Day for Night (film)
La Nuit américaine is a
1973 French film directed by
François Truffaut. It stars
Jacqueline Bisset and
Jean-Pierre Léaud. It was released in English speaking countries as
Day for Night.
Day for Night is also the name of a technical process whereby sequences shot during the daytime are made to appear as if they are taking place at night. The equivalent French expression is
La Nuit Américaine (
The American Night).
Often considered one of Truffaut's greatest films, it's regarded by many critics as the definitive film on film-making and was one of the two films directed by Truffaut which featured on
Time Magazine's list of 100 best films of the century along with
The 400 Blows.
La Nuit Americaine chronicles the production of
Je Vous Presente, Pamela(
Meet Pamela), a cliched melodrama starring aging screen icon, Alexandre(
Jean-Pierre Aumont), former diva Severine(
Valentina Cortese), young heart-throb Alphonse(
Jean-Pierre Léaud) and an American actress, Julie Baker(
Jacqueline Bisset) who's recovering from both a nervous breakdown and the controversy leading to her marriage with her much older doctor. In between are several small vignettes chronicling the stories of the crew-members and the director, Ferrand's(Truffaut himself) tangles with the practical problems one deals with when making a movie.
One of the key themes running throughout the film is whether or not movies, for those who make it are more important than life.
The film is known for its many allusions both to film-making and movies themselves.Not surprising since Truffaut started out as a critic who often championed cinema as an art form. The film opens with a picture of
Lillian and
Dorothy Gish to whom it is dedicated to and Truffaut(as Ferrand) in one scene opens a package of books he had ordered only to reveal books on directors he admires like
Luis Bunuel,
Carl Theodor Dreyer,
Ingmar Bergman,
Alfred Hitchcock,
Ernst Lubitsch,
Robert Bresson and makes wry allusions to
Renoir's The Rules of the Game and
Marcel Ophuls documentary
The Sorrow and the Pity(used here to humourously describe a a marital relationship between an overbearing wife who follows around her crew-member husband around the set much to Ferrand's amusement).
*
Jacqueline Bisset*
Valentina Cortese*
Dani*
Alexandra Stewart*
Jean-Pierre Aumont*
Jean Champion*
Jean-Pierre Léaud*
François Truffaut*
Nike Arrighi*
Nathalie Baye*
Maurice Seveno*
David Markham*
Bernard Menez*
Gaston Joly*
Zénaïde Rossi*
Xavier Saint-Macary*
Walter Bal*
Jean-François Stévenin*
Pierre ZuccaIt won the 1973
BAFTA Award for Best Film, the
Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
Valentina Cortese was nominated for the
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, and Truffaut for the
Academy Award for Directing.
