My Night with Maude [Ma Nuit Chez Maud] [My Night at Maud’s] **** (1969, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Françoise Fabian, Marie-Christine Barrault) – Classic Movie Review 8426

The 1969 French charmer My Night with Maude [Ma Nuit Chez Maud] [My Night at Maud’s] is the fourth film of Eric Rohmer’s six Moral Tales (Contes Moreaux). It was nominated for two Oscars for Best Foreign Language Film and Best Story and Screenplay, and for the Cannes Palme D’Or, and it put him on the world cinema map.

Set and shot in the picturesque snow of Clermont-Ferrand, Puy-de-Dôme, France, it tells of a long winter’s night in which the liberated divorced woman Maude (Françoise Fabian) challenges a devout practising Roman Catholic (Jean-Louis Trintignant)’s outlook on life.

Humorous, thought provoking and sexy, with glorious black and white cinematography by Néstor Almendros, the romantic comedy drama My Night with Maude is one of Rohmer’s best.

Also in the cast are Marie-Christine Barrault, Antoine Vitez, Léonide Kogan, Anne Dubot, Marie Becker, Marie-Claude Rauzier and Guy Leger.

My Night with Maude [Ma Nuit Chez Maud] [My Night at Maud’s] is directed by Eric Rohmer, runs 108 minutes, is made by Les Films du Losange, Les Films du Carosse, Les Films de la Pléiade, Les Films des Deux Mondes, FFP, Simar, Renn and Guéville, is released by Pathé Contemporary Films (1970) (US), is written by Eric Rohmer, is shot in black and white by Néstor Almendros, Emmanuel Machuel (camera operator), Jean-Claude Gasché (assistant camera) and Philippe Rousselot (assistant camera), is produced by Pierre Cottreill and Barbet Schroeder and is designed by Nicole Rachline

There is no music score.

My Night with Maude [Ma Nuit Chez Maud] [My Night at Maud’s] follows La Boulangère de Monceau (The Bakery Girl of Monceau) (1963), La Carrière de Suzanne (Suzanne’s Career) (1963) and La Collectionneuse (The Collector) (1967). It was planned as the third moral tale, but it was released after the intended fourth tale La Collectionneuse (The Collector) because of a delay in production

Claire’s Knee [Le Genou de Claire] followed in 1970 and L’Amour l’après-midi (Love in the Afternoon/Chloe in the Afternoon) followed in 1972.

Jean-Louis Trintignant died at his home on 17 June 2022, at the age of 91.

Trintignant’s notable films include And God Created Woman (1956), The Sleeping Car Murders (1965), A Man and a Woman (1966), The Great Silence (1968), The Man Who Lies, Costa-Gavras’s Z, My Night at Maud’s (1969), The Conformist (1970), Three Colours: Red (1994), The City of Lost Children (1995), and Amour (2012).

Jean-Louis Trintignant won the Best Actor Award at the 1969 Cannes Film Festival for Costa-Gavras’s Z.  He won the 2013 César Award for Best Actor for Michael Haneke’s Amour.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8426

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