Love in the Afternoon

The last of Rohmer's Six Moral Tales sees its hero married - in contrast to the protagonists of the earlier films, who were merely contemplating marriage - and resisting the temptation of an affair, almost out of perversity. Equally, the film is a homage to the late afternoon - seen by Rohmer as a sunny parallel to 3am and the dark night of the soul - the time Bernard Verley eccentrically chooses as his regular lunch time. A formal, elegant examination of someone puzzled by marital fidelity, Love in the Afternoon is a wonderfully cool and lucid exposition of the twists and turns of its hero's thoughts.