Day for Night (1973) User Reviews

Delicate but penetrating

[DennisLittrell · 9/10 · 24 May 2003]

La Nuit Américaine is an interesting movie with celebrated French director Francois Truffaut playing a director making a movie. He proves to be a modest and convincing actor himself while patiently weaving a tale about how movies are made and how intense the emotional interactions among those making the movie can be.

Don't give up on this one too soon. It starts slow and seems almost amateurish because of the relatively low-tech way the film within the film is being shot. Truffaut gives us a glimpse of how the production crew works together (and sometimes at odds) while showing us some of the things that can go wrong while making a movie. He begins with the technical details of the production but before long begins to concentrate on the personalities of the movie-makers and their individual stories. Each story is carefully crafted in a somewhat leisurely way almost like the characterizations in a soap opera (without of course the phony drama and mass market sentimentality seen on TV). Truffaut's fine sense of emotional conflict and how conflict might be resolved makes the various stories touching without being maudlin.

Jacqueline Bisset who stars as English actress Julia Baker who plays the title role in the film within the film (May I Introduce Pamela?) doesn't make her appearance until about a fourth of the way in. She is a delight as an actress with a heart of gold recovering from a nervous breakdown married to an older man whom she does indeed love. Jean-Pierre Leaud, whom most viewers will recall as the running boy in Truffaut's The 400 Blows, plays a young and not entirely confident actor who gets jilted by the script girl who runs off with the stunt man during production. Bisset's warm and sisterly befriending of Leaud is, shall we say, entirely French (which gets her into trouble with her husband). This really is a skillful showcasing of Bisset since she gets to play something like an ingenue with her husband and the older woman with Leaud. Be careful you might fall in love with her.

Valentina Cortese in a fine supporting role does a most convincing job of playing the temperamental Italian actress just past her prime who quaffs champagne while working, who forgets her lines and can't find the right door, but when properly indulged gives a great performance.

My problem with this movie is I saw the dubbed version and of course that is disconcerting because one is constantly trying to reconcile the visualized actor with the dubbed one. To see Jacqueline Bisset who is beautifully fluent in both English and French speaking French while at the same time hearing someone else speaking English for her is just a bit too much to take. I understand that the DVD version is in French with subtitles. I would recommend that you get that and not the dubbed video.

Truffaut is the kind of director who allows the audience to penetrate not only his characters to see what makes them tick, but also the stars who play those characters. He does a particularly beautiful job with Bisset who is warm and wise and something close to heroic, and with Leaud whose childishness seems natural and whose pettiness forgivable. Don't believe those reviewers who think this is a slight film. It is carefully crafted and very well thought out and is a fine example of the work of the one of the great directors of the French cinema. See it for Truffaut whose delicate genius is evident throughout.

(Note: Over 500 of my movie reviews are now available in my book "Cut to the Chaise Lounge or I Can't Believe I Swallowed the Remote!" Get it at Amazon!)

Lights, Camera, Distraction...

[Xstal · 8/10 · 22 January 2023]

When making movies, it appears, there's many hurdles, the behaviour of the crew can make blood curdle, you need to keep hold of your senses, repair, rebuild, renew strained fences, as you spin, rotate and turn around in circles. Most common are the fraught relationships, musical chairs and their resulting partnerships, bonds are formed and bonds are broken, sometimes strong, quite often token, but they're guaranteed to challenge, the film script.

François Truffaut genially introduces us the often chaotic and unpredictable world of filmmaking, the perpetual challenges from the people, product and process, and the diplomatic way all manner of banana skins are traversed. Highly amusing, and with many parallels to more ordinary lives and livings, it's sure to bring a smile to your face.

Making a Film in a Tribute to the Cinema

[claudio_carvalho · 9/10 · 11 September 2011]

In Nice, the Studios La Victorine is producing the film "Je Vous Presente Pamela", about a French man that marries the English Pamela in England and brings his wife to France to introduce her to his parents. However, his father and Pamela fall in love with each other and she leaves her husband to live with her father-in-law. The producer Bertrand (Jean Champion) and the director Ferrand (François Truffaut) invite the British Julie Baker (Jacqueline Bisset), who had a nervous breakdown and married her Dr. Nelson (David Markham), to the role of Pamela.

Along the shooting, the cast and crew are lodged in the Hotel Atlantic and Bertrand and Ferrand have to deal with problems with the stars Severine (Valentina Cortese), an aging artist with drinking problems that affect her performance; the immature, spoiled and needy Alphonse (Jean-Pierre Léaud); Julie that is emotionally unstable. But in the end, they succeed to complete the film.

"La Nuit Américaine" is a film about making a film and a great tribute to the cinema. This is one of my favorite Truffaut's films and the last time I saw it was on 08 January 2001.

It is impossible to highlight performances in this film, but the mesmerizing beauty of Jacqueline Bisset shines. Jean-Pierre Léaud performs his usual role of an insecure man, using the same gestures of Antoine Doinel.

