Still image from the 1970 film My Night at Maud's.

My Night at Maud's

Directed by Eric Rohmer

A young man is snowed in with his best friend's amorous mistress.

1970 1h 50m Comedy TV-PG

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CAST
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Eric Rohmer, Director
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Eric Rohmer
Director

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Jean-louis Trintignant, Jean-Louis
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Jean-louis Trinti..
Jean-Louis

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Françoise Fabian, Maud
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Françoise Fabian
Maud

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Marie-christine Barrault, Françoise
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Marie-christine B..
Françoise

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Antoine Vitez, Vidal
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Antoine Vitez
Vidal

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Léonide Kogan, Concert violinist
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Léonide Kogan
Concert violinist

FULL SYNOPSIS

Jean-Louis, a 32-year-old Catholic engineer living a solitary life in Clermont-Ferrand, regularly sees a student, Françoise, at Mass but is too shy to approach her. One evening Jean-Louis meets Vidal, an old school friend, now a Marxist and philosophy professor. They have a Christmas drink together, and afterwards Vidal invites Jean-Louis to join him for dinner at the apartment of his friend Maud, a recent divorcée and intellectual with whom he has been conducting a rather dispirited affair. The dinner is a success, Pascal's philosophy and the relationship of principle to practice being the primary topics of conversation. Vidal finally excuses himself, suggesting that Jean-Louis avoid the inclement weather by staying in Maud's spare room; and Jean-Louis, who has drunk too much wine, gives in to the coaxing of Vidal and Maud. On a personal note, Maud tells Jean-Louis about the breakup of her marriage: her husband became involved with a student, a devout Catholic. She then reveals that she has no spare room; and, irresistibly witty and charming, she tries to seduce him. He insists on remaining chaste, having resolved to sleep in a chair. Although he later joins her on the bed, they do not make love. They part on friendly terms the next morning, and Jean-Louis finds the courage to introduce himself to Françoise. Jean-Louis and Françoise fall in love, though Jean-Louis continues for a time to see Maud. Françoise confesses that she once had an affair with a married man, but Jean-Louis forgives her, implying that he recently had an affair with a divorcée. Five years later Jean-Louis and Françoise, now married, meet Maud at the seashore: Françoise and Maud recognize each other, whereupon Jean-Louis realizes that Françoise was the student in Maud's former husband's life. He quickly forestalls his wife's embarrassment by telling her that Maud was the divorcée he slept with in the past.


VIDEOS
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Lord, I Am Unworthy...
Movie Clip
That Way To Unthinking Belief...
Movie Clip
Two Cases Of Protracted Adole...
Movie Clip
It's Better That Things Be Im...
Movie Clip
Ben Mankiewicz Intro...
Hosted Intro
Ben Mankiewicz Intro...
Hosted Intro

ARTICLES
Original French title: Ma nuit chez Maud What happens during My Night at Maud's(1969) may not be exactly what you would expect. Jean-Louis is an engineer who moves out to the provinces. A devout Catholic, he is at Mass one day when an attractive woman catches his attention but he's not able to meet her. Later Jean-Louis runs into an old friend he hasn't see in 14 years and that friend takes him along to meet a smart, pretty divorced doctor, Maud. As the night goes along Jean-Louis and Maud become more and more attracted to each other. How will the night end? Not an action-packed story, but My Night at Maud's became a surprise sensation and commercial success. The film was nominated for two Oscars®, Best Foreign Language Film and Best Original Screenplay. Both Andrew Sarris and Roger Ebert chose it as one of the ten best films of 1970 (it came out in France a year earlier). Filmmaker Robert Benton chose it as one of his ten favorites of all time. Why such acclaim? After all, this isn't a rowdy teen comedy but a film where adults mostly talk and they talk about everything from philosophy to Christmas tree lights. (Rohmer claimed that idea came to him because of the restraints during World War Two curfews.) That in itself seems fresh even decades later. As Rohmer said, "The people in my films are not expressing abstract ideas - there is no `ideology' in them, or very little - but revealing what they think about relationships between men and women, about...

NOTES

Opened in Paris in June 1969 as Ma nuit chez Maud; running time: 110 min.

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