Love in the Afternoon

http://www.doctormacro1.info

I was reading on-line about Audrey Hepburn and learned that there was a movie with her that was directed by Billy Wilder besides Sabrina.

Once again I feel glad that Netflix forced me to upgrade the pertinent software (Silverlight 9 or 10 or some such). The blacks and whites and shades in between are rich to the point of voluptuousness.

Audrey Hepburn is as beautiful and compelling as I've seen, which is as strong a statement, in its way, as I can make. This movie reminds me of other Audrey Hepburn movies that seem to me too silly, yet I find this nothing but charming. Maybe Gary Cooper is a little shallow and inert, compared to his romantic opposite. He certainly is too old for her, but I don't object as I did to Cary Grant's being too old for Hepburn in Charade. I couldn't bear in that movie for Grant to be anything but his wonderful (actor) self. I don't care about Cooper; let him be a foil for Hepburn, I don't mind. I've never seen Maurice Chevalier in a performance I liked until now, not that I've seem him in many. He and Hepburn are terrific together as father and daughter. The actors aside, Wilder has rarely been so wonderfully cold-blooded. That's saying a lot. The cocktail of cold-bloodedness, farce, and sentiment is unique in my experience.

As a worshipper at the Audrey Hepburn shrine, I record that while I found her as beautiful and compelling in this movie as in her best movies, this movie itself isn't as perfectly gem-like as Roman Holiday, as poignant as her character's vulnerability makes Breakfast at Tiffany's, or as thrilling as her character's heroism and extreme vulnerability makes Wait Until Dark. But at I can put it in the Winner's column (Sabrina being the one other I've seen that I would put there as well).