French director Ferrand is trying to direct a film, drama "Meet Pamela". Actor Alphonse plays a young man who falls in love with Pamela, played by British actress Julie Baker, but Pamela in the story leaves him when she falls in love with his father, played by ageing actor Alexandre. Julie is ironically married to an older doctor in real life. The production has to overcome several difficulties, but the major one occurs when the script-girl dumps Alphonse for a stuntman. The actor is thus depressed, and Julie lands in bed with him. Her relationship with the doctor is strained, and actor Alexandre dies in a car crash, but Ferrand manages to complete the film.
One of the best movies of the 70s, "Day for Night" is a loving, a refreshingly ironic and therapeutic semi-biographical homage to filmmaking, and alongside "Jules and Jim", "The Bride Wore Black" and "Fahrenheit 451" one of Francois Truffaut's most famous films. Constructed as a film about making a film, "Day for Night" is a clever, yet simple and elegant metafilm story where Truffaut himself plays the director Ferrand, and his frequent actor Jean-Pierre Leaud the actor in the fictional film, Alphonse. The film is filled with gentle comical situations involving obstacles that the film crew has to overcome in order to achieve their cinematic vision (a cat is too scared of the boom microphone to run towards the plate and drink milk for a take; two peasants escorting two donkeys pass by the film set and joke: "Making a movie? If you need stars, we are available!").
One of the best movies of the 70s, "Day for Night" is a loving, a refreshingly ironic and therapeutic semi-biographical homage to filmmaking, and alongside "Jules and Jim", "The Bride Wore Black" and "Fahrenheit 451" one of Francois Truffaut's most famous films. Constructed as a film about making a film, "Day for Night" is a clever, yet simple and elegant metafilm story where Truffaut himself plays the director Ferrand, and his frequent actor Jean-Pierre Leaud the actor in the fictional film, Alphonse. The film is filled with gentle comical situations involving obstacles that the film crew has to overcome in order to achieve their cinematic vision (a cat is too scared of the boom microphone to run towards the plate and drink milk for a take; two peasants escorting two donkeys pass by the film set and joke: "Making a movie? If you need stars, we are available!").
However, the most enduring features of the film are the links between the film story and the lives of the actors: in the fictional film "Meet Pamela", Julie plays the heroine who leaves her younger lad, played by Alphonse, for the older man, his father, but in real life, Julie is married to a doctor 20 years her senior, yet abandons him to land in bed with Alphonse! Several scenes are just there to dwell on the process of filmmaking, yet Truffaut is so infatuated with it that his fascination spills over on the viewers themselves. In one such funny observation, actor Alexander recounts an anecdote about a former actress: "I remember escorting her to the premiere of her first big Hollywood movie. A fantastic evening! When the film ended, she watched the screen, then turned to me and said: "I did all that? All I remember is the waiting". Truffaut's light hearted approach is occasionally indeed too light—the "juicy" twist of Julie's affair with Alphonse is underdeveloped and never has the sheer emotional kick it could have had—yet the movie is a deliciously unassuming and honest peek "behind the scenes" that will make the viewers appreciate films even more since so much effort of the crew is invested into many of them. In fact, the authors love the movies so much that it is difficult not to have a smile while watching them feign to have to endure all this to achieve their cinematic moment of timeless glory.
Grade;+++
Grade;+++
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