Episode 51 of 52: In which Katharine Hepburn gives her blessing to Annette Bening and my inner actressexual weeps with joy.
A man and a woman bump into each other on a transatlantic flight. He’s charmed. She’s unimpressed. They both wear impeccably tailored suits. She banters. He flirts. A freak accident lands them on a Russian cruise ship. Their banter gives way to conversation. Their flirtation leads to longing looks and rose-tinted kisses. They both fall in love. But they’re engaged to other people.
If the opening to Love Affair sounds familiar, that’s because it is. It’s not a Tracy/Hepburn comedy, nor a Bogie/Bacall noir. In fact, it’s a remake of a remake, told first in 1939 (Love Affair starring Irene Dunne and Charles Boyer), then in 1957 (An Affair to Remember starring Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr), and later canonized in Nora Ephron’s 1989 film Sleepless in Seattle. The third version of Love Affair keeps the story intact: Terry McKay (Annette Bening) and Mike Gambril (Warren Beatty) start an affair on a cruise and promise to meet in three months at the top of the Empire State Building.
Surprisingly, the 1994 film is an even more old fashioned than its progenitors. The first two movies hold the whiff of scandal, but in his remake, Warren Beatty set out to make a simple romantic film with his new wife, Annette Bening. He even cast Katharine Hepburn, Hollywood legend, as the wisdom-spouting aunt. And while Kate only has one scene, her influence is felt throughout the film, because this is a film that is all about its stars.
In his review of Love Affair, Roger Ebert wrote:
When Warren Beatty tells Annette Bening, "You know, I've never been faithful to anyone in my whole life," you have the strangest feeling these words might have passed between them on an earlier occasion.
Warren Beatty, formerly the world’s most notorious bachelor, had been married to Annette Bening for two years when Love Affair debuted. This explains their charged dynamic, but also colors their characters’ interactions in the film. Though their courtship was well-publicized (and mocked, and celebrated), Bening and Beatty were intensely private. Audiences could view the film as a sort of voyeuristic peek into the famously happy couple’s life. But more important than their personal lives was how the film played on their star qualities: Beatty's philandering, and Bening's class.
Let’s go back to that opening meet-cute. When Mike (Beatty) drops his wallet, it lands by a pair of brown Oxfords. A hand reaches down. The camera pans up a well-tailored brown pinstripe suit to reveal Terry. She gives Mike his wallet and an uninterested glance.
And the entire time I watched this scene, I couldn’t help thinking of another, similar meet-cute that took place half a century before in Woman of the Year.
As introductions go, the heel-to-head once-over used to be fairly common for female characters, especially love interests. The differences between these two scenes are telling - Kate’s stocking adjustment is more overtly for sex appeal, whereas Bening is partially obscured by dim light and is definitely not being “shown off” in the same sense. Still, the comparison highlights just how similar and different these two stars are. Both are strong women. Both are presented as desirable, despite (because of?) the well-tailored menswear and innate sophistication. And these introductions hew closely to their public personas as well. Annette Bening is the no-muss, no-fuss kind of beautiful. She'll show up in pants and glasses on the red carpet and look like a million bucks. Her beauty comes from maturity - she didn’t hit fame until age 30 - and brains. Sound like anyone we know?
I think it’s important that Beatty cast Katharine Hepburn to play his aunt. Granted, Deborah Kerr had retired a decade previous. But when Bening and Beatty travel over seas and mountains of a deserted island to meet Katharine Hepburn, it feels almost like a pilgrimage to an idol. Kate sits in her house, playing piano, shooing away ducks, and offering bits of sage advice as Annette sits at her side, first awkwardly and then enraptured. It’s the same role Kate has been playing for 10 years, but she’s more important here as a symbol of Old Hollywood than as Mike’s dotty aunt. Through her advice, her hugs, and her gift to Bening, 86-year old Kate is handing off the torch.
We’ve talked extensively for the last few weeks about Katharine Hepburn’s legacy. We’ve focused on the actress individually - her awards, roles, interviews, and books. However, this is her greatest legacy. She blazed a trail for more independent, powerful women to make movies, make headlines, and make changes. It’s a fight we’re still fighting, to be honest. This is the film - her last bigscreen movie, though she’d appear one more time on TV - where we see what sixty years of being independent, unusual, and downright stubborn can do for others. But now, finally, Kate is saying goodbye.
Previous Week: This Can't Be Love (1994) - In which Katharine Hepburn starred in a movie with Jason Bateman, which will make every game of Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon you play significantly easier.
Next Week: One Christmas (1994) - In which we say a fond farewell to Kate.