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The Aviator's Wife [Region 2]

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4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

THE AVIATOR'S WIFE is not a movie about the wife of an aviator nor about a love story in the air. In fact, we'll just admire that lucky woman on a photography during a few seconds in Eric Rohmer's first movie of the "comedies and proverbs" serie. But she really has, in the Rohmer's way of thinking, the main role of the movie. She gets pregnant, forcing her husband, a pilot, to make a choice between her and his 25 years old mistress, Anne, the main character of the movie, played by Marie Rivière who has been present now in 6 Eric Rohmer's movies.

Christian's decision is an emotional shock for Anne who is loved by François, a night-shift employee. The action of THE AVIATOR'S WIFE, if one may call "action" the discussions between characters composing a Rohmer's movie, starts here. And lasts one day. At the end of the day, one character will be emotionally wounded for life. And it won't be the aviator's wife.

If you love psychological movies with dialogs extremely well written and everyday life characters, then THE AVIATOR'S WIFE is definitively the movie for you. If not, unless you're a curious movie lover, skip it.

Winstar Home Video, as always, hasn't cleaned at all the master, so the image quality is below-average but it's not so important after all in an Eric Rohmer's movie.

A DVD that will make you feel smarter.

In this bittersweet tale of disconnections and possibilities perhaps we have the essence of the art of Eric Rohmer. If you have only one Rohmer film to see, perhaps you ought to make it this one because it is so very, very French, so interestingly talkative (one of Rohmer's trademarks) and so very, very Rohmer.

The Aviator's wife, incidentally does not appear except in a photograph, but that is all to the point. Everything is a bit off stage in this intriguing drama: love especially is a bit off stage. And yet how all the participants yearn.

Marie Riviere stars as Anne who is in love with the aviator. We catch her just as she learns that he no longer wants her. He tells her that his wife is pregnant and so he must return to her. Meanwhile, she is being pestered by Francois (Philippe Marlaud) who is in love with her. However he is a little too young and "clinging." Truly she is not interested. It is a disconnection as far as she is concerned.

The heart of the film occurs when Francois is following the aviator and the blond woman. Francois is obsessive and jealous. He follows because...it isn't clear and he really doesn't know why except that this is the man that Anne loves. As it happens while he is following them he runs into a pretty fifteen-year-old (Lucie, played fetchingly by Anne-Laure Meury) who imagines that he is following her. She turns it into a game, and again we have a disconnection. She is fun and cute and full of life, but he cannot really see her because he pines for Anne. Meanwhile Anne of course is pining for the aviator.

Rohmer's intriguing little joke is about the aviator's wife. Who is she and what is she like? We can only imagine. And this is right. The woman imagines what the other woman is like, but never really knows unless she meets her.

Maire Riviere is only passably pretty, but she has gorgeous limbs and beautiful skin and a hypnotic way about her, which Rohmer accentuates in the next to the last scene in her apartment with Francois. We follow the talk between the two, of disconnection and off center possibilities, of friends and lovers with whom things are tantalizingly not exactly right and yet not tragically wrong. As we follow this talk we see that Anne's heart is breaking or has broken--and all the while we see her skin as Francois does. She wants to be touched, but not by him. And then she allows him to touch her, but only in comforting gestures, redirecting his hands away from amorous intent. And then she goes out with a man in whom she really has no interest.

Such is life, one might say. Rohmer certainly thinks so.

One thing I love about Rohmer's films is that you cannot predict where they will go. Another thing is his incredible attention to authentic detail about how people talk and how they feel without cliche and without any compromise with reality--Rohmer's reality of course, which I find is very much like the reality that I have experienced.

See this for Eric Rohmer whose entre into the world of cinema is substantial, original, and wonderfully evocative of what it is like to live in the modern world with an emphasis on personal relationships and love.

Very little actually happens in this movie yet I found it to be worth watching. This movie is my introduction to the films of Eric Rohmer, and I am sure that I will view as many of his movies as I can. Rohmer is a master.

This light yet perceptive film is about misunderstanding and missed opportunities. It is sweetly sad and humorous and knowing about the ways of men and women in love.

It is not about the Aviator, nor his wife. In the opening the Aviator dumps his younger mistress because his wife is pregnant and the mistress in turn spurns another younger man she's been seeing. This young man, Francois, happens to see the Aviator with his "love" and later, by chance, takes the opportunity to follow him. While tailing the Aviator who is with another woman, Francois meets a younger woman who helps him and in turn draws out the reason for his following the couple and ultimately his upset and confusion over the situation.

The humor and the irony in the movie is that both women, the mistress and the younger student, try to tell Francois the truth about women and love...but he will not hear it. Francois is so convinced of his own understanding of things (wrongly), that he cannot see the bright hope in front of him (the student) and the lost cause he is obsessing over (the mistress). Francois listens but doesn't hear.

And in the end, he gets a lesson, but does he learn?

A French movie all the way, for those that like them. 4-1/2 stars.

This was actually purchased for my father who had it on his wish list.

He is an old Air Force guy and wanted it since he believed that it was more about flying.

In reality it's a story about relationships and human nature.

His wife appreciated the movie more than he did so all was not lost.

The lesson here is to read the reviews when possible to help make an informed decision.

