Love in the Afternoon

Hepburn and Cooper at the Ritz (left) and with Wilder at the Boulogne Studios (right)

      When I recently saw Love in the Afternoon for the first time, I was certain it had been almost entirely filmed at the Ritz, a hotel I know well.  Annie Tresgot, who participated as apprentice “script girl” (I don’t imagine that title is very politically correct today, but it was the term then) set me straight.

                    Suite 14 at the Ritz ... or was it?

      Except for a few shots of the facade and hotel corridor, and of the neighborhood on the Place Vendome, the interiors of the mythical luxury hotel were entirely recreated in a suburban studio by the great art director, Alexander Trauner, who worked on many of Wilder’s films.  I’ve never understood why it would be preferable to spend a fortune recreating, say, Grand Central Station or in this case the Ritz Hotel, when the real thing is just sitting around the corner already finished.  It is not so simple, however, I do understand that.

Three versions of the European film poster

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