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Gary Cooper, Audrey Hepburn, Maurice Chevalier, John McGiver, Van Doude ... see more see more... , Lisa Bourdin , Paul Bonifas , Leila Croft , Filo , Moustache , Bernard Musson , Minerva Pious , Marcelle Praince , Betty Schneider , Olga Valéry , Audrey Wilder , Alexandre Trauner , Guy Delorme , Jacques Ary , Eve Marley , Charles Bouillaud , Valerie Croft , Gregoire Gromoff , Charles Lemontier , Christian Lude , Lise Bourdin , Maurice Chavalier

Gary Cooper more or less repeats his international-roue characterization from 1938's Bluebeard's Eighth Wife for the 1957 romantic comedy Love in the Afternoon (both films were co-scripted by Billy Wi... read more read more...lder, who also directed the latter picture). Audrey Hepburn co-stars as the daughter of Parisian private eye Maurice Chevalier. Investigating the amorous activities of Cooper, Chevalier relates what he's discovered to cuckolded husband John McGiver, who declares that he's going after Cooper with a pistol. Overhearing this conversation, Hepburn rushes off to rescue Cooper. She keeps him far away from McGiver by adopting a "woman of the world" pose. Cooper quickly sees through this charade; still, she is fascinated by Hepburn and attempts to relocate her after she disappears. Meeting Chevalier one day, Cooper relates the story of the Mystery Woman, never dreaming that he is describing Chevalier's daughter. Equally in the dark, Chevalier offers to locate the elusive Hepburn. Once he's tumbled to the fact that his quarry is his own flesh and blood, Chevalier advises Hepburn against contemplating a relationship with the much-older Cooper. She, of course, fails to heed this warning, setting the stage for an ultraromantic finale. Love in the Afternoon is highlighted by a superb running gag involving a quartet of gypsy violinists, who insist upon dogging Cooper's trail wherever he goes-including a steam bath. Love in the Afternoon was adapted by Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond from the novel Ariane by Claude Anet. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

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79% liked it

6,976 ratings

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87% liked it

23 critics

G, 2 hr. 6 min.

Directed by: Billy Wilder

Release Date: January 1, 1957

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DVD Release Date: January 8, 2002

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Gary Cooper and Audrey Hepburn Gary Cooper and Audrey Hepburn Love in the Afternoon Love in the Afternoon Cooper and Hepburn Love in the Afternoon Love in the Afternoon Cooper and Hepburn Cooper and Chevalier Cooper and Hepburn Poster designed by Saul Bass Cooper and Chevalier Gary Cooper and Audrey Hepburn Poster designed by Saul Bass Gary Cooper and Audrey Hepburn Gary Cooper, Billy Wilder, Audrey Hepburn, Maurice Chevalier Love in the Afternoon (Ariane) Love in the Afternoon
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Flixster Reviews (343)

  • FrizzDrop
    May 12, 2011
    FrizzDrop
    The premise, that of a gamine and inexperienced French girl infatuated with an American playboy, to the point of enchanting him and foiling a murder attempt, was genius. Audrey Hepburn plays a darling cellist, the daughter of a detective (Chevalier) who comes across a chance to s... read moreave the dashingly handsome Frank Flannagan (Cooper) from an angered husband. With an air of mystery around her, Hepburn lies about her own sexual prowess in order to drive Flannagan into envy at the thought that the two are evenly matched. Though Wilder made the film into the cute romantic comedy it was meant to be, his own misgivings about the film were correct. Though Hepburn is perfectly cast, Cooper feels a tad out of his element, used to playing the hero in Westerns. Cooper never quite fits in when he's cast in comedies, and his stiff performance seemed the result of yet another awkward casting. The ending (for American audiences) includes an aside by Chevalier that Hepburn and Cooper are not living in sin, but married in New York. It feels patronizing to a modern audience, and if ever there is a director's cut, it should be discarded.
  • deano
    January 4, 2008
    deano
    Wonderful romantic comedy with Audrey Hepburn as a lovestruck conservatory student who pretends to be just as much a cosompolitan love for millionaire American playboy.
  • groaningbitch
    November 5, 2007
    groaningbitch
    it's more of a billy wilder satire on the modern-day american don juan who's infatuated with the parisian transiet romances without commitments than just an audrey hepburn romantic classic. as "sarbrina", hepburn plays an ingenune (again!) falling for the upper-class playboy gary... read more cooper. obeserving senile cooper frivolously flirts with youthfully fair hepburn leaves you peculiarly wondrous about his attraction to her...

    a daydreaming schoolgirl who reads adultery cases as touching romantic stories decides to meet the "authentically fictional character" she's read about all her life in her father's "library". she's like a bored junvile who relishes her drably dry life with aficinado-alike enthusiasm toward romantic illusions ...one day she rushes to rescue her dream character from being slaughtered in the hotel room just to preserve her romantic illusions from being obliterated, then as her dream man kisses her randomly, her heart is taken away for good.

    the character of cooper's mr. flannagan is wilder's mockery to americanism: he's an egoistic arbitrary man in his elder years but romances like an adolescent boy who flatters himself for being "the one who loves and runs aways but lives to love for another day", besides there's no really love except the temporal conquests of excitements, but after his purpose's served, those women are littered like disposable goods. his americanistic naivety obscures such cruelty in his mindset since he always assumes that he could pop in like pepsi cola without giving himself away to anyone out of his self-protective bachelor selfishness.

    as one dialogue from arianne filled with acid tongue:
    ""They're very odd people, you know. When they're young, they have their teeth straightened, their tonsils taken out and gallons of vitamins pumped into them. Something happens to their insides! They become immunized, mechanized, air-conditioned and hydromatic. I'm not even sure whether he has a heart"".....""What is he? A creature from outer space?""..."no, he's an american."

