{"id":20166,"date":"2011-10-21T10:48:33","date_gmt":"2011-10-21T17:48:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=20166"},"modified":"2021-01-25T13:57:16","modified_gmt":"2021-01-25T20:57:16","slug":"love-in-the-afternoon-1957","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=20166","title":{"rendered":"Love in the Afternoon (1957)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;You know who I am, Mr. Flanagan &#8212; the girl in the afternoon, the <em>apertif<\/em>, as we say in the Left Bank.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/Love-in-the-Afternoon-Poster.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/Love-in-the-Afternoon-Poster-196x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"196\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-20167\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/Love-in-the-Afternoon-Poster-196x300.jpg 196w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/Love-in-the-Afternoon-Poster-83x128.jpg 83w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/Love-in-the-Afternoon-Poster-669x1024.jpg 669w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/Love-in-the-Afternoon-Poster.jpg 980w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 196px) 100vw, 196px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nThe daughter (Audrey Hepburn) of a private investigator (Maurice Chevalier) in Paris goes to warn a wealthy playboy (Gary Cooper) that the husband (John McGiver) of his lover (Lise Bourdin) is coming to kill him &#8212; then finds herself falling for Cooper.\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Audrey Hepburn Films<\/li>\n<li>Billy Wilder Films<\/li>\n<li>Detectives and Private Eyes<\/li>\n<li>Gary Cooper Films<\/li>\n<li>Maurice Chevalier Films<\/li>\n<li>Mistaken or Hidden Identities<\/li>\n<li>Romantic Comedy<\/li>\n<li>Womanizers<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nPoor Gary Cooper has been raked over the coals so often for his purported miscasting in this Billy Wilder romantic comedy (he was 56 at the time, Hepburn just 28) that it feels unkind to perpetuate the discussion. Actually, despite my complaint about Hepburn&#8217;s casting opposite 58-year-old Fred Astaire in <a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=20116\"><em>Funny Face<\/em><\/a> the same year, I wasn&#8217;t all that disturbed by the romantic leads&#8217; age difference here, given that Cooper&#8217;s Frank Flanagan (unlike Astaire&#8217;s &#8220;lowly&#8221; fashion photographer) is clearly presented as a handsome, worldly playboy industrialist, and such individuals are notorious for appealing to women of all ages. Indeed, Hepburn&#8217;s schoolgirl crush on Cooper makes complete sense: he represents everything she naively longs for (mystery, intrigue, romance, adventure) from the cloistered comfort of her single-parent home, where her doting father (Chevalier, wonderfully cast) naively entices her with stories of his clients&#8217; misadventures.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, the film as a whole isn&#8217;t entirely successful. It&#8217;s too long by far, and its pacing is off, particularly during the first hour; things don&#8217;t really heat up until the second half of the story, when Hepburn suddenly begins &#8220;playing&#8221; Cooper, and we&#8217;re eager to see how she&#8217;ll manage to keep him enticed. It&#8217;s frustrating, however, that the mores of the time made it difficult for Wilder to definitively show one way or the other whether Hepburn and Cooper are actually <em>lovers<\/em> during the afternoon, or simply companions; it&#8217;s difficult to believe they would remain the latter, yet we&#8217;re simultaneously meant to suppose that Hepburn stays conveniently &#8220;innocent&#8221; throughout. Meanwhile, it&#8217;s frustrating to witness Hepburn&#8217;s persistent infatuation with Cooper, given what we understand about his inveterate playboy tendencies (witness the opera intermission scene, for instance, when Cooper&#8217;s eyes wander uncontrollably); we <em>know<\/em> that he&#8217;ll never be able to devotes his attentions solely to her, in the way she clearly hopes for and deserves. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Audrey Hepburn as Ariane Chavasse<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/Love-in-the-Afternoon-Hepburn.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/Love-in-the-Afternoon-Hepburn.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"544\" height=\"304\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-20173\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/Love-in-the-Afternoon-Hepburn.png 544w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/Love-in-the-Afternoon-Hepburn-128x71.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/Love-in-the-Afternoon-Hepburn-300x167.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 544px) 100vw, 544px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Maurice Chevalier as Claude Chavasse<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/Love-in-the-Afternoon-Chevalier.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/Love-in-the-Afternoon-Chevalier.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"544\" height=\"304\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-20174\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/Love-in-the-Afternoon-Chevalier.png 544w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/Love-in-the-Afternoon-Chevalier-128x71.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/Love-in-the-Afternoon-Chevalier-300x167.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 544px) 100vw, 544px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Luminous b&#038;w cinematography<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/Love-in-the-Afternoon-Cinematography.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/Love-in-the-Afternoon-Cinematography.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"544\" height=\"304\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-20175\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/Love-in-the-Afternoon-Cinematography.png 544w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/Love-in-the-Afternoon-Cinematography-128x71.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/Love-in-the-Afternoon-Cinematography-300x167.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 544px) 100vw, 544px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nNo; this one is only must-see for Hepburn or Wilder fans. Listed as a film with Historical Importance in the back of Peary&#8217;s book, though I&#8217;m not quite sure why.  <\/p>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0050658\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1957\/08\/24\/archives\/the-screen-billy-wilders-love-in-the-afternoon-arrives-film-at.html\">NY Times Original Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.combustiblecelluloid.com\/classic\/loveafter.shtml\">Combustible Celluloid Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tcm.com\/tcmdb\/title\/26667\/love-in-the-afternoon#articles-reviews?articleId=88481\">TCM Article<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeout.com\/movies\/love-in-the-afternoon\">Time Out Capsule Review<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;You know who I am, Mr. Flanagan &#8212; the girl in the afternoon, the apertif, as we say in the Left Bank.&#8221; Synopsis: The daughter (Audrey Hepburn) of a private investigator (Maurice Chevalier) in Paris goes to warn a wealthy playboy (Gary Cooper) that the husband (John McGiver) of his lover (Lise Bourdin) is coming to kill him &#8212; then finds herself falling for Cooper. Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors: Audrey Hepburn Films Billy Wilder Films Detectives and Private Eyes&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=20166\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20166"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20166\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65915,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20166\/revisions\/65915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}