There are iconic images of Breakfast at Tiffany's that are branded into our collective memory - such as Audrey Hepburn kissing George Peppard in the rain at the end of the film, but few of us know that ending was not the film's original ending. In fact, it was only one of two endings the filmmakers shot - and it almost didn't make it in. The reasons why have to do with the movie's cutting-edge take on sex in the city, namely, when to show it, and how to do it, without getting caught. Truman Capote wanted his beloved Marilyn Monroe to be cast as Holly, but crafty executives knew that she'd have the censors on red alert. Instead, they went for Audrey, but she was frightened at the prospect of playing a part so far beyond her accepted range - not to mention the part of call girl. And then there was the fact that Capote’s novel was initially regarded as unadaptable by the producers. How could they take a novel with a nameless gay protagonist, a motiveless drama, and an unhappy ending and turn it into a Hollywood movie?
5th Avenue, 5 AM is the first ever complete account of the making of Breakfast at Tiffany's. Drawing upon countless interviews with those involved in the film's production, from actors to producer Richard Shepherd to Gerald Clarke, Capote's biographer, Wasson brings us inside the world of one of America's greatest cinematic icons. He immerses us in the America of the late fifties, before Woodstock and birth control, when a not-so-virginal girl by the name of Holly Golightly raised eyebrows across the nation, changing fashion, film, and sex, for good. With the heart of a novelist and the eye of a critic, Wasson delivers us from the penthouses of the Upper East Side to the pools of Beverly Hills, from script to screen and from rehearsal to 'Action!'. This book presents Breakfast at Tiffany's as we have never seen it before - through the eyes of those who made it. Paperback, 256 Pages, Orig. Publ. 2010, this Ed. Publ. 2011 |
