Fran§ois Truffaut's lavish and fun 1973 comedy-drama about a film production is a clever hall of mirrors, with Truffaut himself playing a director, and his most important actor in real life, Jean-Pierre Laud (The 400 Blows), portraying Jacqueline Bisset's immature costar. Day for Night is full of tales undoubtedly told out of school and repeated here in camouflage, and one can't help but be impressed with the stylistic and technical means by which Truffaut captures the adventurousness of a full-budget shoot. The cast is very good all around, with actors in some cases playing fictional thespians and in other cases playing members of the crew. A sequence set to thrilling music by Georges Delerue celebrates the whole art of filmmaking as seen from an editor's perspective--it makes one want to drop everything and shoot a film of one's own. --Tom Keogh
The leading lady is recovering from a nervous breakdown, another performer is soused on the set, unions threaten to walk, shooting must finish before the insurance lapses and a cat can't hit its mark. Is this any way to make a film? FRANCOIS TRUFFAUT's sly, humorous OscarO-winning Best Foreign Language Film (1973) that speaks the language of everyone who loves movies. JACQUELINE BISSET, JEAN-PIERRE AUMONT, VALENTINA CORTESE, NATHALIE BAYE and Truffaut star.
"Day for Night," ("La Nuit Americaine," 1973), is a widely-distributed French film by one of the leaders of the French "nouvelle vague" (New Wave) school of filmmaking, Francois Truffaut(Francois Truffaut's Adventures of Antoine Doinel (The 400 Blows / Antoine & Collette / Stolen Kisses / Bed & Board / Love on the Run) - Criterion Collection). It is a comedy/drama, a movie for people who love movies, made by a director - Truffaut--who certainly loved movie-making, and who plays the director, Ferrand, struggling to complete his movie within the movie while in the midst of a storm of financial troubles, and personal and professional problems among cast and crew.
The cast is certainly distinguished. The lovely Jacqueline Bisset (The Deep) stars as Julie Baker, the troubled American film star whom the company needs to make a financial success of the picture they are making. The veteran Italian actress Valentina Cortese (The Girl Who Knew Too Much) plays Severine, veteran actress; the veteran French actor Jean-Pierre Aumont (Heartbeat) plays Alexandre, veteran actor. They've previously worked together in Hollywood, we are told, and, apparently, are also better-acquainted than that, although Alexandre's sexuality will come into question during the making of the movie. Jean-Pierre Leaud,(Bed & Board: Domicile Conjugal) whom Truffaut frequently used to play a young man not unlike himself, plays Alphonse, an erratic, irritating, talented, selfish and spoiled young actor. Nathalie Baye(Catch Me If You Can (Widescreen Two-Disc Special Edition)), now a very popular leading French actress, in her first job fresh out of the Academie Francaise, France's most distinguished acting school, plays the script girl Joelle. The French veteran Jean Champion plays Bertrand. Graham Greene, the great English novelist, (Our Man in Havana (Penguin Classics)), who sometimes lived on the Riviera, and whom Truffaut was anxious to meet, plays an unaccredited cameo as an insurance man: Truffaut wasn't informed of his identity until later.
The film's score, a tuneful beauty, is by Georges Delerue. The script was written by Truffaut, with his frequent collaborator Suzanne Schiffman, and Jean-Louis Richard; it was, of course, directed by Truffaut. It's one of his last films, and was meant to be, with the theater-oriented The Last Metro: The Criterion Collection [Blu-ray], one of a group of films saluting the French lively arts.
The picture is set largely in the south of France, at the famous -within France, at least - Victorine Studios, an old facility whose still-standing streetscapes, used in earlier movies but never torn down due to the expense involved, quite likely enabled Truffaut's movie to be made, from the financial point of view. It deals accurately, lovingly, with the difficulties involved in making a picture, from finding a cat that can act, to the death of a principal actor during filming. It shows Ferrand, the director, as a deaf man who lives what he does, and is willing to deal with any difficulties involved. At one point, he explains to his troubled people that real life is not like the movies, things just don't happen as neatly. However, Ferrand is also, as is Truffaut's director in "The Last Metro," willing to use any scrap of the turmoil of his cast and crew, and/or to create more turmoil, if it will strengthen his product.
In sum, the movie's rather mild, as movies go, but it has some really hilarious scenes -- check out the poorly performing cat. And there's rarely been a more clear-eyed, meticulous, or affectionate portrayal of movies as they are made. So it's still worth seeing.
"Backstory"
Written By: Clare Quilty
A low-key, amiable behind-the-scenes pastry from Francois Truffaut about a film's clumsy production.
