In Taxi Driver, there were jarring red lights, honking horns, and cussing lowlife scum. In Wall Street, there were greedy stockbrokers and more cussing lowlife scum. In God of Carnage, there were misbehaving parents and pretentious artifacts of wealth being destroyed left and right. Now, we add In Arabia We’d All Be Kings, with an entire cast of lowlife scum, to the pile of artworks that portray a nasty, gritty New York. Their New York is reality, but we’d all like to reject that reality and substitute a prettier one, right?
Enter the iconic Breakfast at Tiffany’s. It takes place in Manhattan. There’s not a bum in sight. How could that be? Breakfast at Tiffany’s was released in 1961, right when the city was teetering on the brink of slipping into decay. Nothing in the film suggests that in ten years time (around the time of Taxi Driver) that this beautiful city would become a cesspool.
Holly Golightly is a socialite seeking a wealthy man to marry. At first her intentions seem very good, she wants to help her brother Fred with the money she’d gain from marrying up. But she keeps cooking up new plans to marry wealthy men much to chagrin of her neighbor Paul, who is less financially inclined but loves Holly genuinely.
Unlike Veronique from God of Carnage, who measures her wealth in her unique, expensive possessions, Holly thinks wearing diamonds at her age would be horrendously tacky and her apartment has bare-bones furnishings. Though she (sometimes desperately) desires money, Holly doesn’t resort to turning tricks like Iris of Taxi Driver or DeMaris of In Arabia We’d All Be Kings. She also easily disentangles herself from men, unlike Darien in Wall Street. Holly seems to be a self-made woman, a classy lady who believes she owns herself. In this way, she seems to embody the ideal New York, independent and somewhat aloof and gorging on all things “classy.”
Everything about Breakfast at Tiffany’s breathes “high class,” from Holly’s tasseled earplugs, to the costumes, to the cinematography. Everything in Breakfast at Tiffany’s is aesthetically pleasing to the eye and ear. None of the camera shots have overly saturated, bright colors; everything is soft and nice to look at. Unlike Taxi Driver with its harsh lights and red filters, Breakfast at Tiffany’s is soft and pretty; its cinematography is almost feminine like Holly herself.
Breakfast at Tiffany’s epitomizes wealthy New York, even though Holly herself is not particularly wealthy. She aspires to wealth through marriage and she is very much an independent being. She drinks milk out of wine glasses and Tiffany’s is her safe haven. Through the delicate light of the camera, there’s not an inkling of thought that New York was about to take a dive off the deep end. The ending is hopeful instead of happy, like New Yorkers themselves.