In 1992, Louis Malle explored the storyline of "Je Vous Presente Pamela" in "Damage". My vote is nine.

Title (Brazil): "A Noite Americana" ("The American Night")

Simply the greatest film about making a film ever made!

[RWiggum · 10/10 · 30 September 2003]

"Shooting a movie is like a stagecoach trip. At first you hope for a nice ride. Then you just hope to reach your destination."

Early in the film, director Ferrand, played by François Truffaut, says this in a voice-over of 'Day for Night'. A lot of the film illustrates that this is a very true sentence.

In his legendary Hitchcock book, Truffaut says at one point that it would be a nice idea to make a film about making a film, and Hitchcock agrees. Luckily Truffaut liked that idea enough to actually make this film, as 'Day for Night' is probably the best film ever made about making a film.

We are on the set of 'Meet Pamela'. 'Meet Pamela' is a love and revenge story, about a man falling in love with daughter-in-law. It looks very much like a pretty mediocre film. I doubt I would like it. But that's good, as it doesn't distract us from what's happening on the set, from the many characters.

We get to know the cast and crew of 'Meet Pamela': Julie Baker, a second generation Hollywood star whose nervous breakdown she's recovering from causes insurance problems; Alphonse, a very jealous, very neurotic French actor who's so madly in love with a girl he organizes the job of the script girl for her just to have her near; Alexandre, a veteran actor who played many lovers in his life, but is actually a closet homosexual; Severine, an Italian actress with an alcohol problem who used to play opposite Alexandre frequently in her career, but hasn't talked to him in years, maybe because she found out she had no chance to become his real-life lover. From the crew, we especially remember Joelle, the production assistant who almost seems to be more involved in the making of the film than director Ferrand (it is her who has the film's most often quoted line: "I'd drop a guy for a film, but I'd never drop a film for a guy"), Liliane, the girl who got the job as a script girl only because Alphonse wanted to have her around him, who doesn't really seem to be interested in the film - or in Alphonse; Odile, the makeup girl who also got a bit part in the film; Bernard, the prop man, who gives us with his every day work a look behind the scenes of a film; and the unit manager Lajoie, whose wife is always around and at one point shouts at the cast and crew because she just can't understand their 'immoral' behavior.

The film doesn't have a plot of it's own, but it shows us all these characters and their problems, trying to get a film made and getting over one catastrophe after the next, sometimes something as harmless as a kitten refusing to drink milk or Stacey, a supporting actress causing scheduling problems because of her pregnancy, sometimes something more serious as Alphonse refusing to go on acting after Liliane leaves the set with a stunt man, with even more complications to follow when Julie tries to cure Alphonse's neurosis. But not even a lethal car accident can stop the making of the film.

'Day for Night' also has brilliant performances, but three stand out: Nathalie Baye in her first notable performance as the omni-competent Joelle and Jean-Pierre Léaud, who never was better in his life than here as Alphonse, would make it a worthwhile film alone. But it is Valentina Cortese who steals the show as the fading actress Severine. Her scene opposite Alexandre in which she can't remember her dialog and suggests just saying numbers (she did the same when she worked with "Federico") is priceless.

At one point Ferrand says that a director is a man who is constantly asked many questions and sometimes knows the answer, and it is sort of a surprise that the one man who "invented" the auteur theory, which more or less says that a film is the director's work, makes a film that shows how many people's work is involved in the making of a film. But it is not only a film about people making films: Many of the characters (most notably Ferrand, Alphonse and Joelle) are film enthusiasts, and the entire film is a film from a film lover about film lovers for film lovers. It's Truffaut's best and shouldn't be missed by cinephiles.

A movie made with skill and affection

[marissas75 · 10/10 · 16 January 2006]

François Truffaut's "Day for Night" ("La nuit américaine") is a movie about the making of another movie, "Meet Pamela" ("Je vous présente Pamela"). From the snippets we see of "Meet Pamela", it looks like an insignificant and silly little film, even though its stars are fond of describing it to the press as a "modern tragedy." However, they mostly don't have time to philosophize about the larger meaning of "Meet Pamela"--they're just trying to film the darn thing!

"Day for Night" is an ensemble movie, showing how the many kinds of people on a film set surmount the many minor crises inherent in film-making. There are romantic entanglements and misalliances, as well as technical problems (e.g. the film's title refers to the necessity of shooting a nighttime scene using daylight and a special filter).

Valentina Cortese has some unforgettable, hilarious scenes as Severine, an alcoholic actress who can't remember her part. Also good are Nathalie Baye as an unflappable continuity girl; Jean-Pierre Léaud as an intense but callow young actor; and Jacqueline Bisset as an actress trying to survive the movie-making process after having suffered a nervous breakdown the prior year.

