This was a great movie, but I am really uncomfortable with the age difference between the main actors.
Cooper was almost 60 years old while she was just past its 20s.
It was normal at the time, maybe, as a lot of other movies portray this kind of relations. In "Funny Face", Fred Astaire was even older...
It was normal, but still I am a bit disgusted.
'What has been affirmed without proof can also be denied without proof.' (Euclid)
Ariane was above the age of consent. Modern movies are much worse in showing adult men messing around with children/teenagers (American Beauty, anyone? How about Woody Allen's Manhattan?). Audrey wasn't a child. If you're disgusted, all right. No problem. Don't watch.
"Who's drivin' the car, Ben?" Lucas Buck
Cooper was almost 60 years old while she was just past its 20s.
They sure kept Coop in the dark in a lot of scenes too, so you wouldn't notice how old he actually was. Only a few short years later he was dead from cancer. If you look closely his skin was a smoker's skin, not healthy. Compare to how he looked when he first started in pictures in the silent era, early talkie era. Night and day. He was GORGEOUS back then.
Bogie was pretty old for Audrey's type too in Sabrina, but some girls like older men, who are father figures, who can take care of them (until the roles are reversed and the older man needs caring for).
Perception is more important then reality in Hollywood, I love Audrey. maybe it was the perception the writers,directors,or whoever wanted to portray, she does look like a 22 year old. sorry about that,and he looks like 65 years old. hey,I am not sorry about my opinions, I don;t have to make excueses to you? Why? It is what it is.Thats the spin these Studio's put on these kind of movies. But In all fairness,Gary Copper looks way over the hill ,to be courting Audrey Hepren. It"looks" inappropriate, If you don't like my "opinion" I guess thats too bad.
shareshe was 20+ how exactly is that pedophilia? When there's no more room in hell, The dead will walk the earth...
Pedophilia?!! Good Lord! Let me guess, you're American, right?
shareWould you appreciate me assuming that every dumb post by a European is representative of your 'people' ? Ever think that the OP might be a child (meaning still confused about 'adult' relations - not the age question here) and has asked the question innocently ? Maybe I should assume you're an obnoxious European by your response ? Do you really think all Americans are of one mind set ? I've yet to meet a 'typical' American. All races,shapes, sizes, opinions...
shareThat was my reaction as well, but it seems s/he is Italian.
And I think s/he means "ephebophilia".
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Rome. By all means, Rome.
Good Lord,Let me guess ,your a low life scumbag who should jump off a Bridge. Right!
shareAt the time Audrey made this film she was, after three (known) prior lovers, happily married to Mel Ferrer and trying to get pregnant. Years after this movie was made, Audrey said she would rather have had Cooper as the father and Chevalier as the lover.
shareFor me is was simply that he looked gross chasing after her! Gary Cooper looked every bit of 70 in the film which is 10 yrs past his actual age at the time! Good lord the movie was awful. Please tell me what made it a comedy?? I didn't find one thing funny in this movie!
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I considered it very much of a comedy. The gypsy quartet was hilarious. Maurice Chevalier's detective character definitely should have produced smiles, and Audrey herself definitely should have anyone smiling throughout.
Life, every now and then, behaves as though it had seen too many bad movies
The charge of pedophilia is a bit excessive, I think, but Cooper did look older than his years. Would this strenuous an objection still stand if Cooper appeared younger?
shareIf Cooper were younger appearing, I doubt very much that there would be such a strenuous objection. Older men with younger stars was quite common at the time.
