Love in the Afternoon

Love in the Afternoon (L'Amour l'après-midi, 1972) is a French drama you can watch online on iFILM, directed by Éric Rohmer as the sixth and final film in his Moral Tales series. Frédéric has everything a contented Parisian is supposed to want: a partnership in a small office, a loving wife named Hélène, a second child on the way.

And yet. In the dead hours between lunch and evening, his mind drifts to other women. He does nothing about it — until Chloé (Zouzou), an old friend's former girlfriend, starts dropping by his office. Their afternoon meetings stay friendly, for a while. Then Chloé makes clear that friendship isn't what she has in mind, and Frédéric has to decide what kind of man he actually is.

Rohmer shoots it the way he shoots everything: long conversations, natural light, no dramatic devices. The tension is entirely interior. What makes this one land harder than the other Moral Tales is that Frédéric is genuinely happy at home — the temptation isn't escape from unhappiness, it's something murkier and harder to argue with. Stream Love in the Afternoon online on iFILM.