Ma nuit chez Maud (1969)

User Rating:

8.0/10   

Director:

Eric Rohmer

Writer:

Eric Rohmer (writer)

Release Date:

22 March 1970 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

The narrator (Jean-Louis), a devout Catholic, moves to a provincial town and vows to marry Francoise...

Plot Keywords:

Engineer | Catholic | Beautiful Woman | Faith | Church

Awards:

Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 5 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Jean-Louis Trintignant	...	Jean-Louis
Françoise Fabian	...	Maud
Marie-Christine Barrault	...	Françoise
Antoine Vitez	...	Vidal
Léonide Kogan	...	Concert Violinist
Guy Léger	...	Preacher
Anne Dubot	...	Blonde Friend

Also Known As:

My Night at Maud's (USA)
My Night with Maud
Six Moral Tales III: My Night at Maud's (International: English title) (series title)
Six contes moraux III: Ma nuit chez Maud (France) (series title)

Runtime:

110 min | Portugal:102 min | USA:105 min

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Germany:o.Al. (re-rating) (2006) | Finland:S | Spain:13 | Sweden:Btl | USA:PG | West Germany:16 | Brazil:14

Filming Locations:

Belle-Île-en-Mer, Morbihan, France

Company:

FFD

Trivia:

When nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, it was nominated under the title "My Night with Maud" because at the time it had no US distibutor.

Movie Connections:

Followed by Le genou de Claire (1970)

Irreproachable

The first Rohmer i saw, and justifies his reputation of slow pacing and almost non-stop dialogue, but also his fame as a great director. He does not have anything of the joviality of his Nouvelle Vague friends Truffaut and Godard, which work i know better, being more serious and mature. The picture is filmed almost as a documentary, being very realistic, and in opposite of 99% of the movies, Rohmer doesn't move the camera all around in the dialogues, abusing of shots and reverse-shots, keeping the camera in one character. The many and long conversations are very intelligent, and all the characters are complex and interesting, specially the Jean-Louis Trignant' one, which reminded me of Prince Míchkin from The Idiot, because of the Christian quietness (Dostoiveski's words) that both have in common, i don't know if it was intentional. I usually doesn't like to rate movies, because it's hard to put how much you like a film in a scale of quality, but in cases of perfect works like this one, there's no doubt: 10/10