Life, every now and then, behaves as though it had seen too many bad movies
MY answer would be No. I would not have had an objection if Cooper was like 10 years younger. You know who wold have been perfect for this role. William Holden. He could have pulled this off, because I saw him in another movie in 1959 .I Don;t remember the name.but he would have made a perfect playboy match for Audrey Hepburn
shareHe looked the part of an old degenerate low life gezzer. groping young girls. It is digusting then and now. In the 1950's I guess this was considered a cute comedy. I don;t see anything like that. Its like a child molesters movie. What degenerate what want to do with young teenagers.
shareI agree . The stupid degenerate Producers are the ones responsible for this fiasco. It looks inappropriate .An old gezzer groping a young girl. It made me physially sick. The last scene of him pulling her into the train. and groping her. It is disgusting. It looks like what these child molesters think and act out. As a former NYPD Detective I take offense to these kind of movies. It maybe encourges these child molesters. Can you imagine an old man. Gary Cooper looks older then they try to portray him . He looks like 65 years. old molesting a young girl of 19-20 years old. Thats what Audrey Hepburn looks like in this movie.Why would a young beautiful girl be interested in a gezzer like Gary Copper. Silly story. It didn;t work for me then or now.
shareAnd to fall in love with a 19 year old is pedophilia? You'd better look up the definition.
Such a charming lovely and romantic movie - the end is perhaps the best end in all of movies.
Sublime!
Yes, I do believe Gary Cooper looked like an old geezer molesting a young girl on the train.It makes me nauseous watching that stupid movie.The intent by the directors,producers was probably to portray Gary Cooper like a Playboy.But it just didn't work.He looks over the hill.I heard he was ill at the time they were shooting. He was never a playboy type.All his movies he never played those types of roles. It just doesn't work. I don't care how you want to spin this. He was way too old for chasing really young girls. I don't buy it .Neither do most of the viewing public.
Cooper looked like he was close to 70 and Hepburn looked like she was 16. The whole vibe was extremely creepy and weird and sexist. It was like the grandpa in Chainsaw Massacre trying to get up the strength to hit the girl with the hammer.
shareI find the comments bizarre. Yes, Cooper looks much older - no, it doesn't seem strange at all. She's a sheltered girl - without a mother, who dreams and longs for romance with a very worldly figure - the opposite of her pedestrian friend who presumably wants to be her boyfriend.
She lives in a kind of genteel lower middle class existence with her father - deeply lonely - fantasizing constantly - and she wants glamor and danger and wealth and is excited by the possibility of a wealthy cosmopolitan life involving much travel. She wants a man who's vastly experienced in contrast to her own naivete, she wants someone whom she sees as having the wisdom conferred by his age. This all makes perfect sense.
Meanwhile, the film is made so touching by the fact that the way Cooper looks - as well as his age - mean that he's probably going to be winding down his whirlwind of romantic activity. He's ready finally to settle down - and once he's fallen for her, he's desperately afraid he won't find another to whom he can really imagine being married. And the subliminal message throughout is he doens't have THAT much time left to settle down, raise a family. It confers a great vulnerability that we would never have with Cary Grant.
Each is quite vulnerable and when they find each other, it's terribly deeply romantic.
Gary Cooper molesting young girls on the train looks creepy and unnatural to younger people. Old people believe some *beep* that its romantic. What a terrible injustice Hollywood does with this phony ,contrived *beep* There is no where in the world. Where a 65 year old man would be pursuing a young girl for any reason. If she was a prostitute that would explain the attraction. The money is always an attraction for young prostitutes and old Gezzers. Other then that ,there is no way thats happening. only if the stupid dirty minds of the Producers and Director.tried to pull this *beep* off that he is a "PlayBoy" Maybe a Playboy from the 1920's, this is total crap.
share"There is nowhere in the world where a 65 year old man would be pursuing a young [27] year old girl for any reason. If she was a prostitute, that would explain the attraction".
If the desire for a 27 year old is wholly mysterious and unknown to you - I must ask - are you from earth?
Really? Well, molestation requires either a withholding of consent or someone so young that the law does not regard the person as having reached the age of consent - just far too immature to have even a glimpse of understanding about what physical affection could signify.
So either you believe that Ariane looked like she detested Flanagan and was doing all in her power to withstand his affection
or you believe that she looked under 15 years old.
Which is it? it seems to me neither - Ariane is played by an actress who was 28 years old when this film was releated - so let's assume 27 when it was made. What is there about a 27 year old woman that you fail to see as mature and developed?
