Love in the Afternoon
by Billy Wilder
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Audrey Hepburn, Gary Cooper, John McGiver, Maurice Chevalier, Van DoudeDirector: Billy Wilder
Brand: Warner Brothers
Producer: Billy Wilder
Writer: Billy Wilder
Producer: Doane Harrison
Producer: Lee Katz
Producer: William Schorr
Writer: Claude Anet
Writer: I.A.L. Diamond
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 1.0; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Portuguese (Subtitled)
Format: Anamorphic, Black & White, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 130 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2002-01-08
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Warner Home Video
Movie Reviews of Love in the Afternoon
Movie Review: Solid Wilder; hypocritical critics.
Summary: 4 Stars
Audrey Hepburn (who was an excellent actor and an even better human being) MADE HER FILM CAREER by playing the sweet young thing opposite the much older man. Seriously, people, how can you try, sentence and condemn this film because "Gary Cooper is too old for her," but talk about how much you love films like Roman Holiday, My Fair Lady, Charade, or even lesser movies like Sabrina or War and Peace?
Humphrey Bogart: 30 years older.
Gary Cooper: 27 years older.
Henry Fonda: 24 years older.
Burt Lancaster: 16 years older.
Cary Grant: 25 years older.
Rex Harrison: 21 years older.
Gregory Peck: 13 years older (but when she was only 25 and he was pushing 40).
If you can relook at the film for what it is, you find one of Billy Wilder's good, but hardly great pictures.
Many of the qualities that make Wilder one of the greats--a strong central cast, well-oiled comedic timing and engaging dramatic pacing--are present and accounted for. Cooper plays an excellent smirking, older lothario (hardly an uncommon trope it the annals of American film, so get over it) in a daring, but well-acted departure from the Will Kane/Longfellow Deeds mold. Maurice Chevalier tones down the croaking Frenchman routine to play a subtle and endearing character, despite his obnoxious occupation. And Audrey Hepburn delivers a remarkably self-controlled performance in what was doubtless a difficult role to assume.
The gypsy band and the comedy of errors are vintage Wilder. Ditto for the typically 'Wilderian' pace, which never lags, and never goes too long without a joke. All of Wilder's story-telling signatures are there, especially his career-long preoccupation with the qualities that make up 'human decency,' and, despite his generally cynical take on modern American life (at home and abroad), his aptitude for teasing out a satisfying romantic ending.
A movie is not always the sum of its parts; a great cast and a strong script can make for a disastrous picture if not assembled properly. Wilder, even when working with inferior material (I'm thinking especially of some of HIS OWN weaker scripts) could never be accused of shoddy directing. And Love in the Afternoon is, above all, well-assembled.
Its script is not as daring or captivating as Double Indemnity's, nor as moving and utterly human as the Apartment's. It's on-location filming is not as impressive as is Ace in the Hole's, nor as memorable as The Long Weekend's (remember Ray Milland's agonizing pawn shop hunt?). Wilder made good use, initially, of the Place Vend?me, but otherwise he fails to make the most of what Paris has to offer.
It's solid, it leaves an impression and stays with you, but it's hardly Wilder's best work. For another director, Love in the Afternoon would be great; for Wilder, it's just good.
Summary of Love in the Afternoon
Naive cellist audrey hepburn develops an interest in amorous magnate gary cooper. Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 04/05/2005 Starring: Gary Cooper Maurice Chevalier Run time: 130 minutes Rating: G Director: Billy WilderFairy-tale Paris doesn't get more enchanting than Billy Wilder's Love in the Afternoon, an ode to picnics on the grass and champagne at the Ritz. Audrey Hepburn (who had already made Sabrina with Wilder) is at her best as the inexperienced cellist with a fascination for millionaire American playboy Gary Cooper. Maurice Chevalier (who else?) is Hepburn's father, a private detective with ample evidence of Cooper's crowded history of l'amour. Alongside the sheen of the romance is Wilder's unerring sense of craftsmanship; watch how inanimate objects such as a liquor tray, a white carnation, or the little dog in the suite next door are developed into sublime running gags. The age difference between the two leads has often been questioned, but perhaps this is what gives the gossamer material the whiff of welcome melancholy. The final three minutes leave no doubt that Wilder hatched the best endings in Hollywood history. --Robert Horton
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