Every day, AlloCiné recommends a film to (re)watch on TV. Tonight: a cult film with Audrey Hepburn.
In 1961, Truman Capote closely followed the adaptation project of his short story Diamonds on couch (Breakfast at Tiffany’s in VO), published three years earlier. He immediately thinks of Marilyn Monroe to play his heroine – Holly Golightly, a naive and whimsical diamond digger – under the direction of John Frankenheimer.
To the author’s great regret, the producers’ choice ultimately fell on Audrey Hepburn, then crowned with her Oscar for Roman Holiday. It is she who requires the presence of Blake Edwards, future director of The Party and The Pink Panther, past master in the art of chiseled dialogue and set staging, behind the camera.
A great classic of romantic comedy (we remember the final scene of a kiss in the rain, the pinnacle of Hollywood romanticism) tinged with melancholy, Diamonds on a Sofa retains the original spirit, particularly in the audacity of the themes addressed.
Thus, facing the seductive George Peppard, Audrey Hepburn cultivates a rare ambiguity which makes her eccentric character the very incarnation of the modern woman: as determined as she is fragile, both actor and victim of a system that constantly hinders her quest absolute freedom.
The actress holds one of her most memorable roles, immortalized in pop culture by the sheath dress signed Givenchy, which she wears in the opening sequence. And if she does not win the Oscar for Best Actress for which she is nominated, the film nevertheless leaves with the statuettes for Best Song and Best Music thanks to the title moon riverwhich she performs in a sequence that has become cult.
Diamonds on couch by Blake Edwards with Audrey Hepburn, George Peppard, Patricia Neal…
Tonight on Arte at 8:50 p.m.