My Night with Maud

Screening: 19 November 2002
Ritchie Room - members only

France 1969 (subtitles)
113 minutes
Directed by Eric Rohmer
Leading players - Jean-Louis Trintignant, Françoise Fabian, Marie-Christine Barrault.

Synopsis

It is December in Clermont-Ferrand. Jean-Louis (Trintignant), a devout Catholic, believes in premarital chastity. One day he sees a pretty, young girl in church (Barrault) and decides he is going to marry her - despite the fact he can’t summon up the courage to talk to her.
Later he bumps into his old friend Vidal who invites him to meet Maud (Fabian), Vidal’s bohemian, divorcée lover. The evening goes well, much wine is consumed and the group fall into a lively debate about freedom of choice and its consequences. Jean-Louis is fascinated by the free-thinking Maud and she is sufficiently taken with him that, when snow forces him to stay the night, she makes advances. He turns her down, preferring to remain faithful to his ideal, Francoise, the girl in the church.

Eventually, he meets and marries Francoise, smugly believing that they were destined for one another because of the similarity in their faith and moral values. However, there is more in Francoise’s history than Jean-Louis knows.

* * * * * *

This was the third of Rohmer’s “Six Contes Moraux” (“Six Moral Tales”), which explore how, in the name of morality, risk is avoided but passion lost. Perversely, the rejection of temptation assumes a greater importance for the man than the commitment he has made.
Rohmer, who also wrote the screenplay for this movie, is an articulate filmmaker who does not shy away from lengthy verbal exchanges. These fascinating, witty conversations reveal the obstinate and yet inconsistent nature of his characters in a light but engrossing manner.
The bleak wintery location is wonderfully caught by internationally renowned cameraman Nestor Almendros, as are the tellingly voluptuous images of temptation, such as Maud’s fur bedspread. All go to symbolise the distance between Jean-Louis and Maud, intellectual inflexibility and passion.