Chloe is a fact of life
Added 3/4/2009
If a man and woman are meant to have a romance it will happen immediately or not at all, and this is one of those truisms that is played out in this film.
A rather dull yet attractive happily married man who comfortably compartmentalizes his life into segments invites a new element into it. Or, rather, she invites herself. Chloe comes along as she shows up every afternoon in his office and spends part of the day with him, as if she were going for therapy - or maybe she's his therapist - as they become the closest of friends. The conceit is she's going to him for moral support when actually it's him whose life is becoming enhanced.
What's fun is you never see much on how his secretary reacts to the visitations of Chloe. Chloe becomes such a routine, even for the secretary - who may think the relationship between her boss and his female friend is platonic or not - who treats Chloe as if it's the boss' sister or wife who drops in every day.
What's amazing is how this film will stick with you. I have seen it once and it was more than twenty years ago, yet I remember it as if I just saw it today. Yet most films are so disposable, even a day later it can be difficult to recall the details. So this one makes a huge impression.
I rate the film four stars as it irks me I still have questions or concerns even after all these years. Especially about the wife, who offers up a surprise of her own, but she is effectively in the background, as the POV of the film is the husband's and so his attitude towards her is shared by the film.
I ordinarily prefer pat endings that are more satisfying than the one offered here. However if offering up one of my favorite films, I'd say this one was in the top ten, just because like an excellent novel, you return to it again and again in your mind. A favorite film is like that, you view it once and it is forever engrained in your mind.
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Essential French cinema: Rohmer's 'L'Amour l'après-midi.'
Added 7/24/2007
Éric Rohmer (1920) challenged traditional Hollywood cinema with his French New Wave cycle of films, Six Moral Tales ("Contes moraux"). Inspired by F.W. Murnau's Sunrise, each "tale" follows the same basic story: a man is tempted a woman, but he ultimately resists the temptation.
Love in the Afternoon (L'Amour l'après-midi; also known as Chloe in the Afternoon) (1972) tells the story of a young, successful businessman, Frédéric (Bernard Verley). Although he is happily married to his adoring wife Hélène (Françoise Verley), an English professor, bourgeois Frédéric nevertheless fantasizes about his premarital freedom and the excitement of chasing women. His thoughts are filled with the attractive women who pass him on the streets of Paris every day. When an old flame, Chloé (played by the mesmerizing Zouzou), shows up in Frédéric's office, the two begin spending afternoons together talking. (This film shows how conversation can be the best foreplay.) Frédéric experiences a connection with Chloé that threatens his marriage. Chloé confesses that while she is not interested in marriage, she would like to have a child with Frédéric, forcing him to choose between a wife that he loves and a woman he feels strangely passionate about. Before consummating his feelings for Chloé, he retreats to his wife, leaving Chloé in bed waiting for him--perhaps the most powerful emotional moment in Rohmer's entire series.
G. Merritt
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Chloe in the Afternoon
Added 7/3/2007
The final installment in Rohmer's "Six Moral Tales" series, "Afternoon" is a wonderfully acted, deeply thoughtful meditation on the idea of marital infidelity. Frederic and his alluring afternoon companion voice every possible perspective on this ubiquitous temptation, enlightening us as to whether it is a desirable choice or not, and keeping us in prolonged suspense over what will happen between the two of them. Rohmer's understated, emotionally intelligent handling of this platonic affair makes for a thoroughly compelling "Afternoon."
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no easy answers for life's great questions
Added 1/18/2007
The last of Eric Rohmer's Six Moral Tales begins with a man, Frederic (Bernard Verley) watching his wife step out of the shower. She continues to towel herself off, glancing back over her shoulder at him the doorway. It's the kind of genuine, uncontrived eroticism Frederic would find sexy if he weren't married to her.
"Since my marriage," says Frederic, "I find all women attractive. In their mundane tasks, I accord them that mystery I once denied almost all of them." Frederic spends a lot of time observing the opposite sex (for someone with a presumably demanding occupation, we see him doing surprisingly little work), fantasizing about what it would be like to engage these ladies with flirtatious conversation. In this invented world, he is the sort passionate, dangerous figure he imagines beautiful women find irresistible. It's a marked contrast to the person he actually is, this being a Paris lawyer who stays home most nights, reads books on the train, and wears the same style of turtleneck every day.
In an unusually impulsive act, Frederic allows himself to be talked into buying a plaid dress shirt by an attractive salesgirl. "The salesgirl was very clever. She pretended not to give a damn." It won't be the last time in the picture a character gets what they want by feigning disinterest in it (the converse is also true). The shirt isn't particularly becoming, truth be told - it's too tight and Frederic looks out of place in it. But he wears it anyway. It's not long afterwards that a woman named Chloe (Zouzou) reintroduces herself to his life.
Often what makes films great are the questions they pose, not the ones they solve. Love in the Afternoon is full of questions. Can a man love two women at the same time? Where is the divide between innocent flirtation and adultery (it's not as simple as I'd imagine many think)? Is infidelity always morally licentious? Is monogamy by its very nature unsustainable without a certain degree of dishonesty, not to mention an elaborately fantastical interior life?