All these elements make "Day for Night" an entertaining movie. But upon reflection, I'm amazed at the craftsmanship it involved. Taking on the role of Ferrand, the director of "Meet Pamela," is Truffaut himself. He makes Ferrand into a professional, unassuming, and likable figure--it feels as though Truffaut put a lot of himself into his role. So it takes some conscious effort to disentangle Truffaut from Ferrand, but once that happens, Truffaut's astounding achievements become clear. As co-writer of the screenplay, Truffaut had a hand in everything that is said; as director of "Day for Night," he set up every shot in the movie. Even the shots in which he appears as Ferrand. Even the complicated shots that show the backstage workings of a movie set and feel so realistic that it's strange to think of them as having been set up. He shoots "Meet Pamela" unexceptionally, usually with a static camera (Ferrand-style) while the "real-life" scenes use hand-held cameras and other exciting techniques (Truffaut-style). It would probably take multiple viewings to appreciate all of what Truffaut did here.

I suppose this means that "Day for Night" is a noteworthy example of the "auteur theory." But that sounds like too dry and academic a summary for a movie that was made not only with superb skill, but also with a palpable love for cinema and love for life.

A classic love poem to filmmaking, witty, elegant, humane and entrancing

[mjkarlin · 10/10 · 10 January 2004]

Many movies have been made about moviemaking but none surpass Day for Night (La Nuit Américaine) for its humanity, its warmth and its genuine feel for Director François Truffaut's approach to his art and craft. The film follows Truffaut, in effect playing himself, as he makes a somewhat banal little romance called "Meet Pamela" (Je Vous Présente Pamela) with Jacqueline Bisset, Jean Pierre Aumont, Valentina Cortese (who was nominated for and should have won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress) and Jean-Pierre Léaud. It conveys the chaos of filmmaking process in front of and behind the camera and behind the scenes.

There are occasional false notes - the production manager's wife who insists on being on the shoot and watches disapprovingly as the cast and crew move in and out of each other's rooms, as funny as she is, simply doesn't ring true to the film - but in so many more cases, the details, the emotions, the mad combination of giddiness, passion and meticulousness that are needed to make a film, are captured so as to make you forget the slightly dated early 70s look. And Jacqueline Bisset is timelessly stunning in this film.

Minor notes: The movie launched the film career of Nathalie Baye as the continuity girl - her first major role; Graham Greene, the great English novelist (The Quiet American, Brighton Rock, etc.) had an uncredited cameo as the Insurance Agent - Truffaut directed the scene but did not know who the actor was until after the shot was in the can; Maurice Séveno, who appears briefly as a TV reporter, was a well-know French TV news anchor in the 60s and 70s; the score by Georges Delerue, who collaborated on many Truffaut movies, is lovely without being cloying.

Cinema Reine!

[slokes · 10/10 · 15 December 2007]

"No sentimentality - just play notes!" is the instruction we hear over the credits that open "Day For Night". About three seconds later, we see silent film stars Dorothy and Lillian Gish striking highly theatrical poses, with a signed inscription by director Francois Truffaut saying the film has been dedicated to them.

So is sentimentality a good thing or a bad thing? Truffaut may be playing it both ways, yet "Day For Night" makes a great argument in both directions. You need to feel something to pour so much heart and soul into movie-making, but you also need to be hard-hearted, say for example if an actor dies before a film is wrapped or a cat won't drink milk on cue. "Day For Night" strikes an amazing balance between hard and soft, happy and sad, comedy and tragedy, and in the end offers a unique take not only on movies but on life itself.

"What a funny life we lead," says the aging starlet Severine (Valentina Cortese), summing up "Day For Night's" take on the ephemerality of both departments. "We meet, we work together, we love each other, and then, as soon as we grasp something - pfft - it's gone. See?" But if there is some consolation in Truffaut's view, it is the companionship life offers, especially on a film set, where families of intense passion and strength can sprout up in an instant.

Cortese is a treat, with both her sweetness and her lighter moments. Severine tries to make a dramatic exit in one scene but keeps opening a closet door. Everyone in this film shines in some way, selling you utterly on the idea you are not watching a movie but eavesdropping on a real set, even as Truffaut constantly makes references to the fact "Day For Night" is a movie. Jacqueline Bisset plays an actress known for being in "that movie with the car chase" while Jean-Pierre Léaud's character's girlfriend complains "he wants the whole world to pay for his unhappy childhood."

Truffaut was responsible for Léaud's unhappy childhood, of course, but, avoiding sentimentality, makes his young actor protégé more of a heavy and comic foil this time out, playing not Antoine this time but another fellow named Alphonse. Léaud rewards his director with a genuinely funny take-off on his intensity from other Truffaut films.

I also love Bisset, who as Julie gives the film a bit of real heart as the one character who has something of a life beyond movies, with a middle-aged lover she cares for almost sheepishly. Yet it is she who exemplifies "the show must go on" by risking her life outside the picture in order to save the picture itself.

