My Night at Maud's

Plot

The "my" in My Night At Maud's belongs to the protagonist played by Jean-Louis Trintignant, a Catholic engineer whose struggle with his faith is renewed when he falls instantly in love with a woman he's never met (Marie-Christine Barrault) while attending mass. A chance meeting with an amoral old friend (Antoine Vitez) the same night places him in a potentially compromising situation when he's forced to spend the night with Vitez's alluring acquaintance Maude (Françoise Fabian), a sophisticated woman who challenges Trintignant's belief through intellectual and fleshly means. ~ Keith Phipps, Rovi

Review

Released as the third entry in Rohmer's "Six Moral Tales" series, My Night At Maude's captures much of what's extraordinary about the series, and of what's extraordinary about its director. Taking as its backdrop Pascal's famous wager -- the notion that to believe in God is to win all in the event of God's existence and to lose nothing in the event of God's absence -- Rohmer is able to explore the complexities hidden in even this simplest justification of faith. To believe in God, after all, is to strive to live a virtuous life, something Trintignant finds far easier to do until his virtue remains unchallenged by the powerful but unsupported feelings of love he has for Barrault and the immediate appeal of Fabian. What easily could have been a simplistic allegory becomes something far more profound in the hands of Rohmer, a moralist who refrains from moralizing. Pascal's two-sided coin becomes a dice with an almost infinite number of sides. The film may ultimately present his protagonist's choice as the correct one, but it also shows that even correct choices come laden with unshakable doubts, unanticipated complication, and unforeseeable regrets. ~ Keith Phipps, Rovi

Cast

• Jean-Louis Trintignant - Jean-Louis
• Françoise Fabian - Maud
• Antoine Vitez - Vidal
• Marie-Christine Barrault - Francoise
• Anne Dubot - Blonde Friend

Marie Becker - Marie, Maud's Daughter; Leonid Kogan - Concert Violinist; Guy Leger - Preacher; Marie-Claude Rauzier - Student

Credit

Nicole Rachline - Art Director, Eric Rohmer - Director, Cecile Decugis - Editor, Néstor Almendros - Cinematographer, Pierre Cottrell - Producer, Barbet Schroeder - Producer, Eric Rohmer - Screenwriter

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