Love in the Afternoon (1972 film)

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Chloé in the Afternoon
Film poster
Directed by	Éric Rohmer
Produced by	Pierre Cottrell Barbet Schroeder
Written by	Éric Rohmer
Starring	Bernard Verley Zouzou Françoise Verley Daniel Ceccaldi
Cinematography	Néstor Almendros
Edited by	Cécile Decugis
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures (US)
Release date	September 29, 1972 (U.S.)
Running time	97 minutes
Country	France
Language	French
Box office	$6,766,342[1]

Love in the Afternoon (original title: L'Amour l'après-midi and released in North America as Chloe in the Afternoon) is a 1972 French film by Éric Rohmer. It is the sixth and final movie in Rohmer's "Six Moral Tales" series.

An English-language remake starring Chris Rock, titled I Think I Love My Wife, was released in 2007. Neither film is a remake or derivative of Love in the Afternoon, a 1957 romantic comedy directed by Billy Wilder.

Plot[edit]

Frédéric (Bernard Verley), the young and successful partner in a business, is happily married to Hélène (Françoise Verley), an English teacher, and father to one child with another on the way. Still, something eats away at him. While going through his day, Frédéric begins to ponder the times before he was married, when he was free to be with any woman he wanted and could feel the deep satisfaction of anticipation while he chased them. At one point in the film, he has an elaborate fantasy where he possesses a magical amulet that causes all women to bow to his will (the sequence features actresses from previous "Moral Tales"). These thoughts do not distress Frédéric though, as he sees these ideas as a reflection of how true his love to his wife is.

One day, a woman from Frédéric's past appears at his office, hungry and homeless. Chloé (Zouzou) had once been the girlfriend of an old friend of Frédéric's, and had caused this friend a great deal of grief. At first Frédéric believes Chloé only wants cash and company, but over time, as she tries a series of jobs to attempt some type of solidity in her life, to the increasing amusement of the secretaries in Frédéric's office the two begin spending afternoons together, talking of many things Frédéric finds himself unable to talk to his wife about. He enjoys the pleasures of an attractive mistress without the guilt of adultery, while she has a man who will do whatever she wants without needing sex.

But it cannot last. After the birth of Frédéric's second child, Chloé decides she too needs a child to give focus to her aimless existence and, while she has no desire to be tied in marriage, that Frédéric must be the father. He ponders whether to stay with the faithful wife he loves greatly or whether to launch into the unknown with a woman for whom he feels a strange deep passion. A decision is precipitated when Chloé summons him to her latest address and, when he arrives, she is in the bath. Emerging, she invites him to towel her dry, which he does, and then calls him to her bed. Leaving her naked and waiting, he flees out of the apartment and down the stairs. When he goes home to Hélène and asks to spend the afternoon with her, she breaks down in tears. He comforts her, and they go to their bedroom.

Cast[edit]

• Bernard Verley as Frédéric Carrelet, a married businessman
• Françoise Verley as Hélène Carrelet, the English teacher wife of Frédéric (also his real-life wife)
• Zouzou as Chloé, Frédéric’s temptress
• Daniel Ceccaldi as Gérard, Frédéric's business partner
• Malvina Penne as Fabienne, one of Frédéric and Gérard's secretaries
• Babette Ferrier as Martine, Frédéric and Gérard's other secretary
• Frédérique Hender as Mrs. M., a guest of the Carrelet's
• Claude-Jean Philippe as Mr. M., a guest of the Carrelet's
• Suze Randall as the English au pair
• Claude Bertrand as the student
• Françoise Fabian as a woman during the dream sequence (from My Night at Maud’s)
• Marie-Christine Barrault as a woman during the dream sequence (from My Night at Maud’s)
• Haydée Politoff as a woman during the dream sequence (from La Collectionneuse (The Collector))
• Aurora Cornu as a woman during the dream sequence (from Claire's Knee)
• Béatrice Romand as a woman during the dream sequence (from Claire's Knee)

Reception[edit]

On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 91% based on reviews from 22 critics. The site's consensus states, "Eric Rohmer's Chloe in the Afternoon doesn't need sparkly cinematic dross to discover unspoken, universal truths about relationships and love through filmmaking."^[2]

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave it 4 out 4, he called it the best of Rohmer's "Six Moral Tales" and said "It is also the most fully rounded, lacking the one-dimensional tone of some of his earlier tales. It's as if he were striking notes in the previous works, and is now bringing them all together into a chord; the final scene in "Chloe" is his last comment on the series, and Rohmer is telling us to, for god’s sake, stop playing games and embrace each other with honesty."^[3]Vincent Canby of the New York Times gave the film a positive review and wrote: "Just because Mr. Rohmer keeps his focus short, clear and precise, one sees deeply into the lives of his characters without the sort of pretentious distortions of most movies that deal in metaphors."^[4]

In popular culture[edit]

American singer-songwriter St. Vincent named the opening song of her third studio album, Strange Mercy, "Chloe in the Afternoon".^[5]

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• Love in the Afternoon at IMDb
• Love in the Afternoon at AllMovie
• Howard Schumann, "Six Moral Tales"
• Love in the Afternoon: Marriage, Rohmer-Style an essay by Armond White at the Criterion Collection