My Night at Maud’s (1969) film notes for SAM Films

 

The wintry weather brings people together in My Night At Maud’s (1969). They huddle in cafes, invite one another to ski while stomping their snowy boots, attend a concert hoping pretty girls might show up in their woolens to listen to Leonid Kogan play Mozart. They enjoy December. Jean-Louis (Jean-Louis Trintignant) begins the film alone on his balcony looking out at the snow. He goes inside, walks through his house, only to leave to get into his car and drive from Ceyrat to Clermont. He is a single man in the provinces. He goes to church. “My family was Catholic and I keep it up,” is how he defines himself. The light in the church behind the priest preaching from his stone pulpit is luminous and eternal. A young woman, Françoise (Marie-Christine Barrault) faces forward in prayer. She feels Jean-Louis observing her and turns to look. After church Jean-Louis sees Françoise riding her bicycle down the icy street. He follows her in his car, honks and flashes his lights. Lights from the stores and the street reflect on car windows. Clermont, where Claude Lanzmann fought at 17 with his father and brother in the French Resistance. Clermont, where Max Ophuls filmed The Sorrow and The Pity (1969). Clermont, one of the oldest towns in France written about by the Greek geographer Strabo. From Clermont the Crusaders set out for Jerusalem in 1095 C.E. From Clermont the Jews were expelled in 570 C.E. Clermont, the birthplace of the 17th century Catholic theologian Blaise Pascal. Pascal is discussed throughout My Night at Maud’s. His presence is felt like the winter weather, blanketing and influential.  

Jean-Louis says, “That Monday, December 21st, I suddenly knew without a doubt that Françoise would be my wife.” Jean-Louis works at Michelin. He eats in the cafeteria with men who are married, who have bought houses in Clermont. They worry about his driving on icy streets back to his rental in Ceyrat. They are mostly transplants like Jean-Louis. They are not busy on the assembly line, but busy in offices at their desks. Jean-Louis could look up to them and want the security they have, but it is Maud (Françoise Fabian) to whom he will open up, Maud, dark haired in a sailor shirt, tucked into her bed, white pillows and a white blanket, like a snow angel. Jean-Louis has been brought to her house by his friend Vidal (Antoine Vitez) a Marxist philosophy professor who is in love with Maud. He gets drunk and argues with Jean-Louis. Vidal drives home in the dark night, the snow beginning to fall. 

Maud is a doctor, a non-believer, and a divorcée. She had a lover, and her husband had a lover. She invites Jean-Louis to spend the night. She promises to tell him her life story which turns out to be sad and ordinary. Maud calls herself unlucky. She is beautiful like an actress is beautiful, her face symmetrical and expressive. She fills the screen as she tells Jean-Louis how her lover died in a car crash a year ago in early snowfall. Jean-Louis stands at the window looking out at the snow. They are cementing their friendship, speaking as though they have spoken before. Maud says, “Religion has always left me cold. I’m neither for nor against it. But people like you prevent me from ever taking it seriously. All you’re really worried about is your respectability. Staying in a woman’s room after midnight--that’s just terrible. The fact you’re staying might comfort me when I’m feeling a bit lonely, the fact we might go beyond convention and make real contact, even if we were to never meet again--none of this would ever occur to you. I find that stupid, and not very Christian.” 

The light at Maud’s is like the light in the church, which is like the street lights outside illuminating the night. Jean-Louis argues with Maud not to convince her but to explain himself, “I don’t think love can be real unless it’s mutual. That’s why I believe in a certain predestination.” Like Françoise riding her bike at night through Clermont after Jean-Louis saw her in prayer and knew she would be his wife. On this night, he is pacing in Maud’s apartment, deeply engaged in conversation. “Don’t you want to be a saint?” Maud asks. “Not at all,” he says. The light from the table lamp behind him illuminates him as he speaks. Maud replies, “Can I believe my ears? I thought every Christian was to aspire to sainthood.” Jean-Louis believes, “Religion enhances love, but love enhances religion as well.” They go to sleep. Maud has taken off her sailor shirt. In the morning they catch one another in an embrace. The timing is off. Jean-Louis pushes Maud away. That morning by chance he meets Françoise on the street; she agrees to meet him at mass the next day. 

At dinner when Vidal was still at Maud’s and the three were debating Pascal, the table set with cake and glasses of wine, Jean-Louis said, “It’s just that Pascal paid no attention to what he drank. Even when he was ill and had to follow a diet of finest quality food, he never remembered what he had eaten.” Vidal agreed this is true. Jean-Louis with his finger in the air said, “Well, I say, ‘this is good!’ As a Christian I say not to acknowledge what is good is evil.” Their evening of debate and conversation strengthened them in their own convictions. The next day at noon they climb a mountain. Dark figures trudging up slopes of white snow. Jean-Louis kisses Maud. She tells him his lips are cold like his intentions. She guesses rightly that Jean-Louis will marry within his faith. Maud is skeptical of God and men. Her husband's lover had also been Catholic. 

Five years later in warm weather Jean-Louis and his wife Françoise run into Maud at the beach. Françoise says hello and continues walking. The two women recognized one another. Jean-Louis is the second man they both loved. Jean-Louis married the woman to whom he felt most drawn. Maud looks the same. Her dark hair is long and swirls around her shoulders as she speaks.