STORY STUDY - CRITERION WEEK “769. Day for Night”

A director’s job is to make to be an amazing problem solver because problems will constantly come up.

Directed by François Truffaut, and written by Truffaut, Suzanne Schiffman, and

Jean-Louis Richard, Day for Night (La Nuit américaine) is the story of a film crew working on a melodrama that is plagued by personal problems of the cast.

There is the actress trying to hide that she’s pregnant, an actress who keeps forgetting her lines and blocking, and everyone tends to be sleeping with each other.

The only ones who are keeping their heads straight is the crew, which… yeah, makes sense. Always respect the crew.

The film shows the characters have their own baggage that tends to get in the way of their job on the film. Regardless, they have a job to do, even though it seeps into their work ethic, causing multiple takes.

When all the relationship drama that is revealed, I think the best moment is when an elderly lady, the wife of one of the crew, lashes out, saying how could they allow such crazy behavior. She said what we were all thinking.

One of the scenes I do find confusing is the dream sequence that the director (played by Truffaut himself) has. It involves his childhood stealing production photos of Citizen Kane on display at a theater. Okay? Is this supposed to show that he was a movie fan since childhood? We kind of assumed that he did given a previous scene of him receiving books about famous filmmakers.

I found out about the film when it was announced by the Criterion Collection that it would be a future release. Of course, given the subject matter, I immediately wanted to see it.

One of the characters, Joelle, states that she “would rather dump a man for a film, but never a film for a man.” That’s dedication, which is what Day for Night explores. Is the film (or job) more important the lives of the people (employees) involved in making it?