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My Night at Maud's [VHS]

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How to find the right words to make you want to discover french author/director Eric Rohmer ? I would lie if I'd say MY NIGHT AT MAUD'S is an action movie. It's not a boring arty work either. Eric Rohmer is a very peculiar case among french directors. He's interested in morals, in the deep psychology of his movies' characters, in literature and philosophical problems. Vast program, rich but not rebarbative at all.

MY NIGHT AT MAUD'S is the third of the six moral tales he shot in the sixties and early seventies. The action takes place in Clermont-Ferrand, in southern France. Jean-Louis Trintignant (leading actor of Lelouch's A MAN AND A WOMAN) is a catholic 34 years old man looking for a girl to marry. Observing a young blonde girl at the Mass celebration, he decides she will be the one.

His friend Antoine Vitez invites him to pass an evening at Françoise "MAUD" Fabian's place. Light dialogs become soon a conversation about the Grace, the Predestination, the Sin and the Faith. Antoine Vitez leaves and let the not-so puritan Trintignant alone with a Maud still chatting and lying in bed almost naked.

Will Trintignant succumb to the charm of Maud or be faithful to the blonde girl he hasn't had the chance to meet yet ? That's the moral point of the movie. MY NIGHT AT MAUD'S is a 1968 movie, shot in black and white with english subtitles you can't remove (!), that has won two Oscars. I sincerely hope you'll have the curiosity to take a look at it since 5 or 6 Rohmer's movies have hit the DVD market these last months, all of them being pure gems. Oh yes ! I forgot. MY NIGHT AT MAUD'S is one of these movies that can deeply change in you the way you approach movies.

Take the risk to consider MY NIGHT AT MAUD'S as a DVD for your library.

Sublime. To me, this stealthily thrilling film exploits both the living quality of a theatrical performance and the privileged intimacy that cinema offers -- close-ups, mobile perspectives, and so on. Rohmer's tale seems put together to resemble a peculiarly intrusive documentary, an impossibly close piece of observational cinema. Half the joy of experiencing his fiction stems from the convincing impression that one is (secretly) watching a group of interesting adults socializing spontaneously in the manner of their culture and class. The other half of one's pleasure lies in the awareness, as the film concludes, that an intricate and subtle structure has been unfolding and cleverly weaving the tale's elements together all along. Rohmer's film works on several levels, and is well worth viewing by the socially curious and the open-minded.

First of all, I want to stress that there is siginifcant disjunction here between the quality of MY NIGHT AT MAUD'S as a film, and the dismal quality of the Fox Lorber DVD. Thus, my criticism is not addressed to the film itself, which, like every one of Rohmer's Six Moral Tales, I would highly recommend, but to the lackluster transfer from Fox Lorber. I am in full agreement with the reviewer who argued that the film itself deserves 5 stars, whereas the DVD itself offers nothing better than a vhs quality audio and video transfer (in fact, this trasfer is below the standards of many vhs releases). Moreover, as with their many Godard and Truffaut releases, Fox Lorber has marked only 6 chapter headings. Now how hard is it to bookmark a chapter heading? Of course, I suppose that would actually require taking some interest in the film itself, so as to gadge the appropriate moments to bookmark.

In sum, this DVD does not even have the advantage of convenient chapter options. It is a shame that a company who owns the rights to so many great films repeatedly releases such poorly engineered DVDs. There are, of course, exceptions (more recent titles, of few of the Truffaut releases, or Godard's "Vivre Sa Vie," for example). Nonetheless, I have come to expect from Fox Lorber below average video and audio quality, along with few special features, if any (even the director and actor videographies are often incomplete). Even though I own many DVDs from Fox Lorber, inspite of their mediocre quality, this is one issue that I cannot recommend. In fact, I first rented this film on DVD, but elected to purchase a...VHS copy, instead. MY NIGHT AT MAUD'S is a remarkably subtle, yet powerful, filmic treatment of infidelity and the complexity of human relationships. However, do not waste your money on this DVD release.

To cite one auspicious development, Criterion has acquired the rights to many foreign titles from Fox Lorber's new parent company, Wellspring, and there have been credible rumors that Criterion will be releasing special editions of several Rohmer titles, including My Night at Maud's. Thus, with any luck, this film will soon receive the DVD treatment it deserves. Until then, however, I recommend holding on to your vhs copies.

