Not Shakespeare's Best

Film: Conte d’Hiver (A Tale of Winter)
Format: Video from The Magic Flashdrive on laptop.

As I near the temporary end of The List, I’ve started to think about all of the films I’ve watched for this in general. There have been, naturally, a ton of subtitled films in dozens of different languages. Of all, I’m pretty sure that French has been the language I’ve heard more than any other. There have been plenty of Italian, German, Japanese, and Russian films, of course, a few in Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, Arabic, and spots here and there in at least a dozen others. But France, with all of its influence on the national cinemas of countries around the world, got the largest number of films added. So it was a surprise when I discovered that Conte d’Hiver (A Tale of Winter) is one of the last French films I have remaining.

Our film opens with two characters experiencing a passionate affair over a summer. These two are Felicie (Charlotte Very) and Charles (Frederic van den Driessche). They part, promising to stay in touch. And in a moment, we leap ahead five years.

Pascal's Wager

Film: Ma Nuit Chez Maud (My Night at Maud’s)
Format: Streaming video from Hulu on laptop.

My wife evidently forgot to update the account information when we switched payment plans for Hulu, which means I’m back to the “we don’t have Hulu” Hulu account. The vast number of films I had in my queue are, for me, no longer available. Fortunately for me, there are still a few films that can still be watched on the service without a paying account, and one of those, Ma Nuit Chez Maud (My Night at Maud’s), was the one I had planned on watching today. Sometimes things just work out. Of course, without the pay service, I had to sit through ads. The things I do for you people.

This is a very strange film, reminding me of nothing so much as My Dinner with Andre. Essentially, after about half an hour or so of dealing with our protagonist and his chance meeting with an old friend, we get to a highbrow conversation that dominates the film. This is the sort of film that rewards careful viewing, but is likely to leave a lot of the audience scratching its head. We get threads of conversation on religion and atheism, the nature of love, and the writings of Blaise Pascal, including Pascal’s Wager, which suggests that being religious is a safer bet than irreligion (but which contains several significant fallacies).