Daydreams and Fidelity in Paris

Two meandering tales of male desire and moral evasion unfold in broad daylight. In Love in the Afternoon, Éric Rohmer’s final Moral Tale, a middle-class married man toys with temptation while convincing himself of his virtue. In Night and Day, Hong Sang-soo offers a restless portrait of a Korean painter in Paris, caught between women and his justifications. Both films trace the emotional detours of men wrestling with their conscience, ego, and desire. 

Original Title: L’Amour l’après-midi
Director: Éric Rohmer
Runtime: 95 mins
Country: France
Language: French with English Subtitles
Rating: PG

Synopsis

Bourgeois business executive Frédéric is happily married to an adoring wife, and his perfectly ordered life passes by pleasantly enough. However, he cannot help but feel tempted to pursue other women. His desires remain unacted upon until Chloe, a beautiful old acquaintance, shows up at his office.

In this final chapter of Rohmer’s Six Moral Tales series, the filmmaker takes a sober look at the construct of marriage and the moral leaps one takes to circumvent the boundaries of fidelity while seemingly remaining faithful. Love in the Afternoon probes the ambiguities of desire and the moral subjectivity embedded within middle-class values.

Adapted from MUBI.

Footnote:
Rohmer’s Six Moral Tales is his first acclaimed series exploring fragile men faced with moral dilemmas in love, torn between desire and principle, starting from 1963 with The Bakery Girl of Monceau, and ending with Love in the Afternoon in 1972.

For more screenings of Twin Tales: Hong Sang-soo and Éric Rohmer, please click here.

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