Like all of the Fox/Lorber releases of Eric Rohmer's "Six Moral Tales" film series, I'd give this film 5 stars for content, especially if you enjoy writer/director Eric Rohmer's subtle, deliberatly paced, conversational style. His films crawl into your consciousness slowly and before you know it you're hooked. Unfortunatly I'd give the DVD transfer 1 star as it looks and sounds no better than Fox/Lorber's currently available VHS version and there are no extras to speak of except for incomplete director and star filmography listings. The film is not presented in its original aspect ratio and the French subtitles are burned into the print and so are not removable from the screen. END

There are few filmmakers whom I can say truly put me in a good mood and Rohmer is one of those filmmakers. What I love about Rohmer's films is the delicacy and the subtleness in them.
"My Night At Maud's" was the third film in Rohmer's "Six Moral Tales". And many see it not only as the best of the six, but, also as Rohmer's best film. And, they have a good case to give it that credit.
To those who are unaware of the story it goes something like this, and I'll try not to reveal any major plot-points.
A young man, Jean-Louis (Jean-Louis Trintignant) is searching for the perfect mate. A woman who must share his religious beliefs, which are catholic, and his views of love. He has set quite a high standard for himself, considering it's the "modern world". Where religion doesn't really play a big part in most people lives or at least in the women whom he meets. That is until he meets a beautiful blond,Francoise (Marie-Christine Barrault) in of all places, church! He soon finds himself, along with a friend, Vidal (Antoine Vitez) spending the night at Maud's. A "modern" woman with "modern" views. These two seem to be as different as they come. She is not really what he's looking for and he is too "old-fashion" for her.
What happens afterwards is truly priceless. As Rohmer has made a film that is about as funny as a film could be dealing with sexual morals. It also has some of the "smartest" dialogue I've ever heard. If you've never seen a Rohmer film, this is a wonderful place to start. One of the best French films of all-time and one of the true "classics" in cinema.
"My Night At Maud's" was nominated for two Oscars; "Best Foreign Film" and "Best Screenplay". It was also hailed as the best film of the year in 1970 by the late Gene Siskel.

"The heart has it reasons which reason knows nothing of." --Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)

This is the Eric Romer film they warned you about. There is a lot of talk, talk, and more talk. But the talk is very interesting. One of the main topics of discussion is Pascal's famous wager. Pascal believed that if there is even the slightest chance of the Christian heaven being true, then as a matter of probability, one ought to be a believer. Even a minuscule chance of everlasting paradise is worth the bet because infinity (eternity) times even a very small number is infinity. And, of course, if not believing puts one in however small the danger of eternal damnation, then again one should be a believer. But, as Vidal (Antoine Vitez) sagely remarks in the movie, infinity times zero is still zero.

Jean-Louis Trintignant stars as a 34-year-old Catholic mathematician who has a way with women. He runs into his old school chum, Vidal, who introduces him to Maud (Francoise Fabian), who has a way with men. Funny but they don't quite hit it off even though she manipulates him into spending the night with her. Their conversation is witty, subliminal and revealing. Maud believes in the supremacy of love, Jean-Louis in being morally flexible. Although a believing and practicing Catholic, he tells Maud that one is not going against God's will by chasing girls anymore than one is going against God's will by doing mathematics.

The girl that Jean-Louis is currently chasing is 22-year-old Francoise (Maire-Christine Barrault) a blonde, Catholic girl that he has spied at church. At first it seems that although he is certain that she is perfect for him, she is reluctant. They too fence with words as they try to mislead and reveal at the same time, and the audience is intrigued, so much so that at times you might forget you are watching a movie. In this sense a Romer film is like a stage play. Whereas contemporary directors try to get by with as little dialogue as possible, to let the action itself reveal character, Romer is not shy about using dialogue to reveal character, plot, theme--the whole works.

The film begins with a long close shot of Francoise's profile as she listens in church, turning twice briefly to face the camera. She is pretty and intriguing. Although we won't realize it until the movie is mostly over, she is the focal point of the balance between the world views of Jean-Louis and Maud. After the night at Maud's during which Maud uses her intuition and sly intelligence to figure out Jean-Louis's character, he spends the night with Francoise. She uses her instincts to figure out not his character so much as his aptness for her. And then it is revealed how Francoise figures twice in the life of Maud. I won't anticipate the revelation, but be sure and watch for it. Suffice it to say that there are two reasons that Francoise is far from Maud's favorite person! The film ends, as French films often do, with the ironic affirmation of bourgeois values.