    the irony is that she has to fake to be something she's totally not just to gain his interests for her or arouse his jealousy or shake his pride as retribution by also belittling him as some conquered object without too much worth....the whole flick is more bittersweet than romantic....she's secretly bewailing his casanova fickleness but meanwhile she has to conceal her frailty then comes up with new strategies to stir him...he's utterly fascinated by her becuz of her reluctance to bare herself that stimulates his wishes to penetrate or explore her mystery that she's aware of as well....two are toying with some psychological guerrila, attempted to break through each other's fence....her relationship with flannagan is built upon these provoking deceptions to shield her true helplessness in a world filled with disillusions....as for mr. flannagan, it's more out of morbidly shallow curiosity to dig the truth out of her as trophy.

    the movie is so bitterly cynical at its pinnacle as the detective father advises flannagan to cut arianne loose when flannagan's about to dismiss him by money then shocked by the fact that he's her father "give her a break, monsieur, she's too young, don't dump her in the gutter like the rest of others"..then flannagan silences with the implicit shame toward his own immorality....it's also agonizing at most when she pursues after the train perilously and tells those tall tales of affairs to him with yearning tears in her eyes while he's standing at the traingate shamefully aware that she only loves him and there's never been another man, out of his frivolosity, she has to lie to be with him...then eventually our don juan has decided to be a mensch that is almost surprisingly moving.

    furher, the white carnation hepburn takes from cooper's jacket is the blatant symbol of the purity of a girl's first love, and she even freezes it in the icebox girlishly as if she wanna restore what she has had with him even she's conscious that it's an un-requited love only from her side since mr. flannagan is disabled to love....it's so realistically tragic but intoxicatingly sorrowful as a girl's first love...even somehow this love only exists in the afternnon...with the fetching waltz of "the fascination"....
  • mjgildea
    November 22, 2006
    mjgildea
    Old men with little to no personality ogling Audrey Hepburn freaks me out.
  • anastasia57001
    December 12, 2010
    anastasia57001
    Gary Cooper is a bit too old to play the popular bon-viveur believably, and Audrey Hepburn is here a bit too young to pass for the experienced broad her character is angling for - but all in all, the movie works out because of a quite fun script and some good touches here and the... read morere by the hand of the master (Wilder). It does not stand out in the filmography of anyone of the above, but it's a welcome addition.
  • SunilJawahir
    July 29, 2008
    SunilJawahir
    Probably one of the lesser films for either Billy Wilder or Audrey Hepburn.
  • fb68600877
    January 8, 2012
    fb68600877
    Terrific, romantic film. Very funny stuff, at times. I love Maurice Chevalier's character here and, of course, Audrey Hepburn is amazing, too.
  • hyphenated
    February 8, 2011
    hyphenated
    Audrey Hepburn is enchanting as always, but Gary Cooper is wooden and way too old for her. Billy Wilder really saves this sweet and cheesy cliche of a film from feeling like one - instead, it's clever and fun.
  • phinomenal
    May 16, 2010
    phinomenal
    haha, he's definitely going to cheat on Ariane... all this movie shows is that girls fall hard for guys, and are blind when it happens... I am kind of surprised at the ending. I'm not sure if I wanted a happy ending from this movie or not. Not one of Audrey Hepburn's best films t... read morehough.
  • scrambledegg7
    January 18, 2010
    scrambledegg7
    This is not one of Billy Wilder's best efforts. Although Audrey Hepburn is believably charming and innocent, Gary Cooper does not hold up his end of the bargain, and the plot is pretty much ridiculous. There's some good Wilder-like dialogue along the way, but not enough to make i... read moret work.

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Critic Reviews

Variety Staff
February 3, 2009
Variety Staff, Variety

The production holds enchantment and delight in substantial quantity. Full Review

Don Druker
August 15, 2007
Don Druker, Chicago Reader

As Andrew Sarris says, not without its cruelties, but not without its beauties as well. Full Review

Andrew Sarris
September 29, 2005
Andrew Sarris, New York Observer

It's the closest Wilder ever came to Ernst Lubitsch. Full Review

Bosley Crowther
January 1, 2000
Bosley Crowther, New York Times

This film was produced by Mr. Wilder for Allied Artists -- in black-and-white. It is a hit. Full Review

Walter Chaw
June 28, 2010
Walter Chaw, Film Freak Central

a nigh interminable flick short on laughs and long on awful montages and self-satisfaction Full Review

David Cornelius
March 27, 2010
David Cornelius, DVDTalk.com

It's not a great film, but it is an endearing one. Full Review

Emanuel Levy
December 14, 2008
Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com

Though not as charming or touching as Sabrina, Wilder's 1957 romantic comedy teams Gary Cooper and Audrey Hepburn and serves as a good star vehicle for both. Full Review

August 15, 2007
TV Guide's Movie Guide

Love in the Afternoon had great locations going for it. It also had the winsome charm of Hepburn, the elfin puckishness of Chevalier, a literate script by Wilder and Diamond, and an airy feeling that ... Full Review

Dennis Schwartz
March 18, 2007
Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews

It was hard to get excited about such an overlong dreary tale, where Cooper was miscast and the champagne fizzles. Full Review

Geoff Andrew
June 24, 2006
Geoff Andrew, Time Out

An over-long and only spasmodically amusing romantic comedy... Full Review

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Love in the Afternoon Trivia

  • In what movie did Audrey Hepburn pretend to have 20 suitors?  Answer »
  • Chris Rock's movie 'I Think I Love My Wife' is a remake of an older film called 'Chloe in the Afternoon.' Which French filmmaker directed the original?  Answer »
  • What is Claude Chavesse occupation in Love In The Afternoon ?  Answer »
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