Breakfast at Tiffany's (Blake Edwards, 1961)

 Breakfast at Tiffany's

Mary: I think that Holly Golightly is a classic neurotic character. In the sense that she exhibits a pattern of avoidant behavior to first of all physically just to shut down her senses. She wears an eye mask. She wears ear plugs. She always is hiding behind dark sunglasses.

Even just the things that she does like sleeping in all the time, you know. Lacon  might want to qualify that as a kind of almost like a mortification. She's just sort of going through the motions of life, but it's like she's preprogrammed to act in a certain way she's internalizing a lot of what people expect her to be, but it's like she's opting out really if you really look at the film closely, it's like she's leaking out conscious life.  This leaking out of the conscious element, is what I associate with being neurotic.

 You know, there are texture of dissociation. She's not fully present. This organization and her behavior  - it's like her life is just pasted together in this haphazard way. 

Which is what I would qualify highly with Neurosis. Bear in mind that in Freud's definition of what neurotic is . it could be, you know obsessional neurosis, which is the rat man case study for sure, and that's Hugh Grant in Four Weddings and a Funeral, but there's also the hysteric, the hysteric is also a neurotic individual or neurotic subject. 

So I would maybe classify Holly more as a hysteric. Which I will kind of illuminate a little bit after I show you the clip from the film. 

9th wealthiest man in America under 50. 

What do you Want?

I want to talk to you.

South America - Land of Wealth and Progress. 

Please justs leave me along.

Holly- I love you. 

Where are you going. 

Jose to Silver Pere - wants to marry me. 

I'm Not everybody - Or am I? 

Why should I waste a perfectly good plane ticket?

Plus I've never been to Brazil. 

Please darling, don't sit there looking at me like that. 

I want you to mail me a list of the 50 richest men in Brazil. The 50 richest!

Holly, I'm not going to let you do this. You're not going . Holly I am in love with you. 

So what? So what? So plenty, I love you, you belong to me. NO. 

People don't belong to people, I'm not going to let anyone put me in a cage. 

I don't want to put you in a cage. I want to love you. 

The same thing. 

No it's not. I'm not Holly, I'm not Nola May. I don't know who I am. I'm like cat here. We're a couple of no named slaves. We belong to nobody and nobody belongs to us. We don't even belong to each other. 

You're afraid to stick out your chin and say, OK, life's a fact. People do fall in love. 
People do belong to each other. Because that's the only chance anybody's got for real happiness.

You call yourself a free spirit, a wild thing and you terrified somebody's gonna stick you in a cage.
Well, baby, you're already in that cage. You built it yourself. And it's not bounded in the West by Tulip, Texas or on the east by Somali Land. It's wherever you go. Because no matter where you run, you just end up running into yourself. 

 Mary: one of the most dazzling cinematic moments --

You know - I'm a makeup lover and the way she take out her lipstick and like dabs it on and even has like a lip brush to correct the details. Not jut the aesthetically pleasing by psychoanalytically, philosophically rich with meaning and the performances are magnificent. 

Holly - talks about the Mean reds. Suddenly you're afraid and you don't know what you're afraid of. It's I mean, if I were to guess or speculate about what she's trying to articulate there psychologically, it could be depression or anxiety, both of which are sort of rooted, I believe, in neurosis in our understanding of what neurosis is. It's just modern parlance, modern categories. 

In the DSM, anxiety and depression to kind of, I guess, evolve the understanding of neurosis. and she talks about the Tiffany store, the kind of famed Tiffany store, which I think is on Fifth Avenue in New York City in Manhattan. Which also is an establishment symbol for secure eternal love, you know, this idea of Diamonds are forever and Something about the marketing of diamonds. 

Being eternal love, being something that lasts and you don't have to worry about it. You know, it's something that you get and it's a mark of your acceptance into that other person's heart. You know, there it's you're now like fully, integrated into that love space. There's no need to question it. There's no need to doubt it. The diamond engagement ring is psychologically driven marketing of course. 

They are perceived to be rare and eternal and I believe that is why she likes to spend time at Tiffany's. You know, she says, You know, I simply adore Tiffany's. I think that on some level it alleviates and wards off the anxiety of the mean reds because out there in the world, everything is so uncertain. You can't really be sure of anything. You know, everything is so full of doubt. And here's this one place, this one little oasis of certainty and durability and eternal quality of love and maybe that's what's so attractive about this place. 

