Vitals

Jean-Louis Trintignant as Jean-Louis, serious-minded engineer and conflicted Catholic

Clermont-Ferrand, France, Christmas 1968

Film: My Night at Maud’s
(French title: Ma nuit chez Maud)
Release Date: June 4, 1969
Director: Éric Rohmer

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Considered one of the best French actors of the post-war era, the late Jean-Louis Trintignant was born 95 years ago today on December 11, 1930. Trintignant worked with many prolific directors but his sole collaboration with Éric Rohmer was the Nouvelle Vague drama My Night at Maud’s—the fourth-released of Rohmer’s “Six Moral Tales”.

My Night at Maud’s premiered at the 1969 Cannes Film Festival and would be nominated for two Academy Awards. Trintignant portrays the ambitious engineer Jean-Louis, deeply in love with the young biology student Françoise (Marie-Christine Barrault) he has seen at his church, until just before Christmas when his friend Vidal (Antoine Vitez) introduces him to the eponymous Maud (Françoise Fabian). The night of their first meeting features intense discussions ranging from ethics to existence until, at Maud’s existence, Jean-Louis spends an awkward—and initially platonic—night in her bed, acting only on his newfound attraction by kissing her before he leaves in the morning.

Through their subsequent interactions, Jean-Louis’ faith conflicts with his growing attraction to the outspoken, divorced atheist as he and Maud recognize the tragic unlikelihood of lasting love between them.

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What’d He Wear?

Jean-Louis exclusively wears suits and ties across the first hour of My Night at Maud’s, so he could be signaling how that titular night eroded his sense of formality as he dresses more casually in layered sweaters and a sheepskin jacket—an appropriately Alpine ensemble for the day’s lunch trip into the mountains.

Unlike Vidal’s sheepskin car coat that he wears over his jacket and tie, Jean-Louis’ shearling jacket is a shorter-length blouson, with the outer shell almost certainly a natural caramel-brown sueded leather. The characteristic piled fleece reverse side fully lines the inside of the body and sleeves, extending over onto the collar’s face. Four buttons fasten up the front, from waist to neck, with two additional buttons closing the waistband. The ribbed-knit cuffs and hem present a cleaner appearance than WWII-era shearling bomber jackets like the American B-3 and the English Irvin flying jacket, where the fleece remained exposed along all edges for additional warmth within poorly insulated cockpits at high altitudes.

The patch pockets positioned over Jean-Louis’ hips are covered with single-button scalloped flaps.

Jean-Louis layers under the jacket, first in a light-colored, lightweight turtleneck with a ribbed roll-neck. He then pulls on a dark crew-neck sweater in a medium-weight wool that still follows the lines of his physique so it doesn’t create excess bulk under the hefty sheepskin. He rolls back the crew-neck sweater’s set-in sleeve-ends to cuff them over each wrist.

Because the precise colors of Jean-Louis’ costume are unknown, it’s unclear how much contrast originally existed between his dark sweater and flat-front trousers. On screen, however, the combination reads as distinctly clerical—dark, restrained, and visually anchored by a light band at the neck that evokes a priest’s collar. The leather uppers of his ankle boots are so dark that they’re likely black, derby-laced and attached to heavy lug soles that provide traction while crunching through the snow.

Jean-Louis keeps his accessories sparse and function-focused: His flat, simple dress watch has a round white dial and dark leather strap and—for a mountain date trudging through the snow—he also pulls on a pair of dark leather gloves with three-point seams over the backs.

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What to Imbibe

Maud keeps a bottle of Black & White blended Scotch whisky in her home, which Vidal pours for himself over ice. But My Night at Maud’s is more meaningfully associated with Côtes-d’Auvergne Chanturgue, a red wine from the volcanic slopes surrounding Clermont-Ferrand in France’s Puy-de-Dôme, long prized locally for its freshness, minerality, and bright Gamay-driven fruit. Maud serves it with her Christmas dinner, resulting in a philosophical debate as the devout Catholic Jean-Louis praises it as a symbol of everyday gastronomic pleasure while criticizing Pascal’s ascetic indifference to food and drink. (I guess that’s better than talking politics?)

The film’s international success—particularly following its Oscar-nominated U.S. release in 1970—was influential enough that Chanturgue, once virtually unknown in America, briefly became one of the country’s most popular imported wines in the early 1970s.

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How to Get the Look

Jean-Louis contrasts his quasi-clerical layered sweaters and dark trousers with a winter-ready sheepskin blouson that—like his relationship with Maud—suggests adventure over asceticism.

• Brown sheepskin blouson jacket with natural fleece lining and collar, four-button front and two-button waistband, ribbed-knit cuffs and hem, and two patch hip pockets with narrow single-button scalloped flaps
• Light-colored lightweight turtleneck
• Dark crew-neck sweater
• Dark flat-front trousers with side pockets and plain-hemmed bottoms
• Black leather derby-laced ankle boots with heavy rubber lug soles
• Dark socks
• Dress watch with round white dial on dark leather strap
• Dark leather three-point gloves

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Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie, included among the Criterion Collection’s box set of Rohmer’s “Six Moral Tales”.

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The Quote

If I abandon my principles, it’s for something really worthwhile.