Beautiful Blu Ray Picture Quality - But A Dreadfully Dated Film - Even With The Ethereally Beautiful Audrey Hepburn...If you're a fan of "Breakfast At Tiffany's" then this 2011 BLU RAY reissue will knock your socks off. For the most part, the fully restored print is glorious to look at - even in the scenes where too much sepia shading is placed on the leads for effect. The outdoor sequences with Peppard and Buddy Epstein are faultless, full of colour and incredible detail (clothing, scenery) - and look like they were filmed yesterday. There's decent extras too (interviews with Director Edward Blake, members of the cast) and the dreadfully washed out old stock print used in the "Making Of" segment gives you a very good comparison as to just how improved the restored version really is.
But for me - that's where the good news ends. I watched this with my wife - and even with Audrey Hepburn exquisite throughout (especially on the balcony-outside-her-window scene where she is strumming her guitar and singing Mancini's famous theme song "Moon River") - the film is staggeringly dated - and at times terribly leaden. The party sequence in her New York apartment is awful - with square types trying to be cool. And the amount of times the word "darling" and "baby" is said will make you cringe and not giggle with affection. I can't help but think that Capote's novella about a socialite/hooker got seriously watered down into forced farce because that was an easier sell. And while George Peppard looks the handsome leading-man part - there's little real bite in him. The Chinaman impression by Mickey Rooney (even by Edwards own admission) is a derogatory mistake that rankers even to this day. But it's the vapid pointlessness of it all that leaves you cold. OK - Hepburn could light up any shot - even when she was overdoing the “darling” dialogue. But quite why this Sixties tosh is considered a classic is beyond me - because re-watching “Breakfast At Tiffany’s” in 2011 is a painfully strained experience – and not nearly as loveable or as romantic as you remember it to be.
The bottom-line is this - if you're a fan - or have any love for this 1961 kooky movie - then you NEED to own it on BLU RAY.
But if you're undecided - then I'd say rent it first – before a nostalgia urge costs you a purchase you’ll look at once and never watch again…
