Our first episode of Éric Rohmer’s 1980s at the Trylon kicks off with a newly-created 35mm print of THE AVIATOR’S WIFE!

François thinks his girlfriend Anne is cheating on him (she kind of is… but she’s kind of also not his girlfriend? It’s very French), so he follows the other man, Christian, around Paris to catch him in the act. He crosses paths with Lucie, a student, whose curiosity convinces her to play along with François’s little game. What François and Lucie learn about Christian and Anne isn’t nearly as interesting as what they learn about each other as, conversation by conversation, they carve out images of one another as complex and unpredictable as the magically charming locales in which they have them.

In our discussion of this humorous, dramatic, gut-wrenching paean to young love, naïveté, and Protagonist Syndrome, we discuss how the methodical movement of characters through the city and through the day helps build them in the way your own environment shapes you – externalities creating interiority.

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Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Outro music: “Paris m'a séduit” performed by Arielle Dombasle with Jean-Louis Valéro from the THE AVIATOR’S WIFE soundtrack.

Resources

Éric Rohmer’s 1980s at the Trylon https://www.trylon.org/films/category/eric-rohmers-1980s/

“In the Moment: Marie Rivière in The Aviator’s Wife” by Matías Piñeiro for Film Comment https://www.filmcomment.com/article/in-the-moment-marie-riviere-in-the-aviators-wife/

“The Aviator’s Wife” review by Janet Maslin for The New York Times (Oct. 7, 1981) https://www.nytimes.com/1981/10/07/movies/avaitor-s-wife-of-rohmer.html

0:00 - Episode 148: THE AVIATOR’S WIFE (1981)

5:00 - The episode actually starts

6:07 - The Patented Aaron Grossman Summary and thoughts on Rohmer from Trylon film programmer John Moret

9:32 - Thoughts on the print, paris in the 80s, & ‘anthropological’ films

15:17 - Transit as development

17:30 - Movement and pacing in a film all about dialogue

21:15 - The diner scene & slice of life vibes

25:10 - Comparisons to Wong Kar-wai, Richard Linklater, & more

30:29 - Naïveté, young love, and stages of maturity

35:25 - François and main character syndrome

43:35 - The invisible coercive forces that guide these dialogues

48:55 - How much gravity François gives his relationships

53:35 - The ending

58:37 - Final thoughts