The Film About Filmmaking

The Film about Filmmaking

Truffaut's irresistibly charming "film about filmmaking" is an enormously affectionate homage to cinema, as well as a portrayal of the joy and anguish of filmmaking. The framing film Day for Night tells the story of a director; Ferrand (Truffaut) and his crew shooting a romantic family melodrama entitled Meet Pamela at the Studio Victorine in Nice. As the shooting proceeds, the personal crises of the crewmembers engulf the professional sphere of their lives, and threaten the smooth progress of the filming: one of the leading actresses, SÐ"©verine (Valentina Cortese), is anguished by her son's terminal illness and unable to remember her lines because of her alcoholism; Stacey (Alexandra Stewart) is three-months pregnant and refuses to shoot a swimming scene in a bathing suit; Alphonse (Jean-Pierre LÐ"©aud) seeks feminine/maternal affection and lingers over the same question: "Are women magic?" Ferrand realizes that films are more harmonious than life: there are "no traffic jams or no dead waits," and people like them are happy only in their work of making films. Despite a series of difficulties and the accidental death of Alexandre (played by Jean-Pierre Aumont) in a car crash, the crew manages to complete the filming and then disperse to future destinations.

From the outset Day for Night is full of Truffaut's nostalgia for cinema of the past. A title sequence accompanied by orchestral music gradually turns into a melancholic accordion tune; a still of Dorothy and Lillian Gish with subtitle announces that the film is dedicated to these legendary stars of the silent screen. The spectator is then led to a square seemingly in Paris, a rather chic landscape dotted with a metro station, a fashionable cafÐ"©, stoned buildings, the sound of busy traffic and pedestrians. A young man (Jean-Pierre LÐ"©aud) with a solemn expression on his face appears from the metro station and walks towards an elderly man. After a while the young male slaps the latter on his face. As soon as an immense tension occurs we hear the voice "Cut" and the camera tracks back to reveal that it was a shooting of a film. The camera pulls back further and we see the film crew, a television presenter and her crew. The television crew interviews the actors and they provide us with a synopsis of the film they are shooting: Meet Pamela is the story of a tragic affair of an adulterous couple. As the director Ferrand gives direction to the extras, actors and technicians, the camera soars up and shows the square from a high angle, while classical music glorifies the scene. This fascinating establishing sequence is not as self-dramatizing or exaggeratedly romantic as it sounds. It establishes the awe-inspiring, exhilarating atmosphere that flows through the entire film, as well as making the spectator aware of the construction of the film.

It is apparent that the two films are trying to remain separate throughout to avoid the possibility of cheap effects by causing confusion in the audience's mind between the scenes of real life and the scenes of fiction. Hence the distinctive difference in tone, style, and subject matter between the framing film and the film within film: the contrast between the excerpts with highly dramatic dialogues and actions, and the framing film with its much lighter tone of day-to-day shooting is noticeable. Day for Night's construction is also a clear departure from the conventions of classical Hollywood style narration: the events employed to depict the process of shooting often halt the plot's advancement; the framing film portrays ten people of the equal importance whether they are international stars or a script person; its "open" ending. In contrast, Meet Pamela's narrative is centered on a father-and-son-conflict in a respectful middle-class family caused by the father's adultery with his son's