Love in the Afternoon respects its audience enough not to give any easy answers, allowing us to come to our conclusions about the characters and their motivations. Indeed, the picture is refreshingly free of any kind of musical score, the hack filmmaker's bludgeoning tool to beat viewers into lockstep submission. Rohmer, per usual, takes what could be tiresome and formulaic (Rohmer himself has used the central conceit of the romantically-conflicted man in numerous other films, notably My Night at Maud's) and gives it a new life, a new perspective, and a new understanding. When Chloe reclines spectacularly, a vision, beckoning us from across the room, there is no reductionist moralizing, no wagging of fingers. There is just a beautiful woman, a married man, a bed, and ourselves.
Interesting footnote: Actress/model/musician Zouzou was an icon of the swinging 60s in Europe, engaging in a fairly public romance with Rolling Stone Brian Jones. Problems with heroin saw Zouzou's professional life take a rather ignominious downturn, culminating with her incarceration during the early 90s.
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A delightful bon bon of a French film. The ending is refreshing, but is it plausible?
Added 10/30/2006
Zouzou, the actress who plays Chloe, bears an uncanny resemblance to Hilary Swank, so during most of the movie I was preoccupied with visions of Hilary in 'Boys Don't Cry' and whether men find her sexy. But I digress...
The way in which Frederic, the male protagonist, vacillates between wanting to be completely seduced by Chloe and remaining true to his perfect Parisian wife & life is skillfully presented, and the viewer is left to ponder what s/he would do if thrust in a similar situation. We all know what is right, and we can only hope that we will behave appropriately when confronted by our own version of Chloe.
0 out of 3 people found this helpful.
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Chloe is a fact of life
Added 3/4/2009
If a man and woman are meant to have a romance it will happen immediately or not at all, and this is one of those truisms that is played out in this film.
A rather dull yet attractive happily married man who comfortably compartmentalizes his life into segments invites a new element into it. Or, rather, she invites herself. Chloe comes along as she shows up every afternoon in his office and spends part of the day with him, as if she were going for therapy - or maybe she's his therapist - as they become the closest of friends. The conceit is she's going to him for moral support when actually it's him whose life is becoming enhanced.
What's fun is you never see much on how his secretary reacts to the visitations of Chloe. Chloe becomes such a routine, even for the secretary - who may think the relationship between her boss and his female friend is platonic or not - who treats Chloe as if it's the boss' sister or wife who drops in every day.
What's amazing is how this film will stick with you. I have seen it once and it was more than twenty years ago, yet I remember it as if I just saw it today. Yet most films are so disposable, even a day later it can be difficult to recall the details. So this one makes a huge impression.
I rate the film four stars as it irks me I still have questions or concerns even after all these years. Especially about the wife, who offers up a surprise of her own, but she is effectively in the background, as the POV of the film is the husband's and so his attitude towards her is shared by the film.
I ordinarily prefer pat endings that are more satisfying than the one offered here. However if offering up one of my favorite films, I'd say this one was in the top ten, just because like an excellent novel, you return to it again and again in your mind. A favorite film is like that, you view it once and it is forever engrained in your mind.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
Essential French cinema: Rohmer's 'L'Amour l'après-midi.'
Added 7/24/2007
Éric Rohmer (1920) challenged traditional Hollywood cinema with his French New Wave cycle of films, Six Moral Tales ("Contes moraux"). Inspired by F.W. Murnau's Sunrise, each "tale" follows the same basic story: a man is tempted a woman, but he ultimately resists the temptation.
Love in the Afternoon (L'Amour l'après-midi; also known as Chloe in the Afternoon) (1972) tells the story of a young, successful businessman, Frédéric (Bernard Verley). Although he is happily married to his adoring wife Hélène (Françoise Verley), an English professor, bourgeois Frédéric nevertheless fantasizes about his premarital freedom and the excitement of chasing women. His thoughts are filled with the attractive women who pass him on the streets of Paris every day. When an old flame, Chloé (played by the mesmerizing Zouzou), shows up in Frédéric's office, the two begin spending afternoons together talking. (This film shows how conversation can be the best foreplay.) Frédéric experiences a connection with Chloé that threatens his marriage. Chloé confesses that while she is not interested in marriage, she would like to have a child with Frédéric, forcing him to choose between a wife that he loves and a woman he feels strangely passionate about. Before consummating his feelings for Chloé, he retreats to his wife, leaving Chloé in bed waiting for him--perhaps the most powerful emotional moment in Rohmer's entire series.
G. Merritt
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
Chloe in the Afternoon
Added 7/3/2007
The final installment in Rohmer's "Six Moral Tales" series, "Afternoon" is a wonderfully acted, deeply thoughtful meditation on the idea of marital infidelity. Frederic and his alluring afternoon companion voice every possible perspective on this ubiquitous temptation, enlightening us as to whether it is a desirable choice or not, and keeping us in prolonged suspense over what will happen between the two of them. Rohmer's understated, emotionally intelligent handling of this platonic affair makes for a thoroughly compelling "Afternoon."
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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