La femme de l’aviateur (The Aviator's Wife)

With The Aviator's Wife, Rohmer launches the Comédies et proverbes (Comedy and Proverbs) cycle, shifting the focus from philosophical reflections to the observation of behaviour, chance and misunderstandings. François, a postman, suspects that his girlfriend Anne is back together with her ex, a pilot (Mathieu Carrière), and begins to shadow him. Together with the curious teenager Lucie, he weaves a playful detective fantasy that primarily lays bare their own imaginations. Rohmer thus creates a subtle suspense film without a crime, in which misinterpretation takes centre stage. The Parc des Buttes-Chaumont becomes the setting for an everyday poetry in which a budding relationship develops almost imperceptibly. As is often the case with Rohmer, La femme de l’aviateur is at once light as a feather and profoundly serious. Shot on location on grainy 16 mm film, the film marks Rohmer’s return to the austere style of the Nouvelle Vague.