blanche-2

Love in the Afternoon from 1957 is a Billy Wilder film starring Audrey Hepburn, Gary Cooper, and Maurice Chevalier.

Hepburn is Ariane, the daughter of a detective (Chevalier). She falls in love with a wealthy playboy (Cooper) and tries to impress him with her many loves and worldliness. The film points up the classic double standard - he has dozens of lovers worldwide, but her list (albeit totally fictitious) makes him angry.

I didn't care for this film, but not for the usual reasons.

For me it is not Wilder's best, it's overly long, and moves slowly. Also I thought the dog was terribly mistreated. Nasty. A big turnoff.

"Usual reasons" for not liking it include the age difference between Hepburn and Cooper and the miscasting of Cooper. Part of the problem was the way he was photographed, like they were attempting to hide his age.

Since the very legitimate "#metoo" era was ushered in, the pendulum has moved too far. I am frankly sick of reading the words "pervy," "inappropriate," "uncomfortable," referring to classic films and tv shows where things like normal flirtation and the casting of young women go on.

People seem to want to judge films and television given today's times, rather than the time they were made. Not only that, but it's obvious in films like Gigi and Love in the Afternoon, the French don't have American sensibilities. Get over it.

Older men have been interested in younger women since the beginning of time. Audrey Hepburn was well past the age of consent in this film, and if Gary Cooper didn't look like a 56-year-old man of today, so be it.

I admit I would have preferred Cary Grant, who would not have been photographed in the dark. Why that was done - I mean, we knew he was older - why hide it? (Cooper perhaps was unhappy about his appearance. The next year, he had a botched facelift.)

I feel the same way about Sabrina - Grant would have been better in the Bogart role. There was something ageless about Grant and what age wouldn't go crazy over him. I would say the same about Cooper, but this role was not an easy fit for him.

Young women have been attracted to wealthy, older, sophisticated men - again, since the beginning of time. Hepburn was lovely in the role.

I'd love to see male stars matched with women closer to their own ages. But to complain about it in films that are decades old takes away from their enjoyment.

Jaws is responsible for the summer blockbuster for good reason.

Not too much to say, except since 1975, who doesn't think of it when they're ready to go for a swim?

Steven Spielberg's Jaws is a true classic, with a great cast, including Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss, Lorraine Gary, and Murray Hamilton. And you can't beat the music.

Jaws has terror, blood, humor, and the tremendous power of nature as man fights beast. It's an old theme but a powerful one.

The acting from the principals is terrific.

It's hard to explain the atmosphere - not during the film but after it. It's hard to was so stultifying that driving home after the film, we were speeding, feeling as if someone was chasing us!

No one can create a mood - or a movie - like Spielberg. He took what could have been a B horror movie and turned it into a tremendous A production that still resonates 50 years later.