New topic: Holly seeing Paul getting his salary
We see that Holly carefully observes the financial transaction with Paul's decorator. 

This is why I think that Holly is kind of a hysteric, because basing it on you know Freud's case study of hysteria with Dora you know, her interests were gravitating towards heir K and Frau k, the couple friend, you know, friends of the family. Whom I believe the wife was having an affair with her father. If I'm not mistaken, that's what was going on. 

And it seemed that throughout her treatment, Dora talked a lot about these people. and later conceptually it was decided that in the case of hysteria, there is an over preoccupation and fascination with the transference of desire. and becoming actually quite interested in someone that is perceived to be the holder of the attractive force.  The holder of the power of seduction becomes a real interest in, in hysteria. And so the hysteric person is often kind of forensically studying the person that they believe is able to attract anyone they want and they try and embody that. They try and internalize that and we see Holly also gets caught up in the Jose to Silva, Pereira and Mag Wildwood intrigue. 

You know, her interest is a reflection of where she would like to be financially to find security and acceptance. All that's all really sort of boils down to I think it's also stemming from maybe a fear of finding herself without love. So she's identifying these situations where potentially acceptance is guaranteed and she's trying on different scenarios. Even when they go to this burlesque/strip club and that glamorous lady is removing her clothes on stage. Holly asks, do you think she's talented deeply and importantly?

So feminine, the power of feminine sexuality is revealed as the center of interest. You know this fascination with the power to seduce but I think I would add to that the seduction is not just for frivolous fun. It's really to attract a situation where she feels secure. 

I think that's the key to Breakfast. She's out there prowling around looking for an opportunity. Not to social climb and not to make a name for herself in social circles. I think she just wants to be accepted. She wants to be in a situation where she's unconditionally accepted. Whilst also paradoxically she's sort of fearful of that. I think she's fearful that it's all just kind of you know, smoke and mirrors and then in the end it's all phony and no one really loves anybody and it's better she's alone. 

So it's this push and pull, it's this tension, this ambivalent space that she occupies, which is between the two. Which is between being a total like ingénue libertine fee loving free spirited person in New York City who has no care in the world versus being in a committed situation where she feels secure, where she feels anchored and she has some form of control and anchoring and solid ground to land. she's sort of in between the two and she's sort of swinging like a pendulum between the two. but i wouls say that that's limited space between the two is a neurotic space because it leaves her kind of lifeless, it leaves her sort of opting out of the libidinal force. 

Whilst it is very paradoxical because she is interest in seduction. It's just that she has certain misgivings about it as well and the whole scene in the cab is perfect. It's perfectly neurotic because now she's you know some plan she had in Brazil fell through, but she's still going to Brazil anyway. She's still going to go and hop on that plane, dive into the unknown. It's kind of like she's running away. 

She's running away from a potentially good situation or burgeoning romance or true affection with Paul who is interested in her. You know, he says he loves her and she doesn't say it back. She's recoils from him in the library where and he he kisses her. It's like she's disgusted, you know? and he says, no matter where you run, you just end up running into yourself. 

But this self-isolation and this running away is a big feature of neurosis and he says, well, baby, you're already in that cage. You built it yourself. It's wherever you go. This feeling of being kind of at a shut in an emotional shut in. Which is like texturally illustrated with the you know the eye shield and the earplugs and the dark sunglasses. 

The kind of mysterious unknowable remote persona. Who is just kind of shrouded in the, you know, the mystery. It's all part I think of expressing the neurotic element. which, by the way, I mean, this is a meme from the internet where he says, I love you and she doesn't respond. Is like she's left him on 'read'

It's perfect. It's kind of a perfect meme. and I think it perfectly represents neurosis because she's even there wearing her glasses. 

She's shielding her eyes. She creates a barrier, like a wall between him and her. He's putting himself out there. I would say he's erotically invested. He's the opposite of neurosis because he says he loves her. He articulates and expresses his feelings he takes a chance. It's a risky little game. You know, she might not say it back and sure enough she doesn't say it back but he has still said it. 

I think he still comes out the winner here because he still leaned into the life force. That's the difference between a neurotic and a person who is not neurotic. The neurotic person recoils from the life force whereas the person who is erotically invested leans into the life force. They say they love, even if they don't get it said back to them. It doesn't matter. 

They still win. You know, they're still in a better position for having said it because they took a chance and they tried to live in the moment, you know?

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