Rating: 
Summary: Delicate but penetrating
Review: La Nuit Américaine is an interesting movie with celebrated French director Francois Truffaut playing a director making a movie. He proves to be a modest and convincing actor himself while patiently weaving a tale about how movies are made and how intense the emotional interactions among those making the movie can be.Don't give up on this one too soon. It starts slow and seems almost amateurish because of the relatively low-tech way the film within the film is being shot. Truffaut gives us a glimpse of how the production crew works together (and sometimes at odds) while showing us some of the things that can go wrong while making a movie. He begins with the technical details of the production but before long begins to concentrate on the personalities of the movie-makers and their individual stories. Each story is carefully crafted in a somewhat leisurely way almost like the characterizations in a soap opera (without of course the phony drama and mass market sentimentality seen on TV). Truffaut's fine sense of emotional conflict and how conflict might be resolved makes the various stories touching without being maudlin. Jacqueline Bisset who stars as English actress Julia Baker who plays the title role in the film within the film (May I Introduce Pamela?) doesn't make her appearance until about a fourth of the way in. She is a delight as an actress with a heart of gold recovering from a nervous breakdown married to an older man whom she does indeed love. Jean-Pierre Leaud, whom most viewers will recall as the running boy in Truffaut's The 400 Blows, plays a young and not entirely confident actor who gets jilted by the script girl who runs off with the stunt man during production. Bisset's warm and sisterly befriending of Leaud is, shall we say, entirely French (which gets her into trouble with her husband). This really is a skillful showcasing of Bisset since she gets to play something like an ingenue with her husband and the older woman with Leaud. Be careful you might fall in love with her. Valentina Cortese in a fine supporting role does a most convincing job of playing the temperamental Italian actress just past her prime who quaffs champagne while working, who forgets her lines and can't find the right door, but when properly indulged gives a great performance. My problem with this movie is I saw the dubbed version and of course that is disconcerting because one is constantly trying to reconcile the visualized actor with the dubbed one. To see Jacqueline Bisset who is beautifully fluent in both English and French speaking French while at the same time hearing someone else speaking English for her is just a bit too much to take. I understand that the DVD version is in French with subtitles. I would recommend that you get that and not the dubbed video. Truffaut is the kind of director who allows the audience to penetrate not only his characters to see what makes them tick, but also the stars who play those characters. He does a particularly beautiful job with Bisset who is warm and wise and something close to heroic, and with Leaud whose childishness seems natural and whose pettiness forgivable. Don't believe those reviewers who think this is a slight film. It is carefully crafted and very well thought out and is a fine example of the work of the one of the great directors of the French cinema. See it for Truffaut whose delicate genius is evident throughout.
Rating:
Summary: Delicate but penetrating
Review: La Nuit Américaine is an interesting movie with celebrated French director Francois Truffaut playing a director making a movie. He proves to be a modest and convincing actor himself while patiently weaving a tale about how movies are made and how intense the emotional interactions among those making the movie can be. Don't give up on this one too soon. It starts slow and seems almost amateurish because of the relatively low-tech way the film within the film is being shot. Truffaut gives us a glimpse of how the production crew works together (and sometimes at odds) while showing us some of the things that can go wrong while making a movie. He begins with the technical details of the production but before long begins to concentrate on the personalities of the movie-makers and their individual stories. Each story is carefully crafted in a somewhat leisurely way almost like the characterizations in a soap opera (without of course the phony drama and mass market sentimentality seen on TV). Truffaut's fine sense of emotional conflict and how conflict might be resolved makes the various stories touching without being maudlin. Jacqueline Bisset who stars as English actress Julia Baker who plays the title role in the film within the film (May I Introduce Pamela?) doesn't make her appearance until about a fourth of the way in. She is a delight as an actress with a heart of gold recovering from a nervous breakdown married to an older man whom she does indeed love. Jean-Pierre Leaud, whom most viewers will recall as the running boy in Truffaut's The 400 Blows, plays a young and not entirely confident actor who gets jilted by the script girl who runs off with the stunt man during production. Bisset's warm and sisterly befriending of Leaud is, shall we say, entirely French (which gets her into trouble with her husband). This really is a skillful showcasing of Bisset since she gets to play something like an ingenue with her husband and the older woman with Leaud. Be careful you might fall in love with her. Valentina Cortese in a fine supporting role does a most convincing job of playing the temperamental Italian actress just past her prime who quaffs champagne while working, who forgets her lines and can't find the right door, but when properly indulged gives a great performance. My problem with this movie is I saw the dubbed version and of course that is disconcerting because one is constantly trying to reconcile the visualized actor with the dubbed one. To see Jacqueline Bisset who is beautifully fluent in both English and French speaking French while at the same time hearing someone else speaking English for her is just a bit too much to take. I understand that the DVD version is in French with subtitles. I would recommend that you get that and not the dubbed video. Truffaut is the kind of director who allows the audience to penetrate not only his characters to see what makes them tick, but also the stars who play those characters. He does a particularly beautiful job with Bisset who is warm and wise and something close to heroic, and with Leaud whose childishness seems natural and whose pettiness forgivable. Don't believe those reviewers who think this is a slight film. It is carefully crafted and very well thought out and is a fine example of the work of the one of the great directors of the French cinema. See it for Truffaut whose delicate genius is evident throughout.
