Philosopher Blaise Pascal wrote of marriage as the lowest state to which a Christian can descend, but Jean-Louis, the Jesuitical bachelor protagonist of this fourth installment of Eric Rohmer’s Six Moral Tales, strongly objects. “Pascal’s Wager,” he says, is a calculated utilitarian exchange, inapplicable to the spheres of religion or romance. The end result, as he spends an evening discussing religion, love and marriage with a dangerously attractive divorcee, is a fascinating reflection upon the choices and commitments that one has to make in order to enter the “adventure in sanctity” that entails living for another.
—J.A.A. Purves