Starring Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr, AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER is ranked #5 on AFI’s 100 YEARS…100 PASSIONS list of the greatest love stories of all time.
January 1, 2021
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AFI Movie Club: AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER
Watch Cameron Crowe talk about the classic film AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER.
MOVIE TRIVIA
DID YOU KNOW? AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER is a remake of the 1939 RKO picture LOVE AFFAIR, starring Irene Dunne and Charles Boyer. Director Leo McCarey helmed both productions and used the same script that he co-wrote with Delmer Daves and Donald Ogden Stewart.
DID YOU KNOW? AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER omitted Donald Ogden Stewart’s onscreen writing credits because he was blacklisted by the U.S. House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) as an alleged Communist at the time. Stewart also contributed to the 1939 version, LOVE AFFAIR, for which he received an onscreen credit.
DID YOU KNOW? AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER – a remake itself – was remade again in 1994 as LOVE AFFAIR, starring Warren Beatty and Annette Bening. This second remake featured Katharine Hepburn’s final onscreen appearance before her death in 2003.
DID YOU KNOW? Portions of AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER appeared in the 1993 film SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE, as romantic inspiration for the Meg Ryan’s character Annie.
DID YOU KNOW? AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER was honored with four Oscar® nominations for Music (Song), Music (Scoring), Cinematography and Costume Design, marking costume designer Charles LeMaire’s fourteenth of 16 Oscar® nominations over the short span of only nine years which included multiple nominations per year. LeMaire won Oscars® for ALL ABOUT EVE (1950), THE ROBE (1953), and LOVE IS A MANY-SPLENDORED THING (1955).
Learn more at the AFI Catalog.
How to Watch AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER
CONVERSATION STARTERS
The movie doesn’t end at the credits: Discussion Questions
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- In AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER, Terry and Nickie meet on a steamship in transit from France to New York, both betrothed to other people. Though the couple at first appear to be opposites, they naturally attract. What characteristics do they share, and how do these aspects of their personalities help the pair fall in love?
- Describe the sequence in which Nickie and Terry meet Nickie’s grandmother. How do these scenes transform the characters and what causes them to see each other in a new light?
- AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER takes place long before cell phones and emails, making it nearly impossible for Terry and Nickie to communicate during their six-month separation. Imagine what it was like to live in a time in which miscommunications such as those represented in the movie were possible. Does it seem believable to you that the couple could have hinged their entire future on a single meeting?
- Conjuring fantasies of marrying into money and arranged marriages, AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER evokes a trope that was common in the classic era of Hollywood filmmaking. Within the movie, the news story of Nickie marrying an heiress captures international attention. Why do you think these themes were so popular?
- AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER is a nearly scene-by-scene remake of the 1939 classic LOVE AFFAIR. Why do you think the filmmakers wished to reboot the story after nearly twenty years? What meanings may have changed from a world in which WWII was dawning to post-war America?
- How would you rate AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER?
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