Rating:
Summary: Delicate but penetrating
Review: La Nuit Américaine is an interesting movie with celebrated French director Francois Truffaut playing a director making a movie. He proves to be a modest and convincing actor himself while patiently weaving a tale about how movies are made and how intense the emotional interactions among those making the movie can be. Don't give up on this one too soon. It starts slow and seems almost amateurish because of the relatively low-tech way the film within the film is being shot. Truffaut gives us a glimpse of how the production crew works together (and sometimes at odds) while showing us some of the things that can go wrong while making a movie. He begins with the technical details of the production but before long begins to concentrate on the personalities of the movie-makers and their individual stories. Each story is carefully crafted in a somewhat leisurely way almost like the characterizations in a soap opera (without of course the phony drama and mass market sentimentality seen on TV). Truffaut's fine sense of emotional conflict and how conflict might be resolved makes the various stories touching without being maudlin. Jacqueline Bisset who stars as English actress Julia Baker who plays the title role in the film within the film (May I Introduce Pamela?) doesn't make her appearance until about a fourth of the way in. She is a delight as an actress with a heart of gold recovering from a nervous breakdown married to an older man whom she does indeed love. Jean-Pierre Leaud, whom most viewers will recall as the running boy in Truffaut's The 400 Blows, plays a young and not entirely confident actor who gets jilted by the script girl who runs off with the stunt man during production. Bisset's warm and sisterly befriending of Leaud is, shall we say, entirely French (which gets her into trouble with her husband). This really is a skillful showcasing of Bisset since she gets to play something like an ingenue with her husband and the older woman with Leaud. Be careful you might fall in love with her. Valentina Cortese in a fine supporting role does a most convincing job of playing the temperamental Italian actress just past her prime who quaffs champagne while working, who forgets her lines and can't find the right door, but when properly indulged gives a great performance. My problem with this movie is I saw the dubbed version and of course that is disconcerting because one is constantly trying to reconcile the visualized actor with the dubbed one. To see Jacqueline Bisset who is beautifully fluent in both English and French speaking French while at the same time hearing someone else speaking English for her is just a bit too much to take. I understand that the DVD version is in French with subtitles. I would recommend that you get that and not the dubbed video. Truffaut is the kind of director who allows the audience to penetrate not only his characters to see what makes them tick, but also the stars who play those characters. He does a particularly beautiful job with Bisset who is warm and wise and something close to heroic, and with Leaud whose childishness seems natural and whose pettiness forgivable. Don't believe those reviewers who think this is a slight film. It is carefully crafted and very well thought out and is a fine example of the work of the one of the great directors of the French cinema. See it for Truffaut whose delicate genius is evident throughout.
Rating:
Summary: God do I love this film!
Review: No doubt about it. This is my favorite movie of all time. In the same category as 8½ by Fellini. Whereas Fellini shows us the torments of a director before he starts shooting, Truffaut gives us the joy of watching a movie in the making. A joyful experience for anyone interested in the process of movie making. A great cast including Truffaut himself delivers one superb film.
Rating:
Summary: "Are women magic?" Truffaut's movies are!
