- Day for Night (film)
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Day for Night 
Theatrical poster by Bill GoldDirected by François Truffaut Written by François Truffaut Starring Jacqueline Bisset
Valentina Cortese
Dani
Alexandra Stewart
Jean-Pierre Aumont
Jean Champion
Jean-Pierre Léaud
François TruffautMusic by Georges Delerue Cinematography Pierre-William Glenn Editing by Martine Barraquè-Curie, Yan Dedet Release date(s) 14 May 1973 (Cannes)
24 May 1973 (France)Running time 115 minutes Country France Language French La Nuit Américaine is a 1973 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 filmed outdoors in daylight are underexposed 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.
Contents
Plot
La Nuit Américaine chronicles the production of Je Vous Présente Paméla (Meet Pamela), a clichéd 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 (Truffaut himself) tangles with the practical problems one deals with when making a movie. Behind the camera, the actors and crew go through several romances, affairs, break-ups, and sorrows. The production is especially shaken up when Alphonse's fiancee leaves him for the film's stuntman, which leads him to a one night stand with Julie, when one of the secondary actresses is revealed to be pregnant, and when Alexandre is killed suddenly in a car crash.
Themes
One of the film's themes is whether or not movies are more important than life for those who make them, 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 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, Roberto Rossellini and Robert Bresson.
The writer Graham Greene has a cameo appearance as an insurance company representative in the film, credited as "Henry Graham".[1] 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.
Recognition
The film was screened at the 1973 Cannes Film Festival, but wasn't entered into the main competition.[2]
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.
The film is often considered one of Truffaut's greatest films. For example, it is one of two Truffaut films featured on Time magazine's top 100 list of the 100 Best Films of the Century, along with The 400 Blows.[3]
Cast
- Jacqueline Bisset as Julie
- Valentina Cortese as Severine
- Dani as Liliane
- Alexandra Stewart as Stacey
- Jean-Pierre Aumont as Alexandre
- Jean Champion as Bertrand
- Jean-Pierre Léaud as Alphonse
- François Truffaut as (Director) Ferrand
- Nathalie Baye as Joelle
- David Markham as Doctor Nelson
- Zénaïde Rossi as Madame Lajoie
- Xavier Saint-Macary as Christian, Alexandre's lover
References
- ^ French, Philip (2010-07-25). "The 10 best movie cameos". The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2010/jul/25/philip-french-10-best-movie-cameos.
- ^ "Festival de Cannes: Day for Night". festival-cannes.com. http://www.festival-cannes.com/en/archives/ficheFilm/id/2290/year/1973.html. Retrieved 2009-04-18.
- ^ "All-Time 100 Movies". Time. http://www.time.com/time/2005/100movies/the_complete_list.html. Retrieved 2010-05-01.
External links
- La Nuit américaine at the Internet Movie Database
- Day for Night at AllRovi
- Day for Night at Rotten Tomatoes
BAFTA Award for Best Film (1961–1980) Best Film from Any Source The Apartment (1961) · Ballad of a Soldier (1962) · The Hustler (1962) · Lawrence of Arabia (1963) · Tom Jones (1964) · Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1965) · My Fair Lady (1966) · Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1967) · A Man for All Seasons (1968)Best British Film Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1961) · A Taste of Honey (1962) · Lawrence of Arabia (1963) · Tom Jones (1964) · Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1965) · The Ipcress File (1966) · The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1967) · A Man for All Seasons (1968)Best Film The Graduate (1969) · Midnight Cowboy (1970) · Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1971) · Sunday Bloody Sunday (1972) · Cabaret (1973) · Day for Night (1974) · Lacombe, Lucien (1975) · Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1976) · One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1977) · Annie Hall (1978) · Julia (1979) · Manhattan (1980)Complete list · (1948–1960) · (1961–1980) · (1981–2000) · (2001–2020) Films by François Truffaut Directed Une Visite · Les Mistons · The 400 Blows · Shoot the Piano Player · Une Histoire d'eau · Jules and Jim · Antoine and Colette · The Soft Skin · Fahrenheit 451 · The Bride Wore Black · Stolen Kisses · Mississippi Mermaid · The Wild Child · Bed and Board · Two English Girls · Such a Gorgeous Kid Like Me · Day for Night · The Story of Adele H. · Small Change · The Man Who Loved Women · The Green Room · Love on the Run · The Last Metro · The Woman Next Door · Confidentially YoursWritten only Categories:- 1973 films
- French films
- French-language films
- Films directed by François Truffaut
- Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award winners
- Graham Greene
- Films about filmmaking
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