Eric Rohmer's return to the subtle delineation of relationships between men and women is evident in The Aviator's Wife. This film begins a new series for the director, which he calls "Comedies and Proverbs." They are designed as meditations upon the everyday rituals and concerns of lovers.
The three characters here mistreat each other and, in the process, miss the magic potential of love. Francois (Philippe Maralaud), a 20-year-old law student, thinks his girlfriend Anne (Marie Riviere) has gone back to her old lover, an aviator. He follows the student and meets Lucie (Anne-Laure Meury), a buoyant 15-year-old who makes a pass at him. The Aviator's Wife is a delightful study of self-absorbed individuals enslaved to their own misreadings of events. Anne-Laure Meury gives fresh definition to the term coquette, and her character enables Rohmer to demonstrate his comic sense.