Day for Night (1973)

Day for Night (La nuit americaine)
Directed by Francois Truffaut
Written by Francois Truffaut, Jean-Louis Richard, and Suzanne Schiffman
1973/France
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Alexandre: [about Julie’s movie star mother) She hated the way we shoot movies – in bits and pieces! I remember escorting her to the premiere of her first big Hollywood movie. A fantastic evening! When the film ended, she sat there, then turned to me and said: “I did all that? All I remember is the waiting.”

Consummate movie fan Francois Truffaut makes the ultimate movie for film buffs.

Director Ferrand (Truffaut) is making a what sounds like a pretty trite melodrama called “Meet Pamela” on location in the French Riviera.  A young Frenchman (played by Alphonse – Jean-Pierre Leaud) and English beauty Pamela (played by Julie – Jacqueline Bisset) fall in love and marry in England.  Several months later the husband takes Pamela home to meet the folks.  Pamela falls in love with Alphonse’s 50-something father (played by Alexandre – Jean-Pierre Aumont) and runs off with him.  Both Alphonse and his mother (played by Severine – Valentina Cortese) are outraged and Alphonse vows revenge. We follow the making of this movie from the first day of production to the last.

The movie begins with several takes of an extra-laden crowd scene.  We observe the intricate choreography necessary to create every day reality.  We gradually learn to know the principals.  Alphonse is in love/lust with script-girl intern Lilian, though she is pretty clearly not as smitten with him.  Severine has developed a drinking problem and finds it hard to remember her lines or follow her blocking.  Julie is recovering from a recent nervous breakdown after which she married her doctor.  Alexandre makes mysterious visits to the local airport everyday.

In contrast to the cast, which seems to have plenty of free time to play musical beds and indulge in tantrums, the crew works at a frantic pace to stay within budget and on schedule despite repeated off-stage gitches that threaten to scuttle the whole production. And the whole way we get an insider view on how movie magic is made.

The fun the cast and crew looked to be having making this “insider” send-up of the movie business made the movie a whole lot of fun for me as well.  All the actors are great in these parts.  There’s quite a lot of Antoine Donel in Leaud’s character.  It’s always entertaining to see him get in one scrape after another due to his immaturity.  I last saw this on original release and it has only risen in my estimation.  Warmly recomended.

Day for Night won the Oscar for Best Foreign-Language Film.  Valentina Cortese received a very well-deserved nomination for Best Supporting Actress.  The film was also nominated for Best Director and Best Writing, Original Screenplay.

American trailer – fortunately I watched the subtitled version