My Night at Maud's (1970)

Released as the third entry in Rohmer's "Six Moral Tales" series, My Night At Maude's captures much of what's extraordinary about the series, and of what's extraordinary about its director. Taking as its backdrop Pascal's famous wager -- the notion that to believe in God is to win all in the event of God's existence and to lose nothing in the event of God's absence -- Rohmer is able to explore the complexities hidden in even this simplest justification of faith. To believe in God, after all, is to strive to live a virtuous life, something Trintignant finds far easier to do until his virtue remains unchallenged by the powerful but unsupported feelings of love he has for Barrault and the immediate appeal of Fabian. What easily could have been a simplistic allegory becomes something far more profound in the hands of Rohmer, a moralist who refrains from moralizing. Pascal's two-sided coin becomes a dice with an almost infinite number of sides. The film may ultimately present his protagonist's choice as the correct one, but it also shows that even correct choices come laden with unshakable doubts, unanticipated complication, and unforeseeable regrets. ~ Keith Phipps, All Movie Guide