A reflection on how Brief Encounter, Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Breathless express moral conflict within relationships.
Sex runs through all lives; it is fundamental to our existence as a species, and it could be argued that it underpins almost every aspect of human society, but what is does lead to is conflict which is usually central to any story about relationships.
The film industry has always been relatively self-regulating with regards to moral standards and to help with this self-regulation a code of conduct was adhered to in Hollywood up until the late 1960’s – The Hays Code. This code laid out a specific list of “don’t”s and “be careful”s covering the portrayal of not only sex and relationships but crime and violence too. (Lewis, no date)
Films released within this period had to work carefully within these guidelines to ensure that the film would be able to be distributed to mainstream cinema and as such to their target audience. (Mondello, 2008).
Brief Encounter (Dir David Lean 1945) released immediately after the Second World War, is the story of the doomed love that grows between housewife Laura Jesson and Dr Alec Harvey after a chance meeting in a railway station café. The director David Lean and writer Noel Coward explore conflict by telling the story of an unconsummated love affair conducted by two decent married people who, at their heart, are conflicted by their feelings.
There is a more open affair happening on the fringes of the film with the flirtation between that station guard and café manageress. This acts as a nice counterpoint to the main narrative by discreetly illustrating the inner thoughts of Laura and Alec. While the primary relationship is portrayed more like a teenage romance, happy to be in each other’s company stealing what time they can to have dates in the movies, but there is no symbolism required as the couple never have sex.
Noel Coward appears to have been the calming influence on Brief Encounter, always private about his homosexuality throughout his life; he knew how not to offend middle-class sensibilities especially since David Lean was more avant-garde with his relationships (being married six times) (Thomson, 2010). Coward’s script never actually discusses why the couple are disenchanted with their current lives or that they are looking for excitement.
Following on from David Thompson’s observation that is Coward’s private nature that makes the film so quiet; perhaps Coward is reflecting on his sexuality and writing a parable about gay relationships in post-war Britain, a time when if such relationships were made public it would have had devastating consequences for all concerned. The film could be a metaphor for how gay men had to live, not openly expressing their feelings, living, only having friendships and maybe even, although not in Coward’s case, being a marriage of convenience (Thomson, 2009). Cinema has often used metaphor in this way, for example, High Noon (Fred Zinnemann, 1952) is often seen as a parable for the effect of McCarthyism (888, 2014).
Breakfast at Tiffany’s (Dir Blake Edwards 1960) is based on a novella by Truman Capote and tells the love story of Holly and Paul, one an escort and the other the “kept man” of an older married woman.
Morality had evolved in the 1960s for the baby boomer generation; though not for their parents and the Hays Code. The film, in contrast to the book, does not overtly mention that Holly is a prostitute, it removes all trace of the pregnancy with Jose’s child and concludes the film with a romantic happy ending that brings Holly and Paul together.
To avoid specific reference to Holly’s career, symbolism and metaphor within its dialogue lead the audience on a journey to the real meaning should they wish to follow it. For example, when Holly says, “I always get $50 for the powder room.” she explains what happens on her dinner dates, apparently eluding to the financial underpinning of her dates and that she is a prostitute.
The film is portrayed to the audience as an old-fashioned romance between two lonely people. The opening scene of the movie of the taxi driving up a deserted 5th Avenue sets the tone of this. Holly, in particular, is a complex character who is conflicted by her attraction to Paul, who is very much like her, and her desire to have a stable life that the money from being an escort can bring her. This conflict is only actually addressed in the final emotional scenes where Paul professes his love for Holly and spells out to her that she is the architect of her problems.
Director Blake Edwards, as well using symbolism in the dialogue, distracts the audience from the underlying issue of Holly being an escort with the overall mise-en-scene. Through the use of costumes which were stylish and elegant, the use of lighting and colour in its cinematography depicts New York as glamorous without being over the top. Even now, over 50 years later, its style remains attractive to the viewer, distracting from the lives of the lead characters.
Breathless (Dir Jean- Luc Goodard 1961) was a contemporary of Breakfast at Tiffany’s, however, Breathless dealt with love, lust, and conflict much more directly.
The overall mise-en-scene is much different that the two previous films, the use of the handheld camera and guerrilla shooting style gives the film the casual, more documentary look which made the new wave revolutionary. (Bordwell, Thompson, and Smith, p480).
Working outside of a studio system, Goddard uses the conventions of film noir and gives them a contemporary setting creating an homage to that golden age and sows the seed for movies where the main protagonist are outlaw lovers such as Bonnie and Clyde, Badlands, and True Romance (Bordwell, Thompson, and Smith, 2016). As Jill Nelmes (Nicholls 2011) suggests, Godard did not have to invite us to like his characters and produced a film which gave no excuses for the protagonist’s objectionable behaviour. (Nicholls, 2011, pp. 85–85)
Conflict appears not an issue for the protagonists. Patricia is living an amoral lifestyle, as a young American in Paris. Paul is self centred and fixed on sexual conquest, Patricia appears committed to the promiscuous lifestyle, even when Patricia finds out she is pregnant. They are a particularly amoral couple they are happy to live their lives as they see fit without regard for convention.
Comparing Breathless and Breakfast at Tiffany’s as contemporaries, Breathless addresses the issues of the day more directly as it is outside of the studio system. Breakfast at Tiffany’s is flawed in the fact that disguises the issues in Hollywood wrapping, for example, the beautiful set pieces and happy ending love story.
Moreover, of the three again Breakfast at Tiffany’s is the weakest at dealing with the social issues of the day, although credit is due to bringing these matters to the screen even if heavily masked, while for all its repression Brief Encounter reflects a situation that is still as relevant today as it was then.
References
888, krone. (2014). “15 famous movies that have subtle hidden meanings”, Taste of Cinema [online] Available at: <http://www.tasteofcinema.com/2014/15-famous-movies-that-have-subtle-hidden-meanings/> [Accessed: 20 November 2016].
Bordwell, P.D., Thompson, K. and Smith, J. (2016) Film art: An introduction. United States: McGraw Hill Higher Education.
(Bordwell, Thompson, and Smith, 2016)
(Bordwell, Thompson, and Smith, 2016, pp. 418–422)
(Bordwell, Thompson, and Smith, 2016, p. 480)
Lewis, J (no date)Hollywood v. Hard core Available at: https://www.oca-student.com/sites/default/files/oca-content/key-resources/res-files/hollywood_v._hard_core_page_301-15.pdf (Accessed: 10 August 2016).
Mondello, B. (2008). “Remembering Hollywood’s Hays code, 40 years on”, NPR [online] Available at: <http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=93301189> [Accessed: 10 August 2016].
Nicholls, B. (2011) Introduction to film studies. Edited by Jill Nelmes. 5th edn. New York: Taylor & Francis.
(Nicholls, 2011)
(Nicholls, 2011, pp. 372–372)
(Nicholls, 2011, pp. 85–85
Thomson, D. (2010) “Brief encounter: The best romantic film of all time”, The Guardian [online] Available at: <https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/16/brief-encounter-romance> [Accessed: 21 September 2016].
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