Category Archives: 1969

My Night at Maud’s (Ma nuit chez Maud)
Directed by Eric Rohmer
Written by Eric Rohmer
1969/France
IMDb link
Repeat viewing/Criterion Channel
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

[box] Maud: You’re the most outrageous person I’ve met. Religion has always left me cold. I’m neither for nor against it. But people like you prevent me from taking it seriously. All that really concerns you is your respectability. Staying in a woman’s room after midnight is dreadful. It would never occur to you to stay because I’m lonely. To establish a slightly less conventional relationship even if we should never meet again. This I find stupid – very stupid and not very Christian.[/box]

Perfect fare if you feel like thinking deep thoughts or exploring the human condition during Lockdown.

Jean-Louis (Jean-Louis Trintignant) is a thirty-something engineer with a penchant for philosophy and mathematics.  He has just moved to a new town. He’s a practicing Catholic and becomes smitten with a beautiful blonde, Christine, who he sees every Sunday at mass.  It takes him awhile to build up to introducing himself.

One night, he meets an old friend, Vidal, who invites him to come with him to see his ex-girlfriend Maud (Francoise Fabian).  Jean-Louis agrees.  Maud is a free-thinking, sensual, agnostic divorcee.  Vidal, a Marxist, and Jean-Louis, a Christian, get involved in a long talk about Pascal’s Wager.  Pascal’s wager is a decision whether to “bet” on the existence of God and believe and live as if God exists or to “bet” that God does not exist and live accordingly.  Pascal argues that all rational people should bet that God exists, even if the odds are slim, because the rewards and risks are infinite (eternity in Heaven vs. eternity in Hell).  The belief that God does not exist carries only finite benefits and inconveniences.  Maud seems to be highly amused by the conversation. Eventually, Vidal leaves and Maud invites Jean-Louis to spend the night.  It is a very awkward and chaste evening.

Immediately after this encounter, Jean-Louis tracks down Christine and introduces himself. He finds she is not the innocent virgin he thought but that does not stand in the way of their courtship.  Maud moves away.

Years pass.  Jean-Louis and Christine are now married with a small child.  They go to the beach and run into Vidal and Maud.  It is an awkward encounter but all the participants respond to it with grace.

Someday I will figure out how Pascal’s wager informs the plot of this film.  There’s a lot of decision making going on here and I just know Pascal gets involved somehow.  This is not the day for that.  I love this movie for its thought-provoking story, beautiful actors, beautiful France, and beautiful ideas.  Highly recommended.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
Directed by George Roy Hill
Written by William Goldman
1969/US
IMDb link
Repeat viewing/Amazon Instant
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

[box] Butch Cassidy: I couldn’t do that. Could you do that? Why can they do it? Who are those guys?[/box]

Launching “Flickers in Time: The Lockdown Edition” with this beloved classic.  It’s a blend of Old West and a thoroughly modern cinematic sensibility that really shouldn’t work as perfectly as it does.

Butch Cassidy (Paul Newman) and the Sundance Kid (Robert Redford) are the leaders of the Hole in the Wall gang of bank and train robbers.  Butch is the more laid-back one and Sundance has the hotter temper.  They love to banter with each other.  We witness several robberies.  These are generally amusing and successful.  In their last train robbery, they manag to earn the eternal wrath of the railroad owner, who forms a posse that relentlessly pursues the pair.

In the meantime, we are introduced to schoolmarm Etta Place (Katharine Ross).  She is having an affair with Sundance yet also seems to form a perfect couple with Butch. Eventually, the heat gets too close for comfort and all three decide to try their fortunes in Bolivia.

This film is firmly tied to a moment in which the bad guys became the good guys so long as they were against the Establishment, love was free and Burt Bacharach topped the pop charts. Yet it holds up extremely well.  Qualifies as a recommended lockdown view for its wry optimism, fantastic cinematography, charismatic and beautiful actors, witty dialogue, and, yes, its bouncy score.  A true classic.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid won Academy Awards in the categories of Best Writing, Story and Screenplay Based on Material Not Previously Published or Produced; Best Cinematography; Best Music, Original Song (“Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head”); and Best Music, Original Score for a Motion Picture (not a Musical).  It was nominated in the categories of Best Picture; Best Director; and Best Sound.