"The title credits roll over a scene of condensed, symbolic wishing: Hollywood as dream factory. Hepburn is standing, very slim, in a long, black column dress with a glittering, enormous collar necklace and the trademark black sunglasses that Jackie O would adopt a few years later. (Jackie O's supposedly iconic looks markedly resemble Hepburn's from a few years earlier.) The camera encourages us to gaze longingly with her through the Tiffany's window at diamonds and other jewels; and then she strolls up the street, munching the doughnut that we know is probably the only doughnut Hepburn ever ate in her life. But it is precisely these little touches of normality, of the ordinary, that humanised Hepburn's image."Which almost captures the scene perfectly, except, and this is a point of order, isn't Holly eating a croissant? Isn't she enjoying a coffee and croissant? This lady seems to think so. Through the magic of the internet, the scene in question:
If it is a croissant (and without this turning into the Zebruder film in terms of analysis I think it is) doesn't that simply add to Holly's transformation, part of her New York affectation, a demonstration of her subsuming her identity in yet another way? I also think we're meant to interpret that this is Holly's typical morning routine, the comforts which keep her going until she can find her way home.
I know. It's unfair to pick out one detail in what is otherwise a very enjoyable feature. Perhaps I'm just sensitive because it's one of my favourite scenes in cinema, one of the reasons I began eating croissant, why I'm probably going to do just that right now. And from the quality of that clip it could just as well be a Danish pastry. I don't know what that would imply.
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