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 While for Americans, 5 to 7 is the typical time when bars
offer discounted drinks and food, the French have a decidedly
different take on happy hour.
In French, "cinq a sept," or 5 to 7, refers to the time
of day that Frenchmen traditionally see their mistresses before
heading home to dinner with their families.
Brian is the aspiring, young writer who discovers the cultural
nuance and much more when he embarks on a French-style love
affair with an older women in "5 to 7," the feature directorial
debut by writer Victor Levin, who served as a co-executive
producer of "Mad Men," the Emmy-winning drama on the AMC
network.
Levin, a four-time Emmy nominee who has been writing for film
and television since 1990, was a 27-year-old in Paris when he
observed a marriage conducted under the 5 to 7 rules. The
experience gave him the inspiration and the title for the film.
"It is the kind of thing that doesn't leave you when you see it
at close range," Levin explained after the film's debut at the
Tribeca festival that runs through April 27.
RULES OF THE AFFAIR
Anton Yelchin, 25, who starred in 2009's "Star Trek" and 2013's
"Star Trek Into Darkness," plays Brian, who falls for a
beautiful, sophisticated, older French woman after meeting her
outside the St. Regis Hotel in Manhattan.
Berenice Marlohe, best known for her role as Severin opposite
Daniel Craig in the 2012 James Bond film "Skyfall," is the
lover, Arielle, a mother of two and wife of a French diplomat.
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 A woman who loves her children and her husband, she accepts
his affair as she begins her own. When she suggests to Brian
that they can meet from 5 to 7, he misunderstands her meaning in
the first of many cultural and traditional clashes as they
embark on their unlikely love affair.
French-born actor Lambert Wilson ("Of Gods and Men" and "Catwoman")
plays Arielle's husband, Valery. A worldly diplomat, Valery
welcomes a very confused Brian to his home and introduces him to
his young children and his own mistress, a book editor played by
actress Olivia Thirlby ("Juno" and "Dredd").
Frank Langella, a best actor Oscar nominee in 2009 for
"Frost/Nixon," is Brian's very traditional father, who would prefer
that his son give up writing and go to law school and who struggles
to accept and understand his son's love affair.
As Brian's mother, six-time Academy Award nominee Glenn Close
("Albert Nobbs," "Dangerous Liaisons" and "Fatal Attraction") is
more understanding and accepting of the liaison.
Brian falls into a comfortable pattern with regular 5 to 7 meetings
at the St. Regis Hotel, and even babysits for Arielle's children,
who refer to him as their mother's boyfriend — until he breaks the
rules and proposes to her.
Shot in New York, Levin uses witty dialogue to explore the couple's
differences as they fall more deeply in love and realize it is more
than a "5 to 7" affair.
(Editing by Leslie Adler)
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