First things first. I remember the first time I fell in love with Gary Cooper. Of course, I had seen some of his movies before, but I was a kid back then and nothing stuck for too long. Then, when I was about 20, I started watching (and enjoying) old movies and one day they showed this rather intense western on TV (The Hanging Tree) and I was instantly mesmerized by Cooper's beauty. He was 3 years older than in Love In The Afternoon. If someone had told me back then that such a stunning man was too old for me, I would have put them in the place they deserve: a labyrinth for meddling people, who need work hard to find the concept of "consenting adults". Cooper was nothing but a gorgeous hunk during his whole career.Don't get me wrong, Hollywood does have an issue with big age differences: The issue is that their arrow of time only points in one direction. They never pair much older actresses with younger actors, even though many are still beautiful and desirable in their 40's, 50's and older. The issue is that Hepburn never got a much younger on screen love interest, in spite of being beautiful all her life. Unfortunately, it looks like this imbalance doesn't seem to have an end.However, the age difference IS the reason for this movie to exist at all, so it worked for me 100%, even if trying to guess Ariane's age was a little distracting. I mean, at first I thought she was in her late twenties, but then they put her in pigtails (Hepburn looks ridiculous, btw) and made comments pretending to make her a few years younger. However, her friend, Michel, is clearly in his thirties and the other students are even older (some look middle-aged and balding). So after a little back and forth, I settled with Hepburn's true age or a couple of years younger. It makes her characterization somewhat weird, but it can be excused by her having lived a sheltered life and having Chevalier's character for a father.Hepburn is marvelous here, of course. After all, this is the kind of role she could play in her sleep. She and Cooper are very charming and funny together and I also love their dynamic with Chevalier. The plot has been explained many times here, so I'll just say that Hepburn's character, Ariane, is not a naive girl, who falls in love with the wrong man. She knows very well who and what he is and I would say that's the exact reason why she falls for him. She might lack experience in romantic love, but that doesn't make her dumb or a victim. She devises a plan to get him to fall in love with her. In fact, she's very deceptive and manipulative for a supposedly naive girl, but it works and it doesn't come off as creepy, because Hepburn is magical like that. Cooper plays the middle-aged Don Juan millionaire, Frank Flanagan, who is well into his 50's and still going strong in the female attention department. In his mind, there is no reason to complicate his busy life with a serious relationship. He is honest about it and doesn't deceive his lovers with false promises. It is this character, who goes through the big character growth, while everyone else remains more or less static. In the first half of the film, he's the cynical hit-and-run lover, while in the second half Ariane manages to get under his skin and torment him, until he's ready to feel true love. Cooper sells simmering vulnerability like nobody else and he does this here without unnecessary histrionics. He has the ability to keep a perfect balance between drama and comedy, that feels natural and real. I believe Mr. Flanagan, when he shows that he cares deeply for this lovely young woman. That's why the second half of the film, the part showing his transformation, is my favorite and why the final scene is one of the best and most beautiful romantic endings ever.My favorite scene (other than the final one) is the one with the drink carts going to and fro between Mr. Flanagan and the gypsies, while he listens to Ariane's recording and gets drunk. It's seamlessly fantastic!Chevalier is also great, of course! As Ariane's father, he couldn't have been more perfect. Protective and loving, but never stifling. He doesn't go crazy, when he learns the truth about Ariane and Mr. Flanagan, he's just understanding and tries to do the best for his daughter, even if that means letting her go.The band of gypsies was an inspired choice to accompany Mr. Flanagan in his amorous adventures. I like to think of them as a parallel to the detective's role in Ariane's life. Both worked as crutches, that needed to be left behind, to begin a new life.

I expected to like this film...Gary Cooper, Audrey Hepburn, Billy Wilder, Paris...But I was disappointed by its cynical manipulation and totally contrived ending.The great age difference between Cooper and Hepburn, made even more so by the fact that she's supposed to be a young student in this film (making him more like her grandfather), was remarked on, I believe, in some contemporary reviews. But this is not a reason to find fault with the relationship. It's more that it is difficult to understand how an intelligent young woman, albeit one who is somewhat naive and romantic, could be infatuated by, continue to be beguiled by, and eventually fall in love with the unpleasant lecher played by Cooper. Despite the charm that Gary Cooper has shown in many of his films, here he seems...well, tired and not really acting as though he at all believes in the rancid character he's playing, and he's right.The premise of the film is sour and cynical and the farce doesn't work. The ending injects a jarring sentimental note that only confirms the earlier implausibility of the "relationship" that the script would have you believe the two leads have. Doesn't work.Audrey Hepburn is her usual magical self, but even she can't make me believe in her character. She is certainly worth watching, however, for the moments when she is, indeed, someone who might appeal to the Cooper character as more than a one-night stand. Maurice Chevalier is surprisingly appealing here and doesn't lay on the French accent and mannerisms that he continued to polish over the years. But, again, he's done in by the script. In his very last scene in the film, he does a total flip-flop in point of view, again demonstrating the screen writers' (Wilder and Diamond) manipulation to ensure a romantically satisfying and totally unbelievable ending. So...nice musical score, lovely black and white cinematography, a charming Hepburn, an appealing Chevalier...but a Wilder misfire, big-time.

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.