Even Truffaut does a good turn as a major character, playing a film director. Truffaut always worked best as a slightly ruffled authority figure, here urging a tipsy Severine not to go through her difficult scene reciting numbers: "In France, we have to say the lines!"

There's very little I would want to change in this film, not even the garish 1970s clothes which give this film an appropriate aura of informality. It's soapy, yes, but so's life at times, and like life, it really makes you want to stick around for the moments it gets right. Sentiment may be dangerous to performance, but it seems worth having around in the end.

Truffaut's devoted work! Cortese's magnificent performance!

[marcin_kukuczka · 7/10 · 15 June 2004]

Truffaut's movie, dedicated to two great silent stars Lilian and Dorothy Gish, is very specific since it shows how a movie is being made from a technical as well as personal point of view. The content may seem to be boring for some people. However, it is not exactly so for many people since lots of us would like to see the real wings of a film and Truffaut's movie does a perfect job in this aspect.

The cast are generally good but the quality of performances is raised by very few individuals. The actors and actresses have a double work to do: to play in the film which is being shot, MAY I INTRODUCE PAMELA, as well as to play in DAY FOR NIGHT. Jacqueline Bisset is supposedly the main star of the film. Yet, she is far from best. Sometimes, it is felt that she cannot combine her role in DAY FOR NIGHT with her role of Pamela. She looks confused at switching to two different realities. There are some less famous French cast, like Dani or Jean-Pierre Aumont, who do a good job, but do not appear to be particularly memorable. However, the person who absolutely shines in her role is, in my opinion, Valentina Cortese. The Italian stage and movie actress, born in Milan, was cast by such great directors as Antonioni, Fellini, and Zeffirelli. She was always very good. But here, in Truffaut's movie, she gives one of her very finest performances. She beautifully combines the role of an actress and the role of Alfonso's mother. It's just a perfect flow between these two. I have watched the entire film twice, but the scenes with Ms Cortese - ten times. Her facial expressions in the portrayal of Severine, an alcoholic desperate movie star, her constant forgetting of the lines and opening wrong door, her whole acting REALLY DESERVE AWARDS!

Since the film's content deals with making movies, I would like to concentrate on one more aspect: how it really shows movie making and people who take part in it. Here, I must say that Truffaut did something unforgettable and universal. While watching DAY FOR NIGHT, a viewer is led to a wonderful journey into the core of film making. One can see, for instance, the scene shooting, problems with direction, writing the script, the private problems of the cast, the way others perceive the works, director's real devotion, including ultimate work - "Who is a director?...Someone who is constantly being asked". Finally, the film touches the most serious problem: what happens if an actor dies during filming... This is something that happens rather rarely (thank goodness); yet, it's double tragedy. Truffaut also develops the characters of actors and actresses - these are not only people who act but complex individuals.

I recommend DAY FOR NIGHT to those people who are interested in film-making. Truffaut did a piece of marvelous job and I am glad that Valentina Cortese was cast by him and her performance resulted in awards. She really deserves it.

I Dare Anybody

[Piafredux · 4 May 2003]

I dare anybody to resist becoming involved with the characters in 'La Nuit Americaine". This is brilliant cinema storytelling upheld by a superb cast (my favorite is Nathalie Baye as the Continuity Girl - and not because she speaks the best line in the film; but Valentina Cortese's turn as Severine is delicious too). The editing here, too, is a tour de force of film art - actually, I'm surprised that few critics have mentioned it in their rush to acclaim 'La Nuit Americaine' as <<la grande hymne a la cinema>>. Most of all this film is as densely layered and as sweet as a Napoleon pastry - indeed, near its ending Truffaut lavishes its set with frosting.

Some claim that 'La Nuit Americaine' has dated. Well, it can date me any day, anytime, anywhere (and, yes, that was an oblique reference to the best line Nathalie Baye delivers). With this film Francois Truffaut cut and polished and gave, from his intellect and heart, a gem whose facets and heart will sparkle eternally. An absolute must for everyone's "don't miss" list.

Interesting, entertaining and enjoyable

[poshbloke · 10/10 · 30 March 2006]

I still think it's my favourite of Truffaut's, even though my French teacher rolled his eyes, thinking I could have picked a more obscure choice! The reason why I love it so much, is that it has so much to it. Not only is it a clever tale of a film inside a film, but Truffaut also gives you a view into his own world, as well as those of his actors and crew. Truffaut provides some advice on being a film maker in a friendly manner, and you get the impression that this person is really interested in engaging with the audience in a down to earth manner. There is development and a little explanation of the characters which have appeared in his earlier films, particularly Antoine, of course, which I liked, although it's not completely on a plate of course. All in all, def worth a watch.

