vitachiel Movie about a movie who's director is the director of the movie's movie. Nice to have a look behind the scenes of film making, although much of it looks rather staged, including bad acting and over-acting. Which makes the fictional movie about people making a movie really looks like people making a fictional movie. In a movie that you don't really like, sometimes there's one scene that almost makes up for the rest of the movie. A scene that you will probably never forget. Like the Japanese guy doing a karaoke act of the Sex Pistols in Lost In Translation, here the WOW scene is the short cat intermezzo. Silence... tension...touched... A moment of true movie magic.

Armand more than a film, it is a window. to a clear image about movies and the role of web for entire universe who create is. the delicacy and the force are basic tools for Truffaut in this case. because it is not a pledge for art or revelation of secrets. only portrait of few people and their ordinary work. a classic for the courage to not be lesson or pledge, for mixture between to make a movie and administrate a world, it is a revelation at every new meeting. for the grace of detail exploration. for the performance of Truffaut himself. for Jacqueline Bisset and Valentina Cortese. or, only for the lost Alphonse, the ex - Antoine by Jean-Pierre Leaud. the basic virtue- precise use of nuances. like each refined thing, its importance remains a problem of seduction.

PassPopcorn "Day for night" is a technique used in cinematography to shoot a scene during the day and make it look like night by applying special filters or particular film stock. The original title of the movie, La nuit américaine, is the French phrase for the technique, and also a nod to American cinema, which Truffaut thought had a great influence on the French New Wave. This 'movie about movie-making' was also greatly inspired by Fellini's 8 1/2, only Day for Night appears to be the funnier, less main-character-centered version of 8 1/2. It won an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 1974.Day for Night follows the lives of members of a filmmaking crew, rushing to finish a movie called 'Je Vous Presente Pamela' before the deadline. I'd say there is no protagonist, although the director Ferrand (François Truffaut) keeps things together and going, while living in fear of not finishing the movie in time. There is Julie (Jacqueline Bisset), brought from Great Britain to play Pamela, who has recently suffered a nervous breakdown. Then we have Alphonse (Jean-Pierre Léaud), a boy in the body of a man, who seems to want to marry any girl that sleeps with him; and Severine (Valentina Cortese, nominated for Best Actress in a Supporting Role), an actress who develops a drinking problem since she can't cope with her aging; and many others.Along with The 400 Blows, this is an autobiographical movie. But, unlike the aforementioned, Day for Night is a funny, entertaining view of Truffaut's adult life and of his job. Also, unlike 8 1/2 – which is a movie about not being able to resolve one's personal problems and wanting to quit filmmaking – this is all about working hard, overcoming all sorts of obstacles and ultimately finishing what you started. As I said before, it doesn't concentrate on one character only, which makes it a bit chaotic – but in a very enjoyable way – as well as interesting and never tedious. The actors' great performances manage to get a reaction from the audience whenever something happens to their characters, regardless of how long they've been on screen.Hommages to other great directors are worth mentioning too. In a scene, Ferrand receives a package full of books that are supposed to help him with his movie: the books are about Buñuel, Rossellini, Bergman, Hitchcock, Godard and others. Then there is Ferrand's dream about himself as a child, going to a closed cinema only to steal photos of Orson Welles' Citizen Kane, perhaps symbolising only his love for the movie, or also him knowing he (and any other director?) will never film anything better, so he can only steal from it. All in all, this is a very realistic movie that leads us through many struggles so we can reach some sort of Greek tragedy-like catharsis with the happy ending, and rejoice with the characters.Rating: 9/10 Read more at http://passpopcorn.wordpress.com/

Tim Kidner This sparkling comedy drama from French master director Francois Traffaut is the sort of self-loving, semi-mock at The Industry that they - and the critics - all love.But, making a film about making a film can't be as easy as it would seem - how realistic do you make it, how much comedy and mishap do you throw in?I found on this, my third viewing, that little details continue to reveal themselves and works smoother and better as a whole. Jacqueline Bisset looks lovelier than ever, as the lead actress in the movie, titled 'May I Introduce Pamela?', who's a dodgy choice as she hasn't made a film since suffering a nervous breakdown, which makes the London- based insurers twitchy......which puts greater pressure onto Truffaut himself, as relationships/affairs, kittens that won't drink milk, stunts that don't get stunted properly and a death in the cast, which necessitates a whole re-write. You get the picture?This all sounds manic and possibly stupid, but as I said this isn't Hollywood and my second paragraph; Trauffaut keeps a tight rein and it all works in a kind of well-organised Robert Altman picture sort-of-way. Loose enough to seem free and flexible but with enough structure.Many love Day for Night a lot - clever and masterful as it is - and only a seasoned director could dare such, but isn't the sort that I can really get my teeth into. Preferring Trauffaut's gritty and thought- provoking classics, this one is more about entertainment than statement. Which is fine, but I just don't get the same buzz, or anticipation from it.This only refers to the DVD - it's verified as an Amazon purchase - has only French writing on the case. The default languages setting seems to be dubbed English, which actually starts off OK, with at least actors seemingly French, speaking English but soon, lip-sync fails as more of the cast appear. It's also (presumably) dubbed into German & Spanish. To watch it properly, you need French language but you need also to set English subtitles; they don't appear automatically.Subtitles (according to the DVD blurb, in French) are in English, German, Spanish, Swedish, Portuguese, Dutch, Hungarian, Czech, Turkish, Greek & Romanian.