Synopsis
The rigid principles of a devout Catholic man are challenged during a one-night stay with Maud, a divorced woman with an outsize personality.
1969 ‘Ma nuit chez Maud’ Directed by Éric Rohmer
The rigid principles of a devout Catholic man are challenged during a one-night stay with Maud, a divorced woman with an outsize personality.
Two World Entertainment FFD Les Films de la Pléiade Les Films des deux mondes Les Films du Carrosse Les Films du Losange Les Productions de la Guéville Renn Productions Simar Films SFP
My Night with Maud, 我在溫柔鄉, Six contes moraux III: Ma nuit chez Maud, Six Moral Tales III: My Night at Maud's, Minha Noite Com Ela, Min nat hos Maud, Yöni Maudin luona, Μια νύχτα με τη Μωντ, Éjszakám Maudnál, La mia notte con Maud, モード家の一夜, Min natt med Maud, Moja noc u Maud, Ночь у Мод, Mi noche con Maud, Meine Nacht bei Maud, Maud'daki Gecem
“The thought of the future needn’t depress us, since we have none.”
Éric Rohmer’s third of his six moral tales, My Night at Maud’s, concerns a Catholic man, Jean-Louis, who lives life practising a philosophy based on rationalisation and mathematical probability. At church, he falls in love with a beautiful young girl and vows she will be his wife. She is his ideal partner: blonde, pure, and devout. But after a brief encounter with an old schoolmate, Jean-Louis finds himself precariously spending a night with the enigmatic and provocative Maud, a free-spirited divorcée whose bewildering charm and complexity threaten to dismantle his rigid moral principles and standards.
Rohmer is known for his modern and liberal approach to social and gender…
Mohamed Radwan's #6 Film Selection for Edgar
Eric Rohmer's 3rd Moral Tale
-->Possible moral topic(s) treated: The substitution of principles dictated by moral codes with irrational impulses that contradict them.
Note: Although this gem was planned as the third moral tale, it was released after the fourth moral tale La Collectionneuse (1967) due to delay in production.
In short, My Night at Maud's is a tremendous cinema masterpiece in all imaginable aspects.
Jesus, how do I begin punching this damn keyboard?
Ok, first. Rohmer's elements! Yeah, his elements.
Ummm...
A) Rohmer was known at this point for utilizing a literary narrative, in which a protagonistic voiceover narration would reveal what wasn't told or shown explicitly to the viewer. In the…
Let’s play Fuck-Marry-Kill, Rohmer edition!
I fuck Françoise 🙋🏼♀️
I marry Maud 👰🏻
I kill Jean Louis 🔪
oh, the limitations of thinking we know ourselves & the startling realization that someone else can know us better
with the click of Her fingers,
all has changed.
what are the streets i once walked upon? what have they become? what was once bright, speckled with the spit of passer-by’s, is now grey, destroyed by every image that i once knew.
i suppose i could turn back - perhaps behind me the colour remains - but what good would it do if the future will prevail, leaving me behind in the dark?
i once thought i knew my path - i think all do at some stage.
but now, now that i see it all, i know that there is more; i know that there is:
love,
love,
and death.
i see no other way forward, for it cannot…
*SOME SPOILERS*
I’ve become a huge Eric Rohmer fan over the past few years. The older I get, and the more complex my idea of life becomes, the more I appreciate his work: full of eroticism, irony and paradox, where the sun only comes out to cast darker shadows. There’s no denying, though, that many of his films follow a certain formula: not just in their plots (his six Moral Tales, made between 1962 and ’72, are all based on F. W. Murnau’s expressionist silent romance, Sunrise), but also in the form and structure he favours. My Night at Maud’s isn’t his best movie, but it’s perhaps his most Rohmerish, almost to the point of exaggeration: it begins slowly, turns…
I'm slowly going through Éric Rohmer's filmography, and one thing I've noticed for every single one is how well he integrates the seasons so seamlessly into his films. He makes the weather a fundamental part of the structure, but also somehow manages to diminish all the surroundings, focusing so intimately on each character and the dialogue. I really enjoy how completely immersed I am while I watch his films.
4.3/5
Almost too immense to put into words, despite the gorgeous simplicity of the story. It's a small, insular narrative that nonetheless feels immense and overwhelming - a masterpiece, in other words. Will reserve more detailed comment for a third viewing, except to note that emphasis on Rohmer's dialogue gives short shrift to the keenness (and importance) of his visuals: e.g. the shot of the two couples ascending a snowy hillside; the slow zoom towards Jean-Louis and Françoise confessing to each other; the ironic distance of that closing image of familial bliss (an echo of Varda's Le bonheur). And then, of course, there's that lovely single-take of Maud recounting her love affair and baring her soul, which is as wonderful an…