Overrated trifle

[allyjack · 6/10 · 9 July 1999]

The movie is good on the details of how the crew is thrown together like a crazy family, with all the frictions and tensions yet all the affection that survives despite obnoxious behaviour. The history and greatness of cinema is evoked mainly by name-dropping rather than through the substance of what s shown - the film within the film, Meet Pamela, seems to be fairly inconsequential, and that quality sadly pervades Truffaut's film too. The elegant whirlwind of connections and incidents and couplings and mishaps seems partly like a self-regarding somewhat self-complimentary inside joke and partly just like an artistic trifle. Most lacking of all is the character of the director himself, who has less of a back story than almost any other and remains a cipher - less of a benevolent father (as perhaps intended) and more a passive functionary who sidesteps any ability the movie might have had to delve into the real nature of the medium. Touches like his using the Bisset character s real-life dialogue in an equivalent movie scene play with the boundary, but it's not much.

A close and intriguing look at the film-making process

[MaxBorg89 · 10/10 · 20 December 2005]

François Truffaut's La Nuit Américaine is one of the most remarkable achievements in the "film within the film" genre. The movie stars Truffaut himself (who else could possibly play the role?) as Ferrand, an experienced director who's working on a new feature, "Je vous prèsente Pamela" (I introduce Pamela), and La Nuit Américaine showcases the difficulties of the production: props not working, actors struggling to memorize their lines, crew members leaving the project and scenes that have to be shot various times before Ferrand nails them (the "bad actor-cat" scene is a must-see). You know the bloopers that are sometimes included on the DVDs? Same thing, only funnier. Truffaut is brilliant in showing how different an actor can be from his on-screen persona (Jean-Pierre Léaud is outstanding as selfish, spoiled Alphonse), the cast and crew's private lives affecting or being affected by the making of the film, and how the slightest detail can change an otherwise foolproof schedule.

The most intriguing aspect of this movie, however, is perhaps the autobiographical elements the director has added: it basically sums up Truffaut's entire career, with references to his previous masterpieces (Léaud's presence being the most obvious one), and he has clearly based the character of Ferrand on himself (the flashback with the then 9-year old film lover stealing pictures of Citizen Kane is pure movie magic). He fascinates us so much we don't immediately realize the film was made under the same circumstances as the fictitious flick the characters are trying to achieve.

A flawless love letter to cinema, La Nuit Américaine should be on everyone's must-see list. Thirty years on, it has lost none of its appeal.

Tru Faux

[writers_reign · 6/10 · 24 April 2005]

I found this more interesting in my capacity as a student of irony than my capacity as a movie buff. It was pleasantly rewarding to see the iconoclast and arch advocate of the 'auteur' school shooting a film about making a film that showed just how much of a team effort film making actually is yet even then he could not avoid a petulant 'voice-over' comment that from now on films would no longer be made under the old rules that demanded scripts and studios but in the streets with ad libbing all round. Shrewdly the iconoclast is aware that movie buffs enjoy seeing films ABOUT films but even his giant ego doesn't run to supposing he could ever eclipse The Bad And The Beautiful or Sunset Boulevard and for an 'auteur' he gave the lion's share of the writer credit to two other people. The film is worth seeing for the 'inside' look at film making and for the performances of Valenina Cortese and the young Nathalie Baye in only her third film and the one that first got her noticed. I'm never going to fully embrace Truffaut but with this film and La Dernier Metro he has made something at least watchable.

So-so

[Cosmoeticadotcom · 5/10 · 10 September 2008]

In his films he shows considerably more technical skill, overall, than his great rival, Jean-Luc Godard; but even when Godard woefully misfires, as in some of his early films, he's at least striving for something. Truffaut, by comparison, likes shiny, pretty things, and anything that disturbs that safe universe is averse to him. Thus, his 116 minute long, 1973 filmic take, Day For Night (La Nuit Américaine), on the behind the scenes goings on at the making of a movie amount to little, as neither the exterior film, the interior film, nor the extra-exterior of the viewer watching the film, satisfies on any level. The characters on all levels are rather vapid, if not outright cardboard characters, and it's a tossup as to which set of characters are more vapid- those who portray actors in Day For Night (whose title derives from film scenes that are shot day for night, wherein a filter is used to give the look of night while shooting in daylight, yet the metaphor of which is pointless to the actual film), or those the actors portray within the interior film Meet Pamela (Je Vous Présente Pamela- literally May I Introduce Pamela). On either level, the action is purely melodramatic. Critics argue the film shows how much François Truffaut loves film. So? Love without action or meaning is rather sterile- the perfect description for this well made but dull and simply pointless film. There have been many films made about the making of film, or meta-films on the subject, even going back to the silent era. But, the two most interesting comparisons to be drawn with this film would be from films released a decade earlier. One by Truffaut's rival- Godard, who made Contempt (Les Mepris), and the other by Federico Fellini: 8½ (Otto E Mezzo).... Still, despite its awards and reputation, Day For Night is not near a great film, merely an adequate one, whose greatest failing is its being too long for its banal and lightweight screenplay to sustain itself. If it lost 30-35 minutes it could have been more successful. Then again, I may as well grow wings, for the screenplay aspect of films was never high on the list of the French New Wave filmmakers, who were birthed out of the atrocious Cahiers Du Cinéma magazine on film theory. The filmmakers who came from this milieu (Truffaut, Godard, Eric Rohmer, Jacques Rivette, Claude Chabrol) were generally not good writers (with the exception of Louis Malle), even if they were competent technical and visual stylists. Their writing, as critics, was routinely bad, consisting of purple prose that dealt with the criticism of intent, rather than substance, and was usually only undershot by the often worse ideas they espoused. Thus, Day For Night's failure is no surprise. It is too prosaic, flat, and hollowly predictable to succeed as great art, even if it is an interesting diversion, at times. Compared to a film like John Cassavetes Opening Night, which similarly details the dramatic goings on of a stage production, it is fey and forgettable. Say what?

Magic Kitty

[tedg · 25 September 2003]

Spoilers herein.

Start with the notion that film has life. Film life has its own cosmology and energy that adapts and sustains.

Stripped of all the unnecessary bumph, this is the notion behind the New Wave, the Old New Wave that is. At first, they mistook this life for real life, or something like it. So they developed an elaborate, Italian-inspired theory of truth, meaning that the camera sees and conveys truth in real life, presented journalistically. Or, as they would hope, naturalistically.

Truffault struggled with this limit in his writing and then filmmaking, Godard as well -- each coming to a different solution. Truffault's new insight was to rediscover the notion of reflexive layers, first developed by Welles in "Kane." This is his essay on his discovery and so far as the placement of narrative was far more influential than anything of Welles.

The notion of journalistic truth was out, but the core belief of film AS life stayed. Not depicting or discovering life, but creating it. There is a relationship between ordinary life and film life, so why not make a film with precisely those two worlds? Why not add another layer: real, real life.

So we have the real real world which consists of director Truffault and a collection of actors. We have the film real world where they play a director and actors, and we have the film film world of the movie being made. Three levels. This follows what I call Ted's law: the level of abstraction between level 1 and 2 is precisely the same and in the same direction as between levels 2 and 3.

Welles used the notion of constructed realities for his layers, goofed with the camera and ran through the whole menu of narrative devices. Truffault discards the last two and transforms the first: instead of film as an artificial, constructed life, it has its own sort of life that captures people. Pinter would take this step from "Kane" to "Day" the next step with "French Lieutenant's Woman" where each life (of film and "reality") partially constructs the other, and blessing each with greater power. (Almodovar attempts the next step in the same direction with "Tie Me Up" and "Talk to Her.")

Much is made by others of the humanity of the story and the characters, but that is all incidental. Some people are magic, and so they are in film. It is a matter of the magic, not of the people. As a side observation, all the true magicians here are women and the level of their magic is denoted by the redness of their hair. The minor plot points deal with different foibles of that magic, as if it were an "8 1/2" focused on women.

Three scenes particularly stand out for me:

-- the much celebrated scene where Truffault sets Julie's hands (but watch the movement of Truffault's hands)

-- the non-magical kitty who can't cross boundaries into the next world and is replaced with the "set cat" by our ubermagical Joellne

-- the children playing a card game where everyone in the film (the real film) is a card operating under clear rules

The dream sequence borrowed from Bergman was also a nice, if esoteric touch.

Watch this. It changed everything that followed.

Ted's Evaluation -- 4 of 3: Every cineliterate person should experience this.

The reality of illusion

[jutulen · 10/10 · 30 December 2002]

La Nuit américaine (1973) or Day for Night as it's also known, is a classic film about making films. Whereas Fellini's 8 1/2 focuses on the inner creative process of the film director, Day for Night focuses on the practical details of physically making the film. We see the often absurd process Ferrand (the director played by director Francois Truffaut) and crew engage in to create a film.

The director must constantly answer questions about every detail of props, sets, camera, lighting, costumes and at the same time engage in a constant delicate negotiation with the actors. In one scene Ferrand is frustrated as he tries to direct a cat: "Listen, it's very simple. We'll stop and begin shooting again when you find me a cat who knows how to act!" Ferrand tells the actors whatever they need to hear to keep them going. He strokes some egos and treat others as children as he negotiates the turmoil of their personal lives when it affects their performance in the film. The whole process of making the film is a controlled chaos with many details and even the story constantly changing. Towards the end of the making of the film, one of the actors die, making it necessary to do a last-minute re-write. Day for Night is an entertaining film that shows the good, the bad and the ugly of making a film. While the technology and process has changed a bit since this film was made, the core of the story is as relevant today as it was then.

Unfeigned look at filmmaking

[stimpy_tr · 8/10 · 19 December 2020]

I necessarily compared this film to 8 1/2 (1963) of Fellini and liked it very much. The latter was plotless with disjointed and repeating scenes taken in a surreal mood. However, this one looks so real. It is like a documentary on filmmaking. I have always wondered how it is like making a film, and what difficulties a director would have.

What is special about this film is that all the story about filmmaking and lives of the staff are presented in bits and pieces with short dialogues or using simple objects which seem awkward at the beginning, but later in different stages of the film, all those bits and pieces are recollected to form a complete production.

interesting look into the world of film making

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 7 August 2005]

This movie reminded me very much of Fellini's movie, 8 1/2--except it seemed a little more narrative and a lot less surreal than the Italian film. For some, this might mean that this Truffaut film is perhaps a little less "exciting" and more concrete, but I still preferred it to 8 1/2. Truffaut played, what else, a film director making a film entitled "Pamela". It was a little odd that the names were all changed--the actors, director, producer, etc. I think this is because this isn't really a documentary but a movie about you watching a movie being made and so it isn't exactly reality. This left some questions, though, about where reality and fiction diverged. In particular, I was curious if Truffaut REALLY was hard of hearing, as in the role of the director he wore a hearing aid. I never saw Truffaut with one before, though he couldn't have worn it when he acted in the movie Wild Child, as it was set in the later 18th century! Overall, the film was very interesting and worth watching. Great? Not really, but certainly on of Truffaut's better films and much more conventional that the similar but wildly surreal film 8 1/2.

A Film about joys of cinema

[FilmCriticLalitRao · 10/10 · 19 March 2003]

La Nuit Americaine is an exuberant celebration of the joy of film-making, The title refers to the effect of night in a day.Truffaut has resourcefully tackled the most haunted question "Is Cinema superior to life".The film is an engaging drama about the people involved in making a film. Truffaut has declared on numerous occasions that real incidents experienced by him were the material for this film.La Nuit Americaine is a meaningful film about the hardships one must endure while making a film.Making a film about a film is a complicated task but Truffaut succeeded with ease in creating an oeuvre of exceptional beauty.Cinema is shown as a big family in which Truffaut as film director Ferrand has to take care of everything including the bad mood of his players.La Nuit Americaine is an honest film which gives you an idea about the fact that personal problems don't matter,if you are taking part in a film.It is the cinema which rules.Truffaut wished that the public would love to watch this film as much as he enjoyed making it.La Nuit Americaine,which Truffaut dedicated to Lilian and Dorothy Gish,was one of the last films to have been shot at the famous Victorine studios

"That last one was good, but let's redo it"

[evening1 · 6/10 · 25 July 2021]

What a unique form of work to be on a movie set! This film made me want to sign up.

Here we have French director Francois Truffaut -- "Je ne vis que pour le cinéma" -- playing himself with patience and focus as he orchestrates the myriad pieces of a romance (Plot: "She realizes the boy she's married is a pale reflection of his father").

Shooting a movie is like "crossing the Wild West by stagecoach" Truffaut says early on. "You start out hoping for a nice trip, but soon you wonder if you'll ever reach your destination."

It's a daunting undertaking, with one's raw material a collection of humans each inhabiting his own personal stage. There's leading lady Julie (Jacqueline Bisset), who's just gotten past a nervous breakdown -- is she ready for the role? Another actress drinks a bit too much -- in real life, her son is ill and soon will die. Then there's the male character obsessed with a crew gal who callously sleeps around. And the technical guy whose jealous wife follows him everywhere -- "she makes life hell for him, but he's too weak to dump her."

Despite such minidramas, Truffaut must come up with a seamless whole. And that means being creative and spontaneous. Central casting's cutie-pie cat hasn't eaten for three days, but still won't lick a bowl of cream on cue. Grab another feline and see if it will perform!

The movie's script is ever-evolving. Julie wants to prepare for her next day's shoot -- only her lines haven't been written yet. No worries -- at some point, they're slipped under her hotel-room door.

The heart of this movie arrives in Truffaut's fatherly counsel to a histrionic young player about to chuck his career.

"It's the work that matters," he says. "No one's personal life runs smoothly -- that's only in the movies...Movies move along like a train in the night, and people like you and me are only happy in our work."

Truly, wise words for us all.

And a coda from the winsome, enigmatic character Julie: "Thanks to him, I know I can change my life."

marvelous

[tobiasn · 9/10 · 12 July 2004]

Jean-Pierre Léaud suppresses a smile at the end of two scenes, in a amazing way. You may have to love the movie to notice.

One scene is the one where director comforts 'Alphonse' in the hallway of his hotel room. What shines out here is how much respect Léaud and Truffaut had for each other. The actor is not just enjoying pretending to be serious, he is appreciating the ironies in the script, everything.

The other time is when the assistant finds 'Alphonse' riding toy cars, when he comes screeching to a halt in the little vehicle. You can tell Léaud cannot help but break into a miniscule smile. Very subtle, but it is there.

I loved the magazine-cover scene. The score to 'Pamela' has to be played over the phone to the composer (something like that), so we get to hear the music as we are shown shots of magazine covers depicting film directors. Only trivial in the sense that a beautiful sunset is trivial.

