How to Lose a Wife and Find a Lover (1978) Plot Summary Explained

Both Alberto and Eleonora are separately advised by their psychoanalysts to retreat to the mountains for rest after their respective crises. Neither knows the other is going to the same tiny remote inn, which is where their paths cross. The coincidence is intentional, it sets up the romantic misunderstanding that drives the comedy.

Foreshadowing: The psychoanalysts giving them the same advice directly sets up their chance meeting at the isolated inn.

• mountain retreat
• psychoanalyst
• coincidence
• inn
• therapy

Alberto crashed into Eleonora's car months earlier, but when they meet at the inn, he fails to recognize her. The timeline explains this, the car accident happened earlier, and by the time they encounter each other at the remote inn, enough time has passed that he doesn't make the connection. The film uses this lack of recognition to build comedic tension.

Foreshadowing: The earlier car crash establishes Eleonora as a character Alberto has already encountered but failed to identify.

• car crash
• recognition
• mistaken identity
• Eleonora

After Eleonora storms off to ski, Alberto follows her and they crash into a haystack in the mountains. The film implies they consummate their attraction, the sounds and movements suggest intimacy, though it's left somewhat suggestive rather than explicit. This encounter leads to their discovery by a mountain rescue team and their emergency marriage.

Foreshadowing: The escalating tension from the flooded room and Alberto's earlier attempts to explain himself builds to this romantic payoff.

• haystack
• romance
• consummation
• mountain rescue
• marriage

The mountain rescue team discovers them in the haystack, and a volunteer chaplain performs an emergency marriage in articulo mortis (at the point of death), apparently believing they were dying. The marriage is conducted while they are unconscious or believed to be near death, making it a rushed, improvised ceremony rather than a intentional one.

Foreshadowing: The chaos of the rescue and the chaplain's presence sets up this unusual marriage circumstance.

• emergency marriage
• chaplain
• mountain rescue
• articulo mortis

After they both recover from their mountain accident, Eleonora leaves the inn without leaving any address or telephone number. Her disappearance creates the central tension in the film's final act, she slips away from their improvised marriage, leaving Alberto to wonder about her whereabouts and what their future holds.

Foreshadowing: Eleonora's earlier emotional instability and her decision to retreat alone foreshadows her tendency to flee from situations.

• Eleonora disappearance
• missing
• leaving
• marriage

Marisa is Eleonora's young friend who arrived at the inn looking for a room but had to share Eleonora's bed. Earlier, Eleonora had given Marisa a lift to the advertising offices for a model casting. At the film's climax, Alberto finally sees Marisa at the casting and recognizes her face, bringing the story full circle.

Foreshadowing: Marisa's earlier appearance at the inn and her connection to Eleonora set up this moment of recognition.

• Marisa
• model casting
• recognition
• advertising
• Eleonora friend

The film doesn't follow up on Alberto's wife and the plumber after the initial discovery scene. Once Alberto decides to seek help from a psychoanalyst and retreat to the mountains, the fate of his marriage and his wife's affair partner is left unresolved. The focus shifts to his new romantic entanglement with Eleonora.

Foreshadowing: The shocking discovery of his wife's infidelity is the catalyst that launches Alberto into his suicidal mood and subsequent mountain retreat.

• wife
• plumber
• affair
• betrayal
• marriage ending

A bath overflows and floods Alberto's room, forcing him to seek refuge. Intoxicated and soaked, he climbs into Eleonora's bed. When she wakes up and finds him there, she is furious and storms out to ski, which leads to the haystack encounter. The flooded room is a comedic catalyst that accelerates their romantic confrontation.

Foreshadowing: The escalating mishaps with beds and intoxication throughout the film build to this moment of forced proximity.

• flood
• bath
• bed mix-up
• intoxicated
• Eleonora