"Pedophilia" of course is far stronger - it is the sexual attraction to those before they are pubescent. So given the subject heading you've chosen, how much under 12 does Audrey Hepburn's character look in this film to you?
Does it disgust you that anyone would look on her with lust? Do you turn the film off when you saw the fellow conservatory student seeming attracted to a pre-pubescent Ariane? At what age should an actress be chosen who would not beem to you pre-pubescent? if not 27, then 32? 47? And until that age, any actor's expression of interest is repulsive?
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Well, your wishes ignored - as they should always be - I'm still waiting for you to describe why those who find women of 27 years old attractive - are defective! I can honestly tell you, pal, I'd never heard that "point of view" before.
Don't you have some respect for continuation of the species?
Do tell us: at what age in her 30s may one consider a woman available for love?
your comment:
"There is no where in the world. Where a 65 year old man would be pursuing a young girl for any reason. If she was a prostitute that would explain the attraction. The money is always an attraction for young prostitutes and old Gezzers. Other then that ,there is no way thats happening. only if the stupid dirty minds of the Producers and Director.tried to pull this *beep* off that he is a "PlayBoy" Maybe a Playboy from the 1920's, this is total crap".
Your comment provoked many interesting questions.
A) Why are prostitutes a greater attraction for 65 year old men to pursue than other women?
B) You write that there is "nowhere in the world that a 65 year old man would be pursuing a young girl [27 year old woman] for any reason". (Hepburn was 28 when the film was released - and 27 when it was created). I'm curious whether this is due to the simple absence of all 65 year old men (war? early onsets of disease?). They can't be pursuing them because there ARE no 65 year old men to make the pursuit? But no, this can't be the explanation for your comment because you write only that such men do not pursue the 27 (28) year old women for any reason. So you DO presume the existence of 65 year old men!
C) So do these 65 year old men not pursue 27 year old women because these women are peculiarly unattractive or unavailable? But you don't EXCLUDE the 27 year old prostitute - so again, back to Question A - what makes prostitutes so desirable that 65 year old men would pursue them but not other 27 year old women?
D) You wrote that "money is always an attraction for young prostitutes and old geezers". Yes, indeed - but I think money's an attraction for the young at heart in all of us, don't you think? (You should see my nephew and niece when offered a little money to do their chores! Do you have the same experience?). Indeed, it's almost a tautology - if money were NOT an attraction for the prostitute - geez, what would be?
E) Not sure what you mean by playboys of the 1920s. Do you mean that they were attracted to women as young as 27 - whereas playboys of later eras were not? But if so, WHY not? What was so unique about playboys of the 20s that caused them not to be attracted to women of that age - whereas earlier and later generations of playboys were? I've never seen a study of this.
F) if E is correct, what are the ages of the women to whom playboys of earlier and later eras WERE attracted? I'm curious. I've no idea. Do you think an alteration in the age of attraction for playboys from the 1920s - was equally true for playboys of later decades? E.g., were playboys of the 1930s initially attracted to women of say, 35 or over - but this changed to 45 or over, 55 or over, 65 or over - as the decades passed?
G) Do you believe it's possible that the playboys of the 1920s might be attracted to women of the same age as the decades pass along? I.e., they WERE attracted to 27 year old women when they were in their 20s - but not when they were younger - or older? But if so, why so? What is it about playboys that so shifts the age of the women to whom they're attracted? In other words, why would women of 27 be attractive to men of a certain age - but not to men of other ages - playboys or not?
It's your comment that women in their mid to late 20s are not only WRONG, indeed sinful for men - but that this simply NEVER happens - they just don't have it in them to attract older men to pursue them - that is sad really.
When the 27 year old women want the 65 year old men - do they attempt to seem far older then? Because they recognize the impossibility that a man of that later age would be attracted to them?
Good discussion. Let's get deeper into this.
Pedophilia ?? She was 28, Cooper was 56. She looked younger than her actual age, but then so did he and he was still very handsome. Their characters were both depicted as adults, attracted by each other. I think it's a very sweet film and certainly not creepy !
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