A gem. I don't usually like Rohmer's films, but this one is wonderful, even though some may feel the plot is extremely slight. But the texture, the wonderful actors, the capture of the small details of life made this an unforgettable movie.
Plot summary
The aviator Christian visits his ex-mistress Anne seven o'clock in the morning, to tell her that their affair is over, because his wife is pregnant and will soon move to Paris. Anne's new lover, François, happens to see Christian and Anne when they leave her house, and thinks that their affair is still going on. He tries to contact Anne, but she won't talk to him. At a pavement café François sees Christian and an unknown woman, which he assumes is the aviator's wife. As he is in a bad mood and doesn't know what to do, he decides to follow the couple. On his way through a park he bumps into a cute girl, Lucie, who is 15 years old and has taken a day off from school. Lucie soon brings 20-year-old François to explain to her what has happened to him this morning. She is excited by his story and especially the puzzling parts of it. She joins him in pursuing the couple and thinks out various hypotheses about them. When the couple goes into a lawyer's office, Lucie is sure that the unknown woman is the aviator's wife and that they are seeking a divorce. Later, when François visits Anne he learns that the unknown woman is actually not the aviator's wife but his sister. Anne also confirms that her affair with the aviator is over. When François is going to send Lucie a postcard about this, he happens to see Lucie kissing a boy, which makes him dispirited, as this boy happens to be François' friend and work colleague that he sees every day.
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Rohmer's best
a musical chair game for film character development
It's always fun watching Rohmer's heroes and heroins develop their characters in a 90-min of story-telling.
The aviator Christian shows up talking for 5 minutes in the beginning, and then he turns to just a subject that we all audience, including François, have to know him from how Anne will describe him and how Lucie will envision him.
The audience can only see aviator's wife once from a photo Anne posses, but till we see it, including François, we learn all of our assumption made from Lucie's smart guessing will need to be re-assumed otherwise.
The last five minutes of the movie indicates François will get himself to be going after Lucie, for he is made believe Lucie may not seem as straightforward as he felt. His role somehow imitates to Christian now.
So much fun with so minimal resources of moving making. Solute Eric.
The Aviator's Wife
Now I can safely deem I have reached an approximate age to watch Rohmer's canon, mid-30s is a ripe age to broach more cerebral film viewing activities, so my first and random pick is THE AVIATOR'S WIFE, Rohmer's first part of Comedies et Proverbes (6 parts in all) series.
The film is capsulized in one-day's span, Francois (Marlaud),a young student whose night shift makes the relationship with his girlfriend Anne (Rivière) in strain, after witnessing Anne left with her ex-lover Christian (Carrière) from her apartment in the morning, and later a sour altercation with Anne, a jealousy-driven Francois compulsively follows Christian and his blonde companion (Caillot),and by happenstance he meets a 15-year-old schoolgirl Lucie (Meury),the two improvise an amateurish but perky private detective team until they find out Christian goes to visit a lawyer. After Lucie departs, Francois visits a stress-inflicted Anne, it seems they reconcile and Francois figures out who the blonde is. When the night falls, Anne is out for an exhausting date and Francois accidentally finds Lucie kiss another boy, so he sends a postcard to her and put a closure to their stalking adventure, the story ends.
There is no big twist or melodramatic plots in Rohmer's film, he masterfully recounts the dribs and drabs of emotions pestering one's relationship and daily lives, visceral and empathetic, he unerringly captures the quirks and fluctuations of the characters he writes, no larger-than-life frills, everything returns to an authentic basis which reflects its transfixing mojo, for example, the intricate discovery of the blonde's identity is casually schemed, but never condescending or audience-pandering, truth reveals itself in its most trivial form, also in the park, when Lucie intends to take a Polaroid from two tourists, it is lifelikeness never feel redundant in spite of its overlong progress which would be trimmed in most cinematic presentations, but Rohmer is confident to let his audience to savor the subtle interactions among the players and keeps it vibrant.
The sad trivia of the cast is Marlaud would soon die in a tragic camping tent fire accident after completing this film, he was only 22, in the film he interprets a sensitive and diffident boy, who is smitten with Anne, an independent working girl 5 years older than him, their on-and-off rapport is under close scrutiny, and Rivière takes on a more difficult role and dominates the screen especially during her expository declaration of her credo in self-reliance in her tiny apartment. Meury is a delight in the midstream, maybe too quick-witted for a 15-year-old, but her natural self-confidence could easily win audiences over.
The titular wife only exists as a glimpse on a picture, whose back-story would illicit another film feature to expound an existential individual's philosophical quandary about affection and compromise. Sadly, there is no Rohmer in this world anymore.