What is great about this movie is that is not serious but at the same time it is serious. For instance, I think it is unfair to criticize Bisset for a leaden performance, her role is the most difficult because she has to play tragic in a comedy.

I love the title (both the French one and the American one), but it might give a false impression about this fun movie.

More than any other non-serious movie, I highly recommend watching 'Day for Night' from the beginning. If you start in the middle it might come across as lightweight, its subtleties lost.

A Painless Primer On Film

[R Becker · 7/10 · 2 February 2006]

There's nothing very profound about DAY FOR NIGHT, but it is a fun examination of how films are made, what it's like to be on a set making them, and the obsession with film that fuels them. Truffaut is just a bit of a ham playing the director, but he keeps it so businesslike that you don't really concentrate on what he's doing. Bisset is eye candy but has a pivotal role built on the adage that "the show must go on," and the rest of the cast is entertaining. The real star is the cinematographer, whose visuals are often a dance between the camera we see through and the cameras in the film-within-a-film. Overall, if you'd like to know how movies are made (and somehow haven't absorbed that information by osmosis!), DAY FOR NIGHT is a sweet and harmless introduction to the world of movies.

Star rating: 5 out of 5

[jennifer_litchfield · 9/10 · 27 December 2002]

Day For Night (also called La Nuit Américaine) is a captivating glimpse into the mechanics of the film-making industry. It is a film within a film - the plot concerns the trials and tribulations (both human and technical) involved in the production of the fictional movie "I Want To Present Pamela".

We are inducted into the world of director François Truffaut and his motley band of cast and crew as they cope with the seemingly endless difficulties in trying to make a film they can be proud of in a limited amount of time. There are tempestuous actors who storm off the set, canisters of film which go missing, and even the death of an actor during filming to deal with. And yet, through all this, the film itself reigns supreme.

Day For Night is a French film, so unfortunately for English-speaking viewers some of the feeling is possibly lost in translation (either through dubbing or subtitling). However, the essence of the film remains, helped in no small part by some montage sequences set to Georges Delerue's wonderful orchestral score.

The film was made almost thirty years ago, so looking at it from a purely historical perspective, it might seem a little dated. However, to see it merely as a representation of a point in time is to miss entirely the message contained within the movie; this message being that films are timeless. So whilst we might smile nostalgically at the clothes (most of which are unbelievably tight), the aspects of human relationships revealed are as relevant today as they were in 1973.

Night for day.

[dbdumonteil · 7/10 · 6 August 2001]

François Truffaut had always despised his French colleague André Cayatte.When he was a journalist,he used to pan him as hell!And what's funny lays in the fact that "day for night" ressembles "Les Amants de Verone" ,a movie by ... André Cayatte (1948)So,25 years after Cayatte,the "modern " Truffaut bestows on us "a movie in the movie"! Well,"la nuit americaine" has a certain spontaneity, a friendly side,some good actors-Jacqueline Bisset is the stand -out,beautiful and efficient,Jean-Pierre Aumont,Alexandra Stewart in a cameo- ,but some atrocious ones -Jean-Pierre Léaud,certainly less unbearable when dubbed in English,Tina Aumont,hysterical and theatrical,Bernard Menez,generally relegated to dumb French comedies. François Truffaut is dynamic,he believes in what he's doing,but he seems smug ,brimming with self-esteem.Just compare his act with his modest but wonderful portrayal of Doctor Itard in "l'enfant sauvage". Neither the "real story "not the screenplay (Meet Pamela) are really astounding,Truffaut intertwines them with gusto,and he effectively gives spice to it with cinebuff references.The "little-child-I-was" black and white shots are overkill.They are redundant and pretentious:dreamlike scenes are not Truffaut's forte.

ho hum

[g61268-1 · 3/10 · 28 April 2017]

Truffaut's film about making a film is rather like a documentary. There's no real drama, no real comedy, and in fact it made no emotional impact on me. The closest the film comes to being dramatic is one scene where we're told that one of the characters died off screen, and another in which an actress had been drinking and can't remember her lines, but even these are less weighty than what you might see in a made-for-TV movie about a runaway teenager.

There's also a brief dream sequence in which the director as a boy steals movie stills from Citizen Kane, as Truffaut's alter ego Jean-Pierre Léaud did fourteen years earlier in The 400 Blows — a far, far better film. Speaking of Jean-Pierre Léaud, in 1973 he appeared not only in Day For Night but starred in Jean Eustache's masterpiece La Maman et la Putain. Check it out just to compare the performances, and the relative power of the two stories.

Truffaut's friend and colleague Jean-Luc Godard reportedly walked out of Day For Night and then wrote him a letter saying that the film was "a lie", and the two never spoke again. I managed to watch the whole movie, but won't bother to a second time. Three stars for the physical beauty of Jacqueline Bisset, Dani, and Nathalie Baye.