A Man and a Woman

Paris-based race car driver Jean-Louis Duroc (played by Jean-Louis Trintignant, photo, left) and movie script supervisor Anne Gauthier (played by Anouk Aimee, photo, right), both widowed, meet when they drop off their respective children, Antoine and Françoise, at a Deauville boarding school after their regular family outings. Despite being attracted to each other, they are guarded, speaking as if their respective spouse were still alive. Initially, they spend time together in their weekend outings with their children. As they get to know each other, as their attraction grows, and as their true marital status comes to light, they each make calculated moves to advance their relationship, however slowly and cautiously each still is in this venture. However, each must overcome some emotional baggage with which each is burdened, most specifically around their respective former spouse.

Rico says that A Man and a Woman was one of his favorite films as a young man (he saw it at a film Festival at Foothill College in Los Altos Hills, California, in 1967, right after it came out, with Holly Lyman, the daughter of the then-president of Stanford, as Rico recalls).

The fact that Rico's now-dead wife looked a lot like Anouk Aimee was probably just a coincidence...

This movie came to mind because Rico and his fiancé went to dinner at A La Maison, on a night when famous chef Georges Perrier was present, along with Jac & Co., a husband & wife team, playing accordion and singing in French, including the theme from A Man and a Woman: