My Night at Maud

Ma Nuit Chez Maud - Eric Rohmer

I think that it was pretty appropriate that I managed to see this for the season. Although devoid of religious inflections, somehow its blatant sketch of the moral dilemma the protagonist exuded is enough reason not to watch The Passion of the Christ nor The Ten Commandments for Lent. Rohmer's film is not heretical at all, even for the fact that most arguments presented revolves on Blaise Pascal's philosophies versus the church's preachings. Trintignant plays the morally conflicted bachelor whose stringent Catholic beliefs taught him that he could never be with a woman unless he is bound to marry her. Soon, he finds himself spending the night with a divorced doctor named Maud and the exchange of words between them is somewhat witty (sometimes I think Linklater must have made some riffing of his own to his Before Sunrise/Sunset) and profound but likewise sensible. It's basically a feel-good morally-resolved love story, but not in your run-of-the-mill sort of way.