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Editorial Comments
Amazon.com: French director Eric Rohmer, former critic and Cahiers du Cinema editor, created a very special romantic film series around the difficult choices men make when they fall in love with two women called "Six Moral Tales." My Night at Maud's was the third entry, and it was so well received in 1969 that it gave Rohmer international prominence. To this day, it remains Rohmer's masterpiece, a brilliantly insightful and sublime meditation on adult indiscretions. Jean-Louis Trintignant plays a chaste engineer who thinks he's met his soul mate in church (Marie-Christine Barrault), yet winds up accidentally spending the night with the seductive Maud (Francoise Fabian), who is more his intellectual equal. Filmed in stark black and white by Nestor Almendros, this is one of those rare films in which questions about philosophy translate into unexpected answers about the heart. It's slow and methodical, but well worth the experience. --Bill Desowitz
Rohmer's Wager Jean-Louis Trintignant stars as Jean-Louis, a stern Catholic who has wandered the world before settling into a new job at Michelin in the Clermont area of France. For various reasons, Jean-Louis has never married, and at 34 years he finds himself lonely in this new place. He chances to meet an old school friend, Vital (Antoine Vitez). They have drinks and go to a bookstore and chat, primarily about religion and philosophy. When Vital proposes that they meet up with a newly divorced friend of his, Jean-Louis balks but eventually agrees. Enter the sexy pediatrician Maud. She attempts to seduce Jean-Louis, who is no naïve virgin, but such an interlude may not be within Jean-Louis' personal moral code. Will they end up together or will Jean-Louis find the nice Catholic girl of his dreams?
"My Night at Maud's" (1969) is the third in the series of director Eric Rohmer's Six Moral Tales, following two short films ("The Collector" was actually made and released third in the series, but is generally placed fourth). For various reasons, I'm just now getting around to viewing Rohmer's films even though I am a fan of many of the French Wave directors. To me, Rohmer's films seemed from afar to be less flashy and experimental than the work of Godard or Truffaut. I've missed out on some great work, such as "My Night at Maud's." His direction and scripting here is impeccable; the film manages to be grounded in stark realism (everything the actors do is perfectly in character) and talky yet somehow glamorous and lighter than air.
Some audiences will be put off by this movie, with its frequent long conversations involving religion and philosophy, focusing on Pascal's Wager. However, I found that I didn't need to understand the minutiae of these topics (I have read a bit of Pascal years ago), as these conversations exist primarily to show us the characters' moral codes - their sense of what they can and cannot do. As such, the movie succeeds brilliantly, demonstrating the gray areas of our moral codes that we all encounter. It's a rare movie that I can walk away from feeling as though I learned something new, yet still assured that I probably only understand 1/4 of it. Most highly recommended.
The Logic of Love I was a bit unprepared for what I saw in "My Night at Maud's" (I had anticipated a more festive movie under the mistaken pretense that "Maud's" was a night club). I admit to easing into the extended philosophical discussion of love and similar relationships. I also found myself enjoying the subtle and not so subtle hypocracy of the participants. However, this is a comedy in the Shakepearean mode; i.e you may be amused but it's unlikely you'll laugh. Fair enough, I took it for the candid look at life, love and faith it presented. I believe that Eric Rohmer's theory is that we can profess to be as open and frank as possible but we still know what to keep to ourselves. It's a bit heavy in its' dialogue in case you're looking for some lighter entertainment. However, it's strength is it's dialogue so pay attention and enjoy it.
Essential French cinema: Rohmer's 'Ma nuit chez Maud.' Éric Rohmer (1920) challenged traditional Hollywood cinema with his French New Wave cycle of films, Six Moral Tales ("Contes moraux"). Inspired by F.W. Murnau's Sunrise, each "tale" follows the same basic story: a man is tempted a woman, but he ultimately resists the temptation.
My Night at Maud's (Ma nuit chez Maud) (1969)--the third tale in the series, but the fourth to be filmed, has been called "the centerpiece" of Rohmer's Moral Tales. Filmed in stark black and white, it follows deep philosophic conversations about love and religion between a pious Catholic engineer in his early thirties, Jean-Louis (Jean-Louis Trintignant), and a young brunette divorcée, Maud (Françoise Fabian)--a seductive freethinker who challenges Jean-Louis' rigid ethical standards. An Official Selection at the Cannes Film Festival, Rohmer achieved international recognition with this brilliant film.
G. Merritt
The head vs. the heart Eric Rohmer's intelligent look at the subject of principles vs. intuition. A mathemetician (Jean-Louis) meets an old school chum (Vidal), a philosopher, and they begin a conversation about Pascal and mind over heart and faithfulness. The conversation continues at Vidal's girlfriend's (Maud) house.
Suddenly our mathemetician is left alone with the Maud, and she invites him to spend the night with her. He accepts but is determined not to sleep with her to maintain his priciples, and in a very funny scene he's successful. After a while he marries Francoise; 5 years later he meets Maud again and learns, by accident, that Francoise was once Maud's husband's lover.
Typical for a Rohmer film, not much happens, but there's lots of talk of a very high quality. But it's not JUST talk - Rohmer is skilled enough not to forget he's making a movie here. He is very on target as his characters explore the topics at hand. It's a very satisfying movie, well worth a watch.
Fourth opus: the supreme expression of good taste! Eric Rohmer' s artistic personality has been one of the most original and eloquent. Expressive sobriety supported by a high caliber humor sense. In this lovable and intelligent work, the seduction issue has never been treated, as an admirable exercise of seduction that links with the purest tradition of the French theater of old ages, plenty of irony, sarcasm and fine charm. Indeed, the picture is extremely talky, and slow paved in consequence; Rohmer supports on an elegant and smart script plenty of fine intelligence; it's the art of the seduction in its highest order.
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