MovieChat Forums > Ma nuit chez Maud (1970) Discussion > Know your probabilities in cities [small...

Know your probabilities in cities [small spoilers]

posted 13 years ago by orionlogic
7 replies | jump to latest

So why did Jean-Louis started looking at the probability theorem in a sudden burst as if he wanted to crack down a secret code which city holds. Of course, he wanted to see his blond sweetie again and wanted to calculate his next seeing with his engineering mind.This is not a metaphysical engineering quest. There are some spots in the movie which is more supportive this theorem.

Vidal and Françoise known each other. This is more than a mere knowing, it seems they had something intimate between before. An affair maybe which let Françoise to meet Maud's ex-husband,whom will be her next lover, by Vidals connection with Maud. Or maybe after Françoise split with Maud's ex-husband, she meet Vidal by knowing Maud. Or shes just saying truth about its small university and seeing teacher is very common. However i would ask, "what was that look on her face when she met Vidal?" Some guilt, some embarrassment or shame…

So the Vidal-Françoise-Maud-Maud's Ex had a quite interesting relation in a small town where circumstances let them meet each other.

Jean-Louis was really after something, there is a real probability of meeting someone which might well connected with our past or future in another way.

[–] kleinfrankenheim 13 years ago

I figured that Françoise wore that "guilty look" because Vidal knows that she had an affair with a married man and she's afraid that he might reveal it to Jean-Louis. I would doubt that Vidal had any kind of relationship with Françoise, since he loves Maud.

[–] orionlogic 13 years ago

Probably you are right, but my point was the role of chance and coincidences in this triangle. This is one main element in Rohmer's movies. Is it a God's written fate or a urban probability problem as Jean-Louis searches.

[–] kleinfrankenheim 13 years ago

Yes, Jean-Louis is betting Pascal's Wager that he will find happiness with Françoise, even before he has met her. He may well be right, though many in the audience might feel that he could have a richer, more fulfilling relationship with Maud.

[–] trpdean 8 years ago

Some on this site seem to feel Jean would have been happier with Maud. It's not occurred to me - clearly Jean and Maud really don't think alike, don't have the same values. There would have been many many clashes one can see just from the first evening they spent talking.

But yes, certainly Francoise is not the kind of highly moral girl he had idealized her.

[–] feodoric 7 years ago

To me, Françoise seemed embarassed to meet Vidal in the company of Jean-Louis for no other reason that Vidal really cared for Maud (it really showed when they were together the night before) and Vidal had something of a grudge with Françoise for having ruined Maud's marriage. It was immediately clear to me and I don't think one can read the whole story (including the final encounter at the beach) in any other way. Of course, one can find it exciting to multiply the number of liaisons between the characters of a story, but the elements available to us in a movie such as one by Rohmer usually simplify themselves to the lowest denominator. Otherwise, there would be no way to tell a simple story. The Ocam's razor does not apply only to science but to deciphering a movie as well. Only in detective stories one has good chances to find the solution by looking at all the angles, even the least obvioys ones. "Ma nuit chez Maud" is a philosophic drama, not a thriller...

- But you can't have her again as costume designer, Mr. Hitchcock!
- Really, Peggy? Give me Head!

[–] ozzieink 7 years ago

Vidal had something of a grudge with Françoise for having ruined Maud's marriage.

Actually we don't know that. Maud had a lover and her husband had a mistress. Which came first? Who knows. She told Jean-Louis that she always had problems with the men she chose: her husband then and her current husband. It seems the relationship with her lover was more meaningful, but he died in an auto accident.

The meeting between Francoise and Vidal was just awkward, just as their meeting with Maud five years later, because she didn't want them to say anything about her affair with Maud's husband.

[–] 7 years ago

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