Billy Wilder
Arianna (Love in the afternoon)

Arianna is a film from 1957 set in Paris and directed by Billy Wilder.

Billy Wilder is a European director who became a naturalized American citizen.

He belongs to that group of European directors who emigrated to America, like Ernest Lubitsch, with whom he shares the distinction of being a master of American romantic comedy.

Arianna, featuring Gary Cooper and Audrey Hepburn, is one of his many successes.

Arianna is the daughter of a private investigator specialized in adultery cases.

The investigator has an important case at hand. His client, who pretends to travel to London to catch his wife, actually stays in Paris. He believes his wife is unfaithful, and indeed she is. She is cheating with Frank Flannagan (Gary Cooper), a multi-billionaire American and unrepentant heartbreaker. Flannagan is always traveling around the world for business and has a lover in every city. In Paris, he has this man's wife.

The investigator, in his home-office that he shares with his daughter, hands over the evidence of the infidelity to the client, who wants to kill Flannagan. He plans to go directly to the place where the adultery has been and still is happening, catching them in the act as soon as the gypsy band finishes playing Fascination.

Arianna, however, is eavesdropping, has heard everything, and is determined to thwart the murder.

This is the beginning of the film.

What struck me about this film, beyond the performances of the two leads—more her than him, in my opinion—is the perfection of the writing.

The dialogues, for instance: there's rhythm, wit, elegance, humor.

The inventions, like the accompanying elements such as the gypsy band playing in the billionaire's suite, the barking little dog, the cello.

They don't make films like these anymore; there's no more style, creativity, lightness, or rather grace.

There's no more courtesy, respect.

Forgive me this brief lecture, but that's exactly how things are.

Consider also that, for the time, these films were particularly daring, bold, straightforward, in a word: modern.

And it is precisely this modernity that has allowed a nearly 60-year-old brilliant romantic comedy to still have a spirited attitude, a brisk pace, and to not have succumbed to the passage of time in the slightest.

In fact, considering that today we're all a bit anesthetized, I'd say watching such a film is a breath of fresh air, a light and pleasant electrical shock to the circuits of our brains.

The perfection of writing, as we were saying.

And yes, because at a certain point, the story that seemed unable to continue takes a turn. A chance encounter triggers what will be the twist leading to the finale.

A perfect circle.

A master ...as we were saying.

Masterful.