How I came to watch Breakfast at Tiffany’s -day 147

This weekend, I was slung on the couch, walked around the kitchen, cleaning dishes, using the toilet, while watching movies from the Hollywood Golden age. Yes, black and white. I do not mean to imply that I was perusing movies from the so-called Golden age, and picked them at random. No, though such a thing would not be an unusual thing for me to do. Especially if the movies would be half as good as Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

            It all started when I was in the living, sitting on the couch, watching the television. I don’t remember why I was watching. It may have been a moment of rest, or maybe brash decision made to escape my frustration at my life. Whatever the reason, I had been on the couch watching when a commercial for Godiva chocolate came on! They were using a song, playing “two drifters, off to see the world…” Now I have to admit, I probably did not really hear every word correctly of the song the first time, which I am now well acquainted with. I recognized the actress in the commercial as Audrey Hepburn. Though now that I know better, I would say that it was an actress portraying Audrey. I’m sorry if my words are rather rambling, I’m not used to speaking very much, nor in explaining things to other people.

            So because I saw this commercial, I googled the song. I searched “two drifters song.” And you know what I found, a rather odd result search, which is not what I was after. The first result was a Portuguese feature film directed by João Pedro Rodrigues titled two drifters. It won many awards in 2005. So I had to refine my search. I believed I placed, in addition to the previous search result, “off to see the world.” And I found it! I felt enthusiastic in that moment. The song is Moon River. So I searched “moon river”. There was a youtube video with Audrey Hepburn, Moon River, and Lyrics. I watched/listened to it. When I watched it the first time, I thought someone was compiling images from Audrey Hepburn movies or something. It was nice, very lovely. I later found out that the movie won the oscar for best original music composed for a movie. Suffice to say, their decision had my fullest support, never mind that I hadn’t been born until 29 years later.

            I replayed the song perhaps three times before I watched the movie. The movie was already special, as I was already anticipating the film as the film that had the song. I had my Bose headphones that made movies played on my laptop seem like I was really in the theater. I went online, searched “Breakfast at Tiffany’s watch.” Now, I already had some ideas and conceptions about the movie. I remember having a poster of the film that hanged in the dorm common room in my second year on college. It seemed like that poster had been there for forever, perhaps since 1961, conceivably. For some reason, I knew the film had to do with a woman who was trying to find a wealthy husband. I thought it had a place, called Tiffany’s which served breakfast, and that she would go there everyday in hopes of finding a wealthy suitor, in a kind of hopeless, highly impossible sense. I know she was young and was trying to dress sophisticated or older. As it turns out, I was wrong; though partly right. And so I was surprised and so rewarded.  I feel like I could watch the film 100 times and I would enjoy it thoroughly.

            I also learned recently, or relatively recently (such a word is frustratingly impossible to define, which is kind of the point, because its relative!) how movie watching is a skill. It’s something you must learn how to do. You can’t be passive in watching a movie, or you miss out. You also don’t want to be overly engage and belief you know everything because there are rules to how movies must end or be like. Rules like, children don’t die or at least get murdered, or the guy and girl must fall in love and kiss, etc… You have to allow yourself to be surprised while watching a movie, and to allow for whatever possible ending. Maybe they won’t be together, despite the fact that they are cuckoo for each other. Maybe she or he will die; maybe not. By treating it like real life, you allow the chance for the characters to become real and not just be like wallpaper or chewing gum. I know some of you may be saying how I’m crazy for treating a movie as real. But its interesting to see how even the fake movie characters are in many ways more real than the people around you. They actually show courage, vulnerability, growth, honesty, care etc… And they don’t pretend to be perfect like the most of us do, trying to hide our imperfections from one another. I am not saying that all movies have characters of worth, though some of them do, including even the ridiculous corny PG movies.