Movies from the Heart—Love in the Afternoon

In the same year that last week’s film, Funny Face, came out, this week’s Love in the Afternoon came out—1957. Written by Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond, this is a screenplay that absolutely sparkles.

The film has an interesting—and as one trailer put it—a “racy” premise. An aging playboy, in great demand, is taken in by a young girl with absolutely no romantic experience. She convinces him that she’s had this long string of lovers—but she won’t even tell him her name! And she’ll only agree to meet with him in the afternoons. This is, of course, because she lives at home with her father—but he doesn’t know that. He believes her story of living with one man while having affairs with many others.

So you have a 50ish man, Frank Flannagan, pursuing this under 20 young woman, Ariane, [who tries to seem older] and, even when I rewatch it today, I’m rooting for them to get together! In today’s world, I doubt this film would get made. People would be afraid of the backlash because this very older man is interested in this younger girl. To be fair, we don’t know how old she is, but she certainly comes off as in her late teens. She goes to music school and has a geeky fellow student who’s interested in her.

And to add complexity to the situation, Ariane’s father is a detective whose current client has him investigating Flannagan, because the client thinks Flannagan is sleeping with his wife.

But if you can get past the, by modern standards, inappropriate nature of their relationship, this is a spectacular film that is often overlooked when we’re talking about great romantic films.

Take a look at a trailer for the film

I liked this film so much that I did an homage to the final scene at the train station to end my script about a love story between a womanizer who falls for a woman who thinks he’s gay—-- when she finds out he’s just a womanizer and not the nice gay guy she thought he was, she wants nothing to do with him. [There was some interest in the script, but, alas, it never got made.]

If you get a chance to watch Love in the Afternoon, I’d encourage you to do so. It shows the value of setting up a misunderstanding and playing it out into something quite wonderful.

When you think about it, most comedies are based on a misunderstanding or a misconception of some sort. And out of that misunderstanding comes humor—and sometimes pathos as well. Love in the Afternoon hinges completely on Flannagan falling for a girl he thinks is like him—someone who has lots of romantic partners on the string… when, we know as we watch, that she’s never even been kissed.

If you’re thinking about writing a romantic film, ask yourself if a misunderstanding early on in the action could help you move your story forward.

Next week, another film from 1957 about a possible romance between two characters in their 50s in Desk Set.

Copyright © Diane Lake

18Feb24

Email Diane a question to Diane@DianeLake.com