transfer. A good HD projector makes it feel like you’re in a theatre in 1961 watching it opening night. It’s a vast improvement over the last DVD in both sharpness and color richness. There’s a great-sounding and effectively remixed 5.1 DTS-HD stereo audio track as well as the restored original mono track, plus alternate French, Spanish, and Portuguese soundtracks.

As befitting a “50th Anniversary Edition,” there is a good selection of bonus features, with all those from the old 45th Anniversary DVD ported over, including the interesting but sometimes sparse commentary track by producer Richard Shepherd. The others deal with Audrey Hepburn as a style icon, Tiffany’s, and of course the making of the film itself. New for the Blu-ray is a cutesy 4½-minute standard-def tour of the Paramount backlot, as well as HD image galleries and three new HD featurettes. One is an entertaining reunion of all the surviving extras from the cocktail party, one is a pleasant documentary on Henry Mancini featuring his wife and kids reminiscing, and the other is a thoughtful discussion from an Asian perspective of Blake Edwards’ choice to use Mickey Rooney for the “Mr. Yunioshi” character. The original trailer is also now in HD.
BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY’S on Blu-ray— Movie: A-  /  Video: A+  /  Audio: A   /  Extras: A

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