Truffaut's love affair with motion pictures is evident in every scene.
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There hasn't been a better movie made about the making of movies (or the love of movies) than the late French director, writer, actor, and film critic Francois Truffaut's "Day for Night." It's lightweight, it's funny, it's touching, and it's thoughtful, charming audiences the world over. Among its many awards was the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Oscar for Best Foreign Language Picture of 1973. Seldom has a movie so deserved its prizes.
By playing a character much like himself, a harried film director, and having the fictional director attempt to shoot a romantic tragedy, Truffaut gently pokes fun at the moviemaking business while at the same time expresses his total commitment to it. He deftly combines a movie being made within the movie with the lives of the actors and crew making the movie to produce a film that can be enjoyed on multiple levels. And to ensure proper results, the movie-within-the-movie parallels to some extent the actions and attitudes of the real-life actors in the movie. Understand, we have actors playing actors playing movie characters here, allowing Truffaut plenty of room for commenting on numerous aspects of life and love and art. The results are infectious.
The title "Day for Night" (in French, "La Nuit Americaine") refers to the process of shooting nighttime scenes in daylight using a special filter. It not only clues the viewer into the idea of the picture, it reminds the viewer that movies are, after all, mere imitations of real life; they are artifices using gimmicks to fool us into believing that what we're seeing on screen is actually happening, like using soap suds for snow or trick candles with hidden electric bulbs to light up a room.
The film director in the movie, Mr. Ferrand, is, as I said, played by Truffaut himself. He has his hands full trying to make a frivolous potboiler, "Meet Pamela," about a young man whose new bride falls in love with and runs off with her new father-in-law. Everything that can go wrong with a film production goes wrong, and Truffaut is said to have experienced many of these mishaps in his own career.
Jacqueline Bisset plays Julie Baker, the American star Ferrand and his producer (Jean Champion) hire to play the lead role of the young bride. Bisset is dazzlingly beautiful, both as a character in the film-within-a-film and as the actress playing the part. What's more, Julie is married to a doctor (David Markham) who appears old enough to be her father in real life! The young actor playing her husband in the film-within-a-film is Jean-Pierre Leaud, who had been in several previous Truffaut films, including "Bed and Board" and "The 400 Blows." His character, Alphonse, is insecure and naive in the ways of love. To play the lecherous father-in-law in the film-within-a-film, Truffaut chose veteran movie lead Jean-Pierre Aumont, whose character, Alexandre, is supposed to be a dashing screen idol who carries his own secrets. And to play the mother in the film-within-a-film, there is the vivacious Valentina Cortese, whose character, Severine, is an aging actress who can't understand why her old co-star, Alexandre, is still able to seduce younger women in his pictures. Sound familiar?
Everybody is trying to get the director's ear: On the one hand he's asked to make a serious political film; on the other hand he's pestered to make an erotic film. Severine drinks too much and can't remember her lines, necessitating cue cards all over the set. Actors are bickering constantly; a recalcitrant cat refuses to cooperate in a key scene; the script is being rewritten as they go along; and in the film's climax, the poor director has to deal with the real-life romantic complications of several of his principal players, leading to corresponding ironies and tragedy off the set. So life imitates art, and art imitates life.
The film is practically a seminar on filmmaking. Its behind-the-scenes glimpses of moviemaking, its handling of the day-to-day functions of the creative process, and its practical observations on the art of making illusion into reality are enlightening for the casual moviegoer, the dedicated motion-picture fan, and the seasoned filmmaker alike. "Day for Night" never attempts to be profound, and in doing so it becomes very profound, indeed.
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