Love in the Afternoon (1972 film)

Love in the Afternoon (French: L'Amour, l'après-midi; released in North America as Chloe in the Afternoon) is a 1972 French romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by Éric Rohmer. It is the sixth and final instalment in Rohmer's Six Moral Tales series.

Love in the Afternoon
Theatrical release poster
French	L'Amour, l'après-midi
Directed by	Éric Rohmer
Written by	Éric Rohmer
Produced by	Barbet Schroeder Pierre Cottrell
Starring	Zouzou Bernard Verley Françoise Verley
Cinematography	Néstor Almendros
Edited by	Cécile Decugis
Music by	Arié Dzierlatka
Production company	Les Films du Losange
Distributed by	Warner-Columbia Film
Release date	1 September 1972 (1972-09-01) (France)
Running time	97 minutes
Country	France
Language	French
Box office	$6.8 million[1]

An English-language remake starring Chris Rock, titled I Think I Love My Wife, was released in 2007. Singer-songwriter St. Vincent named the opening song of her 2011 album, Strange Mercy, after the film.^[2]

Plot

Frédéric, a young and successful partner in a Paris business firm, is happily married to Hélène, 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, he has an elaborate fantasy in which he possesses a magical amulet that causes all women to bow to his will (the sequence features actresses from previous installments in Rohmer's "Six Moral Tales" series). These thoughts do not distress Frédéric, though, as he sees them as a reflection of how true his love for his wife is.

One day, Chloé, a woman from Frédéric's past, stops by his office. Chloé had once been the girlfriend of an old friend of Frédéric, and she 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 to find some stability 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 about with Hélène. He enjoys the pleasures of having an attractive mistress without the guilt of adultery, while she has a man who will do whatever she wants without needing sex.

After the birth of Frédéric's second child, Chloé decides a child could give focus to her aimless existence, and tells Frédéric that he will be the father. She has no desire to be tied down by marriage, so she sees it as all-but-irrelevant that Frédéric already has a wife and family. Although Frédéric's attraction to Chloé continues to build, he is always able to stop himself before giving in and sleeping with her. Then, one afternoon, he arrives at her apartment to find her in the shower. Emerging, she asks him to towel her dry, which he does, and then she invites him to bed. He begins to get undressed, but stops when he sees his reflection in the mirror with his face sticking out of the neck of his turtleneck, as it reminds him of a game he had played with his daughter. Leaving Chloé naked and waiting, Frédéric sneaks away without a word and goes home to Hélène, finding her alone. Husband and wife talk awkwardly for a bit, struggling to find the right words to express their feelings, and Hélène breaks down in tears. Frédéric comforts her, and they go to their bedroom.

Cast

• Bernard Verley as Frédéric Carrelet, a married businessman
• Zouzou as Chloé, an old acquaintance of Frédéric who comes back into his life
• Françoise Verley as Hélène Carrelet, an English teacher married to Frédéric (Bernard and Françoise Verley were also married in real life)
• Daniel Ceccaldi as Gérard, Frédéric's business partner
• Malvina Penne as Fabienne, Frédéric's secretary
• Babette Ferrier as Martine, Gérard's secretary
• Tina Michelino as the woman on the train
• Jean-Louis Livi as the acquaintance who runs into Frédéric at lunch
• Pierre Nunzi as the clothing salesman
• Irène Skobline as the clothing saleswoman
• Frédérique Hender as Mrs. M., a math teacher and friend of the Carrelet's
• Claude-Jean Philippe as Mr. M., a literature teacher and friend of the Carrelet's
• Silvia Badescu as the young woman at the café
• Claude Bertrand as the young man at the café
• Sylvaine Charlet as Chloé's landlady
• Daniele Malat as the customer at the dress shop
• Suze Randall as the Carrelet's English au pair

• Françoise Fabian (from My Night at Maud's) as a woman during the dream sequence ("Indifferent")
• Marie-Christine Barrault (from My Night at Maud's) as a woman during the dream sequence ("Hesitant")
• Haydée Politoff (from La Collectionneuse) as a woman during the dream sequence ("Busy")
• Aurora Cornu (from Claire's Knee) as a woman during the dream sequence ("Alone")
• Laurence de Monaghan (from Claire's Knee) as a woman during the dream sequence ("Accompanied")
• Béatrice Romand (from Claire's Knee) as a woman during the dream sequence ("Hurried")

Reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 87% of 23 critics' reviews of the film are positive; the site's "critics consensus" reads: "Eric Rohmer's Chloe in the Afternoon doesn't need sparkly cinematic dross to discover unspoken, universal truths about relationships and love through filmmaking".^[3]

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 4 out 4 stars, calling it the best of Rohmer's "Six Moral Tales" series, and adding:

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.^[4]

Vincent Canby of The New York Times gave the film a positive review, writing: "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".^[5]

In contrast, Pauline Kael wrote that the film "had evaporated a half hour after I saw it. It’s about as forgettable as a movie can be."^[6]