Review of Day for Night (1973) by Kim B — 08 Apr 2013

Enjoyed this immensely. I've only seen Truffaut's work in "Fahrenheit 451" which I love, and this was highly engrossing. It gave a great account of how a movie is made which looks at all the different roles of production, and the inevitable drama that comes with the job. I did not realize the director Ferrand was ALSO Truffaut himself! I was taken by surprise...cuz I remember thinking how great a director he was, he knew how to speak with the actors, knew the details of arranging a shot and such. I don't know much about Truffaut but I would almost guess this is semi-autobiographical about his experiences from his extensive filmography. I gathered that Ferrand(and Truffaut) was ideally an actor's director, in that he really worked with them and knew how to cope through their problems to still achieve great performances, as seen in this. The director of the film Ferrand seemed less masterful at story writing, and I wonder if Truffaut saw himself the same way.

The cast was great: Apart from Truffaut playing "the director" expertly, I really enjoyed Jacqueline Bisset, Nathalie Baye and Jean-Pierre Leaud! They all had great roles.

I loved the opening shot, showing the several takes in a given scene, and the way how detail-oritented the director was, really opened my eyes. I didn't realize they were so focused on every little element in the frame but maybe it was an exaggeration? just loved the sequence though.

And the snowy murderous scene was really beautiful too...somethin bout it. I liked all the little filmmaking montages spread throughout too, very authentic. Modern movies about filmmaking don't seem as raw and real, seems like movies about movies are always so polished and have to seem something its not , and often hide the little itty gritty parts or just overdramatize it to the point where it becomes a caricature. This film had it just right. I will definitely see to it that I own this.