Wow...I just don't get it. This is actually the second time I have seen MY NIGHT AT MAUD'S because after the first time, I felt as if the film was boring. Now that I've seen hundreds of other French films, I thought I'd try it again--perhaps my first impression was way off base. Well, as I sit here watching the film, I am just amazed at how dull and talky the film is once again. DSespite many very positive reviews, I just can't get into the film. The characters seem so repressed and uninteresting. Listening to Jean-Louis Trintignant talk to an old friend about philosophy and religion, I felt like screaming. It all just seemed so incredibly pretentious and you wonder if ANYONE talks like that. And later, when Jean-Louis becomes infatuated with a woman, you once again wonder if anyone actually behaves that way--at least an normal person.
The bottom line is that the film bored me to tears and I can't imagine why more don't have the same reaction. Maybe they did but just didn't want to see like a Philistine by saying they didn't have the patience for this film. Well acted, yes, but a hopelessly static script make this a film that is hard to take.
Plot summary
Thirty-four year old engineer Jean-Louis has just started a new job in Clermont. He leads a relatively solitary life not knowing anyone in town besides his work colleagues, he who has made a conscious decision that they should not become his de facto friends just because they work together. His choice not to socialize in town is due also in part to his situation and needing to make the long daily commute to/from Ceyrat where he currently lives. He has had his fair share of women over the course of his adult life, he now choosing to adhere more closely to his Catholic beliefs in approaching romantic and sexual relationships with women solely in the goal of love and marriage. Although not knowing her or having talked to her, he believes the pretty blonde he sees at church at Sunday morning services is the woman destined to be his wife. Within this situation of his new life, he has lately been reading the writings of Blaise Pascal, the mixture of mathematics and Catholicism in particular which he feels applies to his life. One day just before Christmas, he runs into Vidal, an old college friend he hasn't seen in fourteen years, Vidal now a Philosophy professor at the college. Through the course of getting reacquainted over the next couple of days, Vidal invites Jean-Louis over to his friend Maud's apartment the day after Christmas. Maud is a recently divorced pediatrician, and mother to a young adolescent daughter, Marie. Much of Jean-Louis, Vidal and Maud's discussion that evening uses Pascal as a jumping off point, it veering into his philosophies in relation to sex and love, Vidal and Maud who have a different view than Jean-Louis in being atheists. This night, which Jean-Louis learns was not by accident on Vidal's part, has the potential to reshape his life as he would have to admit his attraction to Maud, who is not the theoretical of the perfect mate for him. If he does stay true to his thoughts of the blonde, he may find that a happily ever after with her is not a guarantee, she who may have some baggage of her own.
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Well acted, but drier than dust...
Too Much Religion
As the young protagonist, a Catholic with a precise set of morals, jousts with his friend about Pascal and his belief that we must embrace religion because it's the safest course, we see what I would call a failure to meet life head on. I never found this guy an attractive character because he was so caught up in his righteousness. When he meets Maude, who could have been a wonderful addition to his life, he is so full of "morality" that he passes her by. One can be dead without the physical act of dying. Apparently, the women he encountered in the past grew tired of his sense of perfection. Maude does everything to entice him and he ends up in an embrace that he rejects. At that moment his very sterility is exposed. He has the hots for a pretty young woman who goes to his church, Francoise, whom he pretty much stalks. She is right for him. She is pretty but also quite dull. Rohmer shows us he one can win in some respects but ultimately lose.
My Night with Maud
1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die has been a very useful book for finding the obscure and not very well known little gems from the big screen, this French film is definitely one that I wouldn't have known about before reading it, I was hoping it was deserved placing. Basically devout Catholic Jean-Louis (Jean-Louis Trintignant) has moved to a new town and plans to marry pretty blonde Françoise (Marie-Christine Barrault) who he meets at mass, and he also runs into old childhood friend and Marxist Vidal (Antoine Vitez) in around Christmas time in Clermont-Ferrand. Vidal invites Jean-Louis to meet freethinking and recently divorced Maud (Françoise Fabian),they have interesting conversation about religion, atheism, Blaise Pascal's life and writings on philosophy, faith and mathematics, morality, and love. After a long night Jean-Louis ends up spending the night with Maud, where they end up having more philosophical discussions in her bedroom, and his beliefs on marriage, fidelity and obligation become a dilemma in this situation, although the young woman that he apparently truly loves he has never spoken to. Also starring Léonide Kogan as Concert Violinist, Anne Dubot as Blonde Friend and Guy Léger as Preacher. I admit it being in a foreign language with subtitles made it a little difficult to concentrate on everything, but it did seem a bit more dialogue based anyway, the performances were good, particular Fabian as the beautiful woman that is perhaps trying to seduce the already taken man, it did have some witty words that I read, and it certainly did have engaging moments where you wonder where it's going, it was an interesting drama. It was nominated the Oscars for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay Based on Factual Material or Material Not Previously Published or Produced and Best Foreign Language Film. Very good!