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Wonderful Movie

the audience applauded

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

First things first. I remember the first time I fell in love with Gary Cooper. Of course, I had seen some of his movies before, but I was a kid back then and nothing stuck for too long. Then, when I was about 20, I started watching (and enjoying) old movies and one day they showed this rather intense western on TV (The Hanging Tree) and I was instantly mesmerized by Cooper's beauty. He was 3 years older than in Love In The Afternoon. If someone had told me back then that such a stunning man was too old for me, I would have put them in the place they deserve: a labyrinth for meddling people, who need work hard to find the concept of "consenting adults". Cooper was nothing but a gorgeous hunk during his whole career.Don't get me wrong, Hollywood does have an issue with big age differences: The issue is that their arrow of time only points in one direction. They never pair much older actresses with younger actors, even though many are still beautiful and desirable in their 40's, 50's and older. The issue is that Hepburn never got a much younger on screen love interest, in spite of being beautiful all her life. Unfortunately, it looks like this imbalance doesn't seem to have an end.However, the age difference IS the reason for this movie to exist at all, so it worked for me 100%, even if trying to guess Ariane's age was a little distracting. I mean, at first I thought she was in her late twenties, but then they put her in pigtails (Hepburn looks ridiculous, btw) and made comments pretending to make her a few years younger. However, her friend, Michel, is clearly in his thirties and the other students are even older (some look middle-aged and balding). So after a little back and forth, I settled with Hepburn's true age or a couple of years younger. It makes her characterization somewhat weird, but it can be excused by her having lived a sheltered life and having Chevalier's character for a father.Hepburn is marvelous here, of course. After all, this is the kind of role she could play in her sleep. She and Cooper are very charming and funny together and I also love their dynamic with Chevalier. The plot has been explained many times here, so I'll just say that Hepburn's character, Ariane, is not a naive girl, who falls in love with the wrong man. She knows very well who and what he is and I would say that's the exact reason why she falls for him. She might lack experience in romantic love, but that doesn't make her dumb or a victim. She devises a plan to get him to fall in love with her. In fact, she's very deceptive and manipulative for a supposedly naive girl, but it works and it doesn't come off as creepy, because Hepburn is magical like that. Cooper plays the middle-aged Don Juan millionaire, Frank Flanagan, who is well into his 50's and still going strong in the female attention department. In his mind, there is no reason to complicate his busy life with a serious relationship. He is honest about it and doesn't deceive his lovers with false promises. It is this character, who goes through the big character growth, while everyone else remains more or less static. In the first half of the film, he's the cynical hit-and-run lover, while in the second half Ariane manages to get under his skin and torment him, until he's ready to feel true love. Cooper sells simmering vulnerability like nobody else and he does this here without unnecessary histrionics. He has the ability to keep a perfect balance between drama and comedy, that feels natural and real. I believe Mr. Flanagan, when he shows that he cares deeply for this lovely young woman. That's why the second half of the film, the part showing his transformation, is my favorite and why the final scene is one of the best and most beautiful romantic endings ever.My favorite scene (other than the final one) is the one with the drink carts going to and fro between Mr. Flanagan and the gypsies, while he listens to Ariane's recording and gets drunk. It's seamlessly fantastic!Chevalier is also great, of course! As Ariane's father, he couldn't have been more perfect. Protective and loving, but never stifling. He doesn't go crazy, when he learns the truth about Ariane and Mr. Flanagan, he's just understanding and tries to do the best for his daughter, even if that means letting her go.The band of gypsies was an inspired choice to accompany Mr. Flanagan in his amorous adventures. I like to think of them as a parallel to the detective's role in Ariane's life. Both worked as crutches, that needed to be left behind, to begin a new life.

Love in the afternoon! This movie makes me so emotional, and I ended up crying so hard at the end. Firstly, yes, it was such a vivid dream for a girl at the age of 19, trying to impress a millionaire bachelor with an uncountable number of love affairs. The young girl impressed me so much. She has such a beautiful soul and heart, with her kindness showing off in every little thing she does. I can say she is like a lone carnation in between a society that is full of greedy and neglectful people. I love so much the way she lied to him about her numerous number of love affairs, she proves that every one can play little love tricks to get their lovers to fall in love with them, and her stories made me laugh out loud many times. I love how she is fully respectful to the man she loves, that she would rather lie to him so that he can be the way he is than to put him in difficult decisions. Frank - the lead man character reminded me so much of the one I love and our story. In fact, my man said exactly what Frank said to Ariane: "He loves and runs away, lives to love another day". I have to be honest, I disagree with that kind of love, to me it is more like a coward being afraid of getting hurt and decide to just play with love instead of spending time and putting some effort for his love. I have to agree in one thing though: love is just not an easy game to play with, as long as you get addicted to it the loss of it can cause a lot of pain. I did not like Frank's personality, and Gary Cooper did not play the role perfectly either. At the end Frank decided to take Ariane with him permanently, but the actor did not convince me his full motive in doing this. For me it is a bit weird to not admit that he loved her but still took her and married her in the end. For me it was a bit like he felt bad for her and took her for granted. Still, the beauty and love of Ariane did touch my heart. I was so glad that she finally had a happy ending with the man she was in love with (or obsessed by). I am very sympathetic to how she would have felts, and admire her so much for her bravery and awareness of giving the best to the person she loves. A 10-star review for love. It is always worth it for a lovely love story.

Poor Audrey Hepburn. Her waif-like persona keeps the older gentlemen interested, from William Holden and Humphrey Bogart in "Sabrina", Fred Astaire in "Funny Face", Cary Grant in "Charade" and Rex Harrison in "My Fair Lady". I guess they feel she needs a father figure. Here, her papa is Maurice Chevalier, playing against type, and very amusing doing so. He's a private detective whose client (John McGiver) discovers his wife is having an affair with an American playboy (Gary Cooper). Hepburn rushes off to warn Cooper that his lover's husband intends to shoot him and as a result falls head over heels for him. This provides the funniest sequence in the film, McGiver's seemingly drunk hubby sneering like Edward G. Robinson has he creeps through the halls of Cooper's hotel. But this is where the amusement ends. The film seems to drag for the next hour and a half as Hepburn pretends that Cooper is only one in a long line of daddy types. She is never convincing in that area, which she isn't supposed to be, and Cooper's befuddled amusement only indicates that he is actually bored.This update of Ernest Lubitsch's 1930's sex comedies provides roles for two stars of some of those films, Cooper and Chevalier. This is basically an update of the character that Cooper played in the film version of Noel Coward's "Design For Living" while Chevalier ("Love Me Tonight", "One Hour With You") takes away the rascally romantic scoundrel and plays a much more serious part. He would return to the old type of roles in his next film with "Gigi". Some people may be put off by Olga Valéry as the hotel guest who keeps spanking her barking dog. She is meant to be comic relief, but the repetitive joke simply goes on too long.I've always been disturbed by the ending, always utilized in Hepburn tributes, which has an air of lechery to it.

Critics originally said this film was no good based largely on Gary Cooper's age. I concur with that assessment. I kept wondering why Audrey Hepburn's character would be attracted to an old man. But more so, why is she attracted to a man who makes his life nothing but a series of conquests? I have seen almost all of Billy Wilder's films and enjoyed them (some immensely), but this one just never felt right with me. The attraction seemed too awkward, the film ran a bit too long... I just could not see it. And for the father to support such a thing was even more astounding.If I have to say one nice thing about the movie, it is how it brings out the classic double standard of men and women with dating. The playboy travels from country to country, glorified in the newspaper for being a man of loose morals. But when he confronts a woman who has seemingly done the same, he panics.