For today's DVD hound this movie will play slowly or not at all. The use of dialogue as something over and above the plot and action of the film will seem demanding and perhaps old fashioned. The deliberately drawn out scenes at church may cause you to yawn. But I recommend you stay with it. The movie has a quality that lingers long after the action is gone. The underlying philosophy about the nature of human love and how it conflicts or is compatible with reason and/or religion really does reflect to some extent the quotation above from Pascal, whose spirit is akin, although he denies it, to that of Jean-Louis, the careful protagonist of this very interesting film.

This is the fourth and best of Eric Rohmer's six moral tales. Like many of Rohmer's films, "My Night at Maud's" is about the search for a life-partner, temptation and fidelity. Also, like most Rohmer films, "My Night at Maud's" is made up mainly of conversation's, and some might find it "boring" or "just talking." But the conversations are interesting and intellectually stimulating, and, at the films end, the last piece of the puzzle falls into place.
An engineer (Jean-Louis Trintignant) becomes infatuated with a woman he sees in Church (Marie-Christine Barrault). But before he is able to ask her out, he spends the night at the apartment of Maud (Francoise Fabian) trying to be faithful to his Catholic values by resisting her attempts at seduction. (I won't spoil the film by telling you how his night with Maud ends.) He later meets, dates, and eventually marries the woman from Church. Years later, after running into Maud at the beach, he discovers that his wife has a connection to Maud. (Again, I won't spoil the film by telling you what it is.)

Louis (Jean-Louis Trintigant)is a philandering intellectual with several affairs behind him. But when late in life he becomes a convert to Catholicism, he decides to turn his back on his past and settle down to married life with a nice Catholic girl - preferably a blond. He finds Francoise (Marie-Christine Barrault), the perfect candidate, in a Catholic church - where else? - pursues her and makes a date, but before he can keep the date he meets Vidal (Antoine Vitez ), an old school friend who he hasn't seen for fourteen years. Vidal takes him to the home of Maud, a highly intelligent and lovely to look at young woman. For several hours they have a lively conversation about the philosophy of Pascal and freedom of choice - which is ironic in view of what happens later - until Vidal leaves. After which the conversation becomes more intimate and confiding as they build up a strong rapport. Surely you think he cannot still be intending to keep his date with the blond, when he has this new so much more promising relationship developing. But there is only one problem; she is not a Catholic. She tries to seduce him and though she manages to persuade him to stay the night he refuses to get into bed with her preferring to lie on the top of the bed wrapped in a blanket - with her lying naked under the bed clothes alongside him. This takes some suspension of disbelief from the viewer. Towards morning she makes a more overt attempt to seduce him but again fails - his newly found Catholic conscience will not allow him to succumb.

Being a Catholic, you see, now debars him from doing what he has done so often in his previous life; sleeping with a woman outside marriage. And so because he allows himself to be governed by these new strictures, he loses his ideal woman, the intellectual equal who would have made him happy, and goes off to keep his date and marry the blond.

Though he may have seemed to choose the blond in preference to Maude, in reality he made no such choice; his choice was determined for him by the strictures of the Catholic Church. If he had met Maude a year earlier, before his conversion to Catholicism, he would have been able to make a free unrestricted choice and would no doubt have chosen Maude.

It emerges that the blond was Maude's ex-husband's mistress - a piece of information introduced presumably to show that she is not the devout, pure -minded virgin he originally assumed her to be.

He meets Maude one last time five years later on the sand dunes at some sea side resort - he with his wife and child, she alone. They talk in a desultory way; she tells him that she is unhappily married again and asks why he never phoned her as he had promised, and then she walks out of his life for ever.

This I think is the best of Eric Rohmer's Six Moral Tales, if only because the usual long conversations have more substance.

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.

I must have watched this film at least twenty times--it never gets boring. A lot of talking in this film--if you don't know French, have fun reading the relentless subtitles. Interesting dialog about Pascal--the idea of fate, luck, wager. It serves as the film's allegory--gambling on a relationship with a person who is both sensual and pious. Can there be happiness in such a combination? One has to only take a chance. And even though you may think you found that special someone with both attributes, there's always a catch. And the catch in "...Maud's" is revealed at the end of the film--which is absolutely beautiful. The DVD is not as bad as some of the reviews here claim it to be--it's black and white, so with the exception of a couple of scenes with weak contrasts, I think it's an above average transfer. Heck, it's shot by Cuba's very own Oscar winner Nestor Almendros (Days of Heaven).