This film by Billy Wilder features beautiful B&W photography. Gary Cooper stars as a supposedly smooth womanizer (Frank Flannagan) who cares little for the women he beds. Audrey Hepburn plays a younger woman (Ariane Chavasse) who is intrigued by his intrigues and becomes personally involved.Shot in France, the film conveys a cosmopolitan air that almost sells the idea that these two might connect emotionally. But Cooper is not smooth enough to pull if off (no surprise) and the relationship between the two does not convince. It's not an issue of age; it's about chemistry and personality. Bogart in "Sabrina" offered the same problem, though less so. As an example of another pairing that worked well despite a sizable age difference, consider Stewart and Kelly in "Rear Window".Frankly, I'm surprised that such obviously poor pairings plague numerous films, but apparently some believe that box office draws can overcome such issues.

From Billy Wilder, director of Some Like it Hot & The Apartment, comes another romantic classic, Love in the Afternoon. A Rom-Com-Dram about a middle aged playboy who falls for a young innocent woman in Paris. Sure, the film takes place in what is known as the most romantic city in the world, but it was a truly romantic story. Gary Cooper and Audrey Hepburn give great performances as two completely opposite people who end up sharing a little more than just one kiss.Wilder does a great job of setting the tone of the film within the first few minutes with Maurice Chevalier's voice-over with the beautiful Paris landscape shown. He tells us about all of the different kinds of love and how it can be beautiful in even the most unpredictable circumstances. The film then takes a little while before our leads meet, but we get introduced to Monsieur X, who is pretty much the comedic relief of the film. The film is almost 60 years old, but I found myself laughing quite a bit. Whether it was the Monsieur's strange responses and interactions with the cast, or the ongoing gag of Mr. Flanagan's 'gypsies', the film is quite hilarious.But that doesn't take away from the romantic drama and tension that formulates between Hepburn & Cooper. At first I wasn't sure I believed that she would fall for someone that unlikable, but over the course of a few hours it was pretty obvious the feeling became mutual. I highly recommend this film for giving us a different take on romance, and for just how beautiful of a film it is. It really gets you in a great mood.+Hepburn in top form +Wilder paints us a beautiful picture +The Gypsies and 'Fascination' +Very funny -Takes awhile before love is believable8.2/10

This movie sickened me. I've always liked Gary Cooper, but he is horribly miscast as the aging, corrupt Don Juan, Flanagan. The sight of him pawing Audrey Hepburn, who doesn't look a day over 16 is not appealing.Maurice Chevalier, who plays Audrey's father,(who I have never liked) actually does an adequate job.The movie takes place in France, but Chevalier is the only one who has a French accent. I think this movie was supposed to make us laugh. It just made me disgusted.Not recommended. 3/10

I agree with most of the IMDb reviewers in their appreciation for "Love in the Afternoon." It is a charming love story, made especially touching by the beautiful performance of Audrey Hepburn. A fine actress throughout her career, Hepburn's golden age was clearly the 1950s when her youthful innocence and eager, expectant face made the vulnerability of her characters seem entirely believable and very sympathetic. Having the aging Maurice Chevalier as her father in "Love in the Afternoon" was an inspired bit of casting, and the two of them seemed to fit perfectly as father and daughter.But, of the major actors of the late fifties, Gary Cooper was probably the worst possible choice to play the young Hepburn's first great love, Mr. Flannagan. It is not so much that Cooper was too old a man to be the love interest of Hepburn's character, Ariane, although Cooper certainly looked very old and tired in the movie. Because Ariane is shown to be both innocent and impressionable, one could imagine her falling in love with an older and more sophisticated gentleman. In the movie "Funny Face," Hepburn plays a character like Ariane who falls in love with the equally aged Fred Astaire, and that relationship seems quite believable.The problem with casting Cooper in "Love in the Afternoon" is that Mr. Flannagan is supposed to be a rather heartless, love-'em-and-leave-'em kind of guy, while Cooper's entire career in later life was devoted to playing honest, honorable, loyal men of strong and unshakable convictions. Perhaps the definitive Cooper role in the 1950s was the sheriff in "High Noon." To have him play an aging, indifferent roué was an almost absurd bit of miscasting which, for me, did not seem believable for a minute."Love in the Afternoon" is a beautiful love story – often touching and, thanks to the gypsies, sometimes very funny. What a shame that Cary Grant, Tyrone Power, and Fred Astaire himself were not available to play the movie's leading man.