Metrograph

The inaugural film of Rohmer’s “Comedies and Proverbs” cycle, The Aviator’s Wife is a farce of romantic overanalysis and all-consuming jealousy that finds the writer-director exploring the possibilities of handheld camerawork to spin a yarn that reflects his film’s opening epigraph: “It is impossible to think of nothing.” A young man sees his girlfriend’s ex leaving her apartment one early morning, and his imagination is off to the races, as stars Philippe Marlaud and Marie Rivière introduce a younger, less articulate breed of Rohmer character (both verbally and emotionally) than the sort featured in his “Moral Tales.” The film that began the long working relationship between Rohmer and Stephen, here employed as an assistant to head editor Cécile Decugis, and also seen making a brief cameo in the Parc des Buttes Chaumont. A Metrograph Pictures release.

Q&A with editor Mary Stephen moderated by filmmaker and scholar Su Friedrich on Sunday, October 5th