Anne wants to prove to herself and the world that she's defective and unlovable by choosing men whom she knows are either unavailable (married pilot) or whom she can easily keep at bay(20 year old Francois). She says she's a "maneater" and poor Francois is so hungry for love that he denies reality to keep his fantasy alive. A nice coming of age movie and according to Enigma, "to learn to live and love - that's what we are here for."

Éric Rohmer (1920) first challenged traditional Hollywood cinema with his French New Wave cycle of films, "Six Moral Tales," which he completed in 1972 before commencing another six-film cycle, "Comedies and Proverbs," each based on a different proverb.

Based on the proverb, "on ne saurait penser à rien" ("it is impossible to think about nothing"), The Aviator's Wife (La femmme de l'aviateur) (1981) is the first in Rohmer's insightful "Comedies & Proverbs" film series. It tells the story of an obsessively-jealous young man, Francois (Phillippe Marlaud), who believes his lover, Anne (Marie Rivière), is cheating on him with her airline-pilot ex, Christian (Mathieu Carrière). Christian, we learn, has visited Anne early one morning only to tell her he is returning to his wife. While wandering the streets of Paris, Francois encounters a 15-year-old girl, Lucie (Anne-Laure Meury), and they decide to follow Christian, who is with a blonde woman. Rich in relationship dialogue, like many of Rohmer's films, the Aviator's Wife illustrates how the course of love never did run smooth, particularly for his young Parisian characters. Hopefully Criterion will remaster Rohmer's "Comedies and Proverbs" series, and then offer it as a boxed collection similar its "Six Moral Tales" boxed set.

G. Merritt

La Femme De L'Aviateur, the French title of this movie, translates literally: "The Woman of the Airman." Woman is not necessarily wife, so the movie may be presumed to be about Anne, the pilot's girlfriend, who figures prominently, and thus we dispose of mis-impressions infecting half the reviews and doubtless countless viewers of this movie.

But assuming the English title appropriate, and maybe it is, who is the aviator's wife? If you watch closely, you may come away wondering if the pilot is even married.

We should also dispel a couple of other notions in the various reviews. It is a French "talkie." I happen to like them. It's not completely accurate to say it is about an obsession with an older woman. There is obvious consideration of the younger one at a certain point. It's certainly inaccurate to say the younger one represents the real possibility if one watches all the way to the end, past the aborted letter drop. And by the way, look at that guy closely. He is not a stranger.

Anne does not agree with Lucie entirely that "women decide." It can't be said that these two women are educating Francois. It can't be said that he loses either of them, actually. Although, everyone who thinks they just must talk things through at the earliest opportunity would do well to see how he makes his life more difficult than it need be with this strategy.

I think the movie really is about Anne, the pilot's girlfriend, whose picture appears on the cover. She is the one who is despondent and ready to give up on relationships because she finds no one's feelings true and faithful. And there is one further intriguing argument for this view.

Eric Rohmer is noted for making cycles of movies... the comedies and proverbs, the four seasons, etc. In each cycle, the movies are not related per se, not like a series. But would it surprise anyone if this plotter of cycles hid a series among his cycles? If he did so blatantly, it would be uncharacteristic of the always enigmatic Rohmer. But what if he simply used the same actress, with a different character name, yet to represent the same character at different stages of life?

Marie Riviere (Anne in this movie) appears to be just such a character. As Delphine in "Summer" does she not begin where Anne leaves off, disenchanted with all relationships? Finally healed by the magical Green Ray, she re-incarnates as Isabel in "Autumn's Tale," as the master matchmaker peddling her happiness to others, even training an apprentiss of sorts. If you can view these three movies and not come to this conclusion, do drop me a note and set me straight.

Ah, but with the prospects ahead of a 15 year old detective who suggests murder, a magical green ray, and a master matchmaker, how can you resist all three?

This is a typical Rohmer film, talky, dealing mostly about relationships between men and women. It was the first Rohmer film I saw, and it's not among his best, but is a very good introduction to his work (I think he has proven a much better director when he has tried to put his idiosyncratic take on historical subjects, such as in Perceval, Triple Agent and The Lady and the Duke). In this film, Philippe Marlaud (a young actor who unfortunately died a few months after this film was released in a freak accident) is jealous that his somewhat older girlfriend (Marie Riviere, a Rohmer regular) has been meeting against her previous flame, the titular aviator. (The aviator's wife, incidentally, does not appear in the film except in a photograph). He has catch the aviator coming out of Riviere's apartment, so he sets himself to discreetly follow him. For that endeavor, he accidentally enlists a very quirky high school student (Anne Laure Meury). The heart of the film occurs when they follow the aviator and a blond woman they believe is his wife. As it would later turn out, things are not what they appear. You can enjoy this movie for its dialogue, and for the performances, but it is also true that there is a certain question of what was Rohmer's point in this movie (which happens in a lot in his movies). Some critics bring up great philosophical questions, but even if this is true, most people won't catch them.

The most intriguing thing about this movie happened at the very end, giving insight into the main male character and piquing some interest... the movie is unfortunately not otherwise intriguing, and I am sorry to have to give it only three stars. Worth seeing if you like philosophical conversations about men and women and relationships, adultery and jealousy and happiness... there isn't a lot of substance otherwise, I'm afraid.