La nuit américaine (1973)

User Rating:

8.0/10   

Director:

François Truffaut

Writers:

Jean-Louis Richard (writer)
Suzanne Schiffman (writer)

Release Date:

7 September 1973 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Comedy

Tagline:

A movie for people who loves movies.

Plot:

A committed film director struggles to complete his movie while coping with a myriad of crises, personal and professional, among the cast and crew.

Plot Keywords:

Director | Actor | Pregnancy | Press Conference | Filmmaker

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 10 wins & 5 nominations

Cast

Jacqueline Bisset	...	Julie
Valentina Cortese	...	Severine
Dani	...	Liliane
Alexandra Stewart	...	Stacey
Jean-Pierre Aumont	...	Alexandre
Jean Champion	...	Bertrand
Jean-Pierre Léaud	...	Alphonse (as Jean-Pierre Leaud)
François Truffaut	...	director Ferrand
Nike Arrighi	...	Odile
Nathalie Baye	...	Joelle
Maurice Seveno	...	TV Reporter
David Markham	...	Doctor Nelson
Bernard Menez	...	Bernard the Prop Man
Gaston Joly	...	Lajoie
Zénaïde Rossi	...	Madame Lajoie

Also Known As:

Day for Night (USA)
Effetto notte (Italy)
The American Night (International: English title) (literal title)

Runtime:

115 min

Country:

France | Italy

Language:

French | English

Color:

Black and White | Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:L | Argentina:13 | Australia:PG | Chile:14 | Finland:S | Sweden:Btl | UK:PG | USA:PG | West Germany:12

Filming Locations:

Alpes-Maritimes, France

Company:

Les Films du Carrosse

Trivia:

A sequence uses a scene with a cat drinking milk from a discarded room service tray from Truffaut's film La peau douce (1964) as its inspiration, this time showing the audience the multiple takes required to get the cat to go to the tray and drink

Goofs:

Continuity: Several takes are wasted trying to get a cat to drink milk from a tray. Eventually Joelle brings in "the studio cat" to do the scene. But the cat that actually drinks the milk is actually a third, different cat.

Quotes:

director Ferrand: People used to stare at fires. Now they watch TV. We need to see moving images, especially after dinner.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Sinister Saga of Making 'The Stunt Man' (2000) (V)

Soundtrack:

Grande Chorale

A classic love poem to filmmaking, witty, elegant, humane and entrancing

Many movies have been made about moviemaking but none surpass Day for Night (La Nuit Américaine) for its humanity, its warmth and its genuine feel for Director François Truffaut's approach to his art and craft. The film follows Truffaut, in effect playing himself, as he makes a somewhat banal little romance called "Meet Pamela" (Je Vous Présente Pamela) with Jacqueline Bisset, Jean Pierre Aumont, Valentina Cortese (who was nominated for and should have won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress) and Jean-Pierre Léaud. It conveys the chaos of filmmaking process in front of and behind the camera and behind the scenes.

There are occasional false notes - the production manager's wife who insists on being on the shoot and watches disapprovingly as the cast and crew move in and out of each other's rooms, as funny as she is, simply doesn't ring true to the film - but in so many more cases, the details, the emotions, the mad combination of giddiness, passion and meticulousness that are needed to make a film, are captured so as to make you forget the slightly dated early 70s look. And Jacqueline Bisset is timelessly stunning in this film.

Minor notes: The movie launched the film career of Nathalie Baye as the continuity girl - her first major role; Graham Greene, the great English novelist (The Quiet American, Brighton Rock, etc.) had an uncredited cameo as the Insurance Agent - Truffaut directed the scene but did not know who the actor was until after the shot was in the can; Maurice Séveno, who appears briefly as a TV reporter, was a well-know French TV news anchor in the 60s and 70s; the score by Georges Delerue, who collaborated on many Truffaut movies, is lovely without being cloying.