The Aviator’s Wife (La femme de l’aviateur)
Directed by Eric Rohmer
Written by Eric Rohmer
1981/France
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime rental
When people get married because they think it’s a long-time love affair, they’ll be divorced very soon, because all love affairs end in disappointment. But marriage is a recognition of a spiritual identity. — Joseph Campbell
The first in Eric Rohmer’s six-part “Comedies et Proverbes” is one of his classic contemplations on the vicissitudes of young love.
Anne (Marie Riviere) is a working 25-year old. As the movie begins, her married lover Christian comes over at 7 am to inform her that he is going back to his wife, who is now pregnant. She spends the entire rest of the film in a very bad mood. She is also seeing Francois, a 20-year-old student who adores her. He has even arranged for someone to repair her faulty plumbing. But she just wants him to leave her alone so she can suffer in private.
Francois spotted Christian leaving Anne’s building and Anne refuses to explain what is going on. So when he spots Christian and a blonde in a cafe, he decides to follow them. In the process, he meets pretty, saucy 15-year old Lucie. She rapidly figures out what he is up to and becomes his enthusiastic partner in detection.
While this is not the best movie Rohmer ever made, it is thoroughly enjoyable. The director has such a deft hand at portraying the confusion of youth and the vagaries of attraction and romance. So they are not so much stories about love as they are comedies of manners about how people search for love.
Not a missing theme song but relevant none the less
