Love Affair

A film that begins on a ship. Michel is a French painter. He is engaged to a rich woman and has not worked for years. Terry is an American singer. She is engaged to a rich man. The two meet on a ship going from Europe to New York. Michel is well known. Everyone on board knows him and the gossip travels fast. From there the film is a story of approach. The deck, the lounge, the dining table and evasive conversation. The ship stops at Madeira. Michel visits his grandmother, who lives on the island, and takes Terry. That section is the centre. The old woman says little and the two of them understand something there. The ship reaches New York. They make an agreement. They will meet in six months. The place is set: the top of a tower. From there the film is a story of preparation. Both break off their engagements and try to stand on their own. Michel goes back to painting and struggles to sell. Terry sings in nightclubs. The day comes. Walking toward the building, Terry is hit by a car. Michel waits at the top. Nobody comes. What the narrative is interested in is not love but explanation: its idea is that she refuses to tell him what happened and that he blames her for abandoning him. Terry does not want it known. The reason is pride. The last scene takes place in a flat and is resolved not by a conversation but by a painting. The narrative gives that information very late and takes its effect from there. Leo McCarey remade the same story himself fourteen years later and that version is better known; this is the first. Irene Dunne and Charles Boyer are together in it. The film received six Oscar nominations. Irene Dunne, Charles Boyer, Maria Ouspenskaya and Lee Bowman are in the cast. Who it is for: anyone who likes classic Hollywood romance and 1930s cinema. Who it is not for: anyone looking for pace; the first half is almost entirely on the ship and the tempo is slow.