Rendez-vous avec le destin

The 1932 "Love Affair" is one of the most beautiful, charming and brokenhearted love stories of the cinema industry. Irene Dunne and Charles Boyer have the perfect chemistry and it is impossible not fall in love for her.

The 1957 "An Affair to Remember" is a remake frame by frame of the original movie and also more famous. Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr also have perfect chemistry and had been my favorite romance after "Casablanca" until the day I saw the 1932 "Love Affair".

I was curious to see the 1994 version of "Love Affair" and I found it a weak remake maybe to satisfy the ego of Warren Beatty. The introduction is awful with annoying music score and edition. Mike Gambril is a detestable character and I do not see any reason for Terry falling in love with him. It is only good to see Ms. Katharine Hepburn in her last feature. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "Segredos do Coração" ("Secrets of the Heart")

If anyone thinks that we've seen the last remake of Love Affair, think again. The Indian cinema has done a version of it a few years after this film came out. This story has a timeless appeal that Warren Beatty certainly recognized.

Anyone who has seen the original Love Affair and the remake An Affair To Remember will know the plot of this film exactly. Warren Beatty and Annette Bening fill the shoes of previous lovers Charles Boyer and Irene Dunne and Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr. With very few deviations except those to update the story this film has the same plot.

One of those deviations has our star crossed lovers Warren Beatty and Annette Bening meeting on a transoceanic flight to Sydney, Australia which is certainly a lot of time to get acquainted. They get even better acquainted when they are forced to land on a Pacific island where Beatty's grandmother Katharine Hepburn has a nice tropical place. The kind of setting where romance has to bloom.

This was Katharine Hepburn's last big screen appearance, she did one more television film and then her Parkinson's Disease and other ailments that beset people of the age she lived to forced her retirement. I'll bet she never thought she would in 1939 wind up in a remake of a film doing a part Maria Ouspenskaya created. She does it grand style though and only Kate can make an old Anglo-Saxon expletive sound elegant.

That Warren Beatty got nominated for a Razzie award for remaking Love Affair is a disgrace. This is old fashioned romantic entertainment, the kind that old Hollywood used to do. I think Beatty and everyone connected with this Love Affair should be proud.

I notice that Leo McCarey who wrote and directed Love Affair and An Affair To Remember is prominently listed on the screen credits. He'd be proud of this remake himself, I'm sure.

I didn't remember this film being so well made when I first viewed it back in 1994. I think it's aged well 30 years later. Some of that is due to a wonderful cast of actors, (some no longer with us); Many welcomed faces: Garry Shandling, Brenda Vaccaro, Paul Mazursky, Pierce Brosnan, Harold Ramis.

Also the cinematography is much better than I remembered; Katharine Hepburn's brief but key performance is excellent. Young Annette Bening's beauty and grace is matched with her engaging performance.

Warren Beatty is good, but I think he's too old for this role, sad to say. The Warren Beatty of Heaven Can Wait would have been more age appropriate for this character. He doesn't ruin the film--he just doesn't enhance it.

Do I believe this love story? Well yes, 30 years later: it's Bening and Beatty.

Without her this movie would be maybe something to watch on a rainy Saturday afternoon when there's not much on cable. But K Hepburn takes this film from "ok" to "something worth spending spending time watching." Even at her age the strength of her character and acting ability brought the few sparks there were into this film. But I've always considered Warren & Annette a perfect match...bland...bland...and more bland. Do they have a personality?? I truly don't understand how they got to where they are today, but I could say the very same thing about some of our re-electeds. If you want to watch a much better version of the story with an entirely different sphere of acting check out the 1957 version "An Affair to Remember" with Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr. Some scenes are a little outdated, but the acting and chemistry between these two make it timeless. They've made their characters seem so real, they almost jump out of the screen. Then it all comes to a head in this heartbreakingly emotional ending, a story of selfless love, I cry every time. Annette & Warren simply don't have the acting ability or charisma to give these characters that certain kind of trueness in which you would feel any great emotional investment. They strike me as very into themselves sort of selfish people anyway, could they truly characterize selflessness?

I was totally taken aback by this movie. I had no idea it was a remake of An Affair To Remember. Somewhere through what I thought was a trite flick (which I suggested we stop watching on several occasions) I saw the 'parallel'.

Then the end came - the famous scene where the hero sees the heroine's painting... It knocked me out.

This is a remake that speaks to us. Us of today. I've since watched this movie several times a day for a week or more. Can I recommend it? Yes - if you don't know what's going to happen. It's astounding in its effect. Take this review or leave it!