Day for Night (film)
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| Day for Night | |
|---|---|
 original movie poster |
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| Directed by | François Truffaut |
| Written by | François Truffaut |
| Starring | Jacqueline Bisset Valentina Cortese Dani Alexandra Stewart Jean-Pierre Aumont Jean Champion Jean-Pierre Léaud François Truffaut |
| Music by | Georges Delerue |
| Cinematography | Pierre-William Glenn |
| Editing by | Martine Barraquè-Curie, Yan Dedet |
| Release date(s) |  May 14, 1973 (premiere at Cannes) May 24, 1973 September 6, 1974 |
| Running time | 115 min. |
| Language | French, English |
| IMDb profile | |
La Nuit américaine is a 1974 French film directed by François Truffaut. It stars Jacqueline Bisset and Jean-Pierre Léaud. In French, nuit américaine ('American night') is a technical process whereby sequences shot during the daytime are made to appear as if they are taking place at night. In the English-speaking world the film is known as Day for Night, which is the equivalent English expression.
The film is often considered one of Truffaut's greatest films, for example, it is one of two Truffaut films that feature on Time magazine top 100 list of the 100 Best Films of the Century, along with The 400 Blows.[1]
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[edit] Synopsis
La Nuit americaine chronicles the production of Je Vous Présente Paméla (Meet Pamela), a cliched melodrama starring aging screen icon, Alexandre (Jean-Pierre Aumont), former diva Séverine (Valentina Cortese), young heart-throb Alphonse (Jean-Pierre Léaud) and a British actress, Julie Baker (Jacqueline Bisset) who is 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.
[edit] Themes
One of the film's themes is whether or not movies are more important than life for those who make them. The film is known for its many allusions both to film-making and to movies themselves (perhaps unsurprising given that Truffaut began his career as a film critic who championed cinema as an art form). The film opens with a picture of Lillian and Dorothy Gish (to whom it is dedicated). In one scene, Ferrand (played by Truffaut himself) opens a package of books he had ordered: they are books on directors he admires such as Luis Buñuel, Carl Theodor Dreyer, Ingmar Bergman, Alfred Hitchcock, Jean-Luc Godard, Ernst Lubitsch, and Robert Bresson. The film makes wry allusions to Jean Renoir's The Rules of the Game[citation needed] and Marcel Ophüls's documentary The Sorrow and the Pity (used here to humourously describe a marital relationship).
There was an interesting incident reported on the DVD. The famous writer Graham Greene, has an uncredited cameo appearance as an insurance company representative in the film. On the DVD of the movie, it was reported that Greene was a big admirer of Truffaut, and had always wanted to meet him, so as it turned out, when the small part came up where he actually talks to the director, he was delighted to have the opportunity. It was reported that Truffaut was unhappy he wasn't told (until later) that the actor playing the insurance company representative was Greene, he would have liked to have said hello, as he had admired Greene's work as well.
[edit] Awards
The film won the 1974 BAFTA Award for Best Film and 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.
[edit] Cast includes
- Jacqueline Bisset
- Valentina Cortese
- Dani
- Alexandra Stewart
- Jean-Pierre Aumont
- Jean Champion
- Jean-Pierre Léaud
- François Truffaut
- Nathalie Baye
- David Markham
- Zénaïde Rossi
- Xavier Saint-Macary
[edit] External links
| Awards | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie |
Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film 1974 |
Succeeded by Amarcord |
| Preceded by Cabaret |
BAFTA Award for Best Film 1974 |
Succeeded by Lacombe Lucien |
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