Holly

Holly Golightly is the main character of Truman Capote’s short novel, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, published in 1958 and later adapted to the screen in 1961 with the incomparable Audrey Hepburn as Holly. The character has since then become a cultural icon of elegance, zaniness and the urge to live life right now, for all it is worth. In the translation from the novella to the screen, Holly’s beginnings and overall character were watered down a bit, but her essence remains. She is a person who strives to know everything that the world has to offer, especially on the “fun” side, but she is also a warm and loving and ultimately naïve observer of the world around her. If we were all to see the world through Holly’s eyes, wouldn’t it, indeed, be like having “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” every day of our lives? We think so.

Holly Martins is the main character of “The Third Man”, a 1949 British noir film based on a novella by Graham Greene, which he prepared for the screen play. Holly is an American pulp fiction writer searching post World War II Vienna for his old friend (Harry Lime) who has offered him a job. As memorably played by Joseph Cotton, Holly is a good, decent, almost innocent man who stumbles through the ruined, divided city in search of truth and justice. He is no match for the evil that Lime embodies, nor for the deceptive manipulation of his love interest, Anna. As he is drawn further and further into their intrigue, Holly loses some of his naïve outlook as the optimistic American, but he still perseveres in his self-appointed quest. What he finds is corruption personified, but we have the feeling that, even as he leaves war-torn Europe behind, against the backdrop of that inimitable zither music, Holly will pick up the pieces and go on, sans Harry, sans Anna.