Day for Night (1973)

A committed film director struggles to complete his movie while coping with a myriad of crises, personal and professional, among the cast and crew.

Director:

François Truffaut

Writers:

François Truffaut (screenplay), Jean-Louis Richard (screenplay)

Stars:

Jacqueline Bisset, Jean-Pierre Léaud, François Truffaut

Won 1 Oscar. Another 11 wins & 7 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jacqueline Bisset	...	Julie Baker
Valentina Cortese	...	Séverine
Dani	...	Liliane, la stagiaire scripte
Alexandra Stewart	...	Stacey
Jean-Pierre Aumont	...	Alexandre
Jean Champion	...	Bertrand, le producteur
Jean-Pierre Léaud	...	Alphonse (as Jean-Pierre Leaud)
François Truffaut	...	Ferrand, le réalisateur
Nike Arrighi	...	Odile, la maquilleuse
Nathalie Baye	...	Joëlle, la scripte
Maurice Seveno	...	Le reporter TV
David Markham	...	Dr. Michael Nelson
Bernard Menez	...	Bernard, l'accessoiriste
Gaston Joly	...	Lajoie, le régisseur
Zénaïde Rossi	...	Madame Lajoie

Storyline

The shooting of "Je vous presente Pamela" (may I introduce Pamela) begins. This is the story of en English married wife falling in love and running away with the father of her French husband. Will be simultaneously shown the shooting, the behavior of the people (including the technical team) on the set, and a part of their private life (a factor of complication)...

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Plot Keywords:

film within a film | film industry | film crew | behind the scenes | filmmaking | 

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Taglines:

A movie for people who love movies.

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

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Certificate:

PG

Details

Country:

France Italy

Language:

French English

Release Date:

7 September 1973 (USA)

Also Known As:

Day for Night

Filming Locations:

Côte d'Azur, France

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$17,808, 27 July 1997, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$17,808, 27 July 1997

Company Credits

Production Co:

Les Films du Carrosse, PECF, Produzione Intercontinentale Cinematografica (PIC)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

116 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White (dream sequences) Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

When director Ferrand listens to a piece of music prepared for the film-within-a-film by Georges Delerue, he is listening to a piece from Two English Girls (1971).

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Goofs

During the filming of the car crash scene, when the stunt man backs up the car driving through the the open door, and when he jumps free as the "driverless" car supposedly heads for the cliff where it will crash, someone else is visible inside the car, actually driving.

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Quotes

Joelle: The scene needs a new idea. Call your co-writer!
Ferrand: I thought of it. He's in Japan. He's adapting Turgenev's "First Love". Set in modern Japan. Great idea!

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Crazy Credits

This film is dedicated to Lillian and Dorothy Gish.

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Connections

Referenced in Juedi fanji (1999)

User Reviews

Delicate but penetrating

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!)