LOVE IN THE AFTERNOON

US, 1957, 130 minutes, Black and white.
Gary Cooper, Audrey Hepburn, Maurice Chevalier.
Directed by Billy Wilder.

Love in the Afternoon is a tongue-in-cheek film for the late 1950s. It harks back to the romances, especially those of Ernst Lubitsch in the early 1930s (often featuring Maurice Chevalier). They presented an amoral world, rich playboys coming to Paris, having affairs, being pursued by private detectives. This film is a post-war variation on the theme.

Gary Cooper plays the playboy on the loose in Paris. He is pursued by the private detective, played by Maurice Chevalier. Audrey Hepburn is Chevalier’s daughter, learns of the plot of a jealous husband to kill the playboy and tries to warn him. She takes the opportunity to pose as a young woman of the world – and the playboy is infatuated.

The film offers the unlikely pairing with the ageing Gary Cooper (dead within four years) and the young Audrey Hepburn. Maurice Chevalier brings his verve to the film – and was to appear in Gigi the following year and then in Can-Can? as well as a number of American films during the 1960s.

Director Billy Wilder wrote the script with his long-term co-writer I.A.L. Diamond and they won a Director’s Guild award for their screenplay. Wilder and Diamond were noted for their charm as well as their acerbic wit (in such films as Some Like it Hot and The Apartment which followed Love in the Afternoon).

Billy Wilder, a refugee from Hitler’s Germany, wrote in Hollywood and then moved into direction in the early 1940s. He won an Oscar for The Lost Weekend in 1945 and again in 1960 for The Apartment. He continued directing for another twenty years or more, forming a partnership, with Some Like it Hot and The Apartment, with Jack Lemmon appearing in five more films including Irma la Douce, The Fortune Cookie (for which Walter Matthau won an Oscar), Avanti, The Front Page and Buddy Buddy.

1. What would audiences expect from the title of this film? Style of film? From the stars and the director? How well were expectations fulfilled?

2. The significance and innuendos in the title? Relationship to theme? The emphasis on love, the furtive nature of love in the afternoon, the afternoon of age?

3. How important was Paris for the setting of such a film? Paris in the popular imagination and love? The significance of having Maurice Chevalier introduce the film and talk of Paris? The significance of his introduction? How well did the film create and communicate the atmosphere for romance? The look of Paris, the music, the comedy touches, the satire on Paris and love, the light touch?

4. How was Ariane central to the film and the plot? The glimpses of the way she was brought up, her romantic nature and fantasies, her response to her father, her curiosity about his work, his warning her and the effects, the interaction between herself and her father, her focus of attention on Frank Flanagan, romanticising him, creating situations and crises, telling lies, actually falling in love? How light was the touch of her romantic experience? The possibility of its fulfilment? Her presentation of herself as a woman of the world and the corresponding innocence? The romanticism of the fairytale ending? How pleasant is this, how much insight in its presentation?

5. The contrast with Frank Flanagan? The ageing romantic hero, spied on, the playboy, casual in his relationships, his wealth and style, hotels, gypsies? What kind of person was he? Insight into this type of character? His confrontation with the thin girl and its effect on him? His being hurt, capacity for hurting? His reaction to such scenes as her visit to the hotel, saving his life, the opera scene, the parties, her tape? What changed him? Was this real or unreal? Was the 'happy ever after' ending possible and plausible?

6. The contribution of Maurice Chevalier to the film? His introduction and comments, the plausible background as a private detective, the way that he worked, his relationship with his daughter, the comedy of his discovering the truth about her, the irony of his taking on the case and the woman in question being his daughter? His words of advice for her, his confrontation with Flanagan and its significance? His acceptance of the ending?

8. Comment on the quality of the dialogue, the nature of its ironies, the light touch, the use of the conventions of love and its changing them and commenting on them?

8. The contribution of minor characters like Michel as an ordinary young romantic hero, his relationship to Ariane? Monsieur X and the comedy of infidelity? The murder and the romantic passion?

9. The importance of detail for the films, the detail of the hotel, the private detective's work, such scenes as the Paris opera, the railway station, Ariane's use of the cello etc.?

10. How important were the gypsies? The way that they played, 'Fascination' and the musical themes? The ironic comment via the ensemble and the music on the proceedings of the film? The importance of music in the film?

11. Do audiences enjoy this kind of 'souffle' film with point?