Props go awry, actors flake out, love is won, lost, teased. Truffaut directs onscreen and off.
This is amusing and always engaging, and certainly worth seeing, but neither the fictional film at the center nor the general article amount to very much. Most absorbing when it depicts just how hard moviemaking is (Valentina Cortese's breakdown is excruciating; a problem with a kitten, hilarious). Also noteworthy for its sprawl and ensemble work, both of which are Altman-esque.
"Highly enjoyable comedy-fiction about making movies"
Written By: Robert J. Crawford
This film is a great treat to those who like film but know little about how they are made. You get what is supposed to be a behind-the-scenes look into how a master director manages a whole bunch of quirky, sometimes difficult, and endearing people.
On one level, it is really excellent drama. You have a psychologically fragile star (Bisset, who was never more beautiful), a man-child co-star (a youthful Leaud), and busy director (Truffaut himself). They perform within a wonderful cast, in particular N. Baye, but also many French character actors who make brilliant often hilarious characterizations. SOmehow, they get it all done, even when they maipulate and use sex and coercion to keep it going. This part of the film is wonderful and fast moving, a true treat of melodrama. The story within a story is very fun and there are multiple layers.
When I first saw this in high school, I was utterly enthralled with it. However, as I learned later, Truffaut's New Wave colleagues disdained this film as a completely inaccurate portrayal of what filmmaking was really about. Indeed, Godard's sarcastic and critical article about it alienated the two until death. While I certainly do not know what was so inaccurate about it, this made me pause as I watched it this time - and I did not enjoy it nearly as much as the first time.
Recommended. It is a great story, even if its accuracy is open to question.
"Funny, witty and charming; this'll make you want to make a movie..."
Written By: Andrew Ellington
It may not be as sublimely rich and ultimately haunting as Federico Fellini's `8 ˝' but truth be told `La Nuit Americaine' is an astonishing film that is as clever as it is honest in its depiction of the art of filmmaking.
Director Francois Truffaut plays Ferrand, the director of the production `May I Introduce Pamela?' which stars an American actress named Julie. The film follows Ferrand's struggles with his cast, which include the diva who can't remember her lines, Severine as well as the green and somewhat unconfident Alphonse. What is also shown is the behind the scenes action, the production crew working together (and against one another), the numerous problems that can arise for any number of reasons (the cat scene is my favorite in the film) as well as actors interactions with one another and how that can affect the finished product.
It is a different approach to the same subject as `8 ˝', a film that tackled the creative side of filmmaking as apposed to the production side. Here Truffaut shows us what goes into taking what is on the printed page and transferring it onto the silver screen. It's a very large feat, and he delivers it rather well.
Some have stated that the film starts off slow, and sadly there are some slow spots throughout, but overall the film is redeemed by a witty script (which allows us to get to know each and every player intimately) as well as some superb performances. Standouts here include Valentina Cortese (who was nominated for an Oscar) as well as Jean-Pierre Leaud. Cortese is wonderful as Severine, displaying the true anxiousness from realizing you are past your prime yet refusing to acknowledge it. She is marvelously entertaining here.
Yes, it plays out like a realistic soap-opera, focus being on the word `realistic' so don't worry; this film feels nothing short of legit.
This is a very smart and very entertaining film that should be high on the lists of any lover of film, for it is an ode to the wonderful art of making that said film. This film should come with the tagline `please try at home' for this is a film that will make you appreciate film to a degree that you'll ache to try your hand at filmmaking. Truly Truffaut crafts a stunning portrait of his own career and gives us all something to talk about.
"Great movie about how to make a movie"
Written By: Alan A. Elsner
This is a wonderful love letter to the movies from Francois Truffaut who not only directs but also delivers a terrific performance as a movie director. Truffaut's character is directing what seems to be a fairly banal love triangle story. The very first scene is magical. We see a Paris street with a cafe, a square, people walking their dogs, chatting, cars driving by -- the camera picks up a couple of the characters and you wonder who the film will be about. Then someone shouts "cut" and we realize that this is a movie scene in which every tiny detail has been orchestrated. They play the scene again, but this time we hear the director's instructions and see the cameras moving around. The director has to manage all kinds of personal dramas on his set -- the aging actress soused on wine who can no longer remember her lines, the spoiled male lead who is so childish and narcissistic as to be absurd, the fragile English star (played by Bisset) with the older husband -- and the lesser characters -- the stage hands, personal aides, the director, the stuntman -- each with their own little stories. This is a mesmerizing glimpse of how movies get made by one of the true masters of the genre.
"Backstory"
"Great movie about how to make a movie"