Review: The question Alphonse (Jean-Pierre Leaud) keeps asking all the male characters in hopes of finding the meaning of women, as he hopes to figure out his own relationship with the script-girl, who seems to be found kissing the movie's stills guy. Ah, but then he finds the luscious Jacqueline Bisset, who is at odds and struggling with her own relationship with a wealthy older American. While this movie is about making movies, it still revisists Truffaut's main theme in most of his films: the relationships between men and women. A brilliant movie by a brilliant director. The opening one minute tracking shot of the movie within the movie emptiomizes Truffaut's own style: a bus zooms by as we seemingly focus on the main character? a woman dressed in red walking a busy street? no.... an elderly couple walking their dog? no... Jean-Pierre Leaud coming up the steps of a subway stop? no... a red convertible pulling up and parking? still no... but alas, after nearly one full minute of the camera arcing around this busy Paris street, we finally land on the intended main character of the scene, Jean-Pierre Aumont, as he gets slapped by an approaching Jean-Pierre Leaud. I love the camera style of Truffaut, where either at the beginning of a scene, or in most cases after it, he will pan off of the main characters or action, and sneakingly dwell on some other non-significant character or scenery. Even though we don't make movies like they used to in 1972, this is still a fascinating look into the movie making world of the time, with all it's facets, responsiblities, and relationships. Very humorous at times, it is a true pleasure to sit back and enjoy this Oscar winning film, from a director who is unequaled in the history of films.
Rating:
Summary: Exhilarating and joyous comedy!
Review: This an affectionate satire on the art and the madness of making movies . Lighthearted, charming beauty, faultlessly acted by Truffaut himself and a cast hyper inspired.
Fundamental issue in Truffaut cinematography .
Art Cinema in its highest level .
Rating: 
Summary: A Delightful Film by a True Film Master = a True Delight
Review: This DVD of Francois Truffaut's charming 1973 classic "Day for Night" is a wonderful little movie - very bright, funny, warm, cute, inviting, entertaining, informative, and fascinating. In the mold of other great films about making films, such as Fellini's "8 1/2" and Godard's "Contempt", Francois Truffaut let's us visit the set of a French film crew at work - with himself playing the deaf director in charge. Francois Truffaut does as much acting in this film as directing. Indeed, just four years later, he'd star in Steven Spielberg's "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" as the French scientist Lacombe. It's a sheer joy from start to finish and the humanity shines throughout. I loved this film. The DVD is a nicely mastered picture with some pleasant extras, such as a documentary on the film by film scholar, Annette Insdorf (who always gives a wonderful introduction to any French film masterpiece). Francois Truffaut makes wonderful movies and this is one of his best! An adorable movie by anyone's standards.
Rating:
Summary: A Delightful Film by a True Film Master = a True Delight
Review: This DVD of Francois Truffaut's charming 1973 classic "Day for Night" is a wonderful little movie - very bright, funny, warm, cute, inviting, entertaining, informative, and fascinating. In the mold of other great films about making films, such as Fellini's "8 1/2" and Godard's "Contempt", Francois Truffaut let's us visit the set of a French film crew at work - with himself playing the deaf director in charge. Francois Truffaut does as much acting in this film as directing. Indeed, just four years later, he'd star in Steven Spielberg's "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" as the French scientist Lacombe. It's a sheer joy from start to finish and the humanity shines throughout. I loved this film. The DVD is a nicely mastered picture with some pleasant extras, such as a documentary on the film by film scholar, Annette Insdorf (who always gives a wonderful introduction to any French film masterpiece). Francois Truffaut makes wonderful movies and this is one of his best! An adorable movie by anyone's standards.
Rating:
Summary: Day for night- a triumph in film making
Review: This film is a must for any lover of foreign film. Jacqueline Bisset gives an entrancing performance as an actress making a return to the film industry after a nervous breakdown. Valentina Cortese puts forth a "best supporting actress" nominee performance as a comical veteran actress with a lot of personality. Although this film is dubbed, which can be a turn off for some ardent film goers, the musical pieces in the film constructed by George Delerue more than compensate. Ths is a wonderful collaboration of a veteran force of actors (including a strong debut performance by Nathalie Baye and perreniel Truffaut fav Jean-Pierre Leaud) and well worth the money spent, especially if you enjoy Truffaut as much as I do.
Rating:
Summary: Truffaut's love affair with cinema is the real star
Review: This is a beautiful movie about the world of film-making, with all of its trials and joys. Truffaut shows the foibles and glories of the people who make films, revealing even his own indiscretions. The film is, at the same time, a charming story. And almost every shot reveals something about how films are made -- stuntwork, set facades, directing extras, and even working with animals! A joyous ode to the people who make films!
| 
