One Paragraph Movie Review: Day for Night

Three hundred and sixth film: La Nuit Americaine, or Day for Night in English — the indirect translation due to the title being the name of a style of film shot — a day scene shot at night — and there being a different name for that shot in Britain and France. This is a very very good movie about making a movie, and its meta-ness is handled so confidently and whimsically that it’s far more important than the story. The director plays the director of the fictional film. There are scenes that begin with just an audio track on a blank screen with a numbered countdown, only showing action when the timer reaches zero. In watching the film get made, we get to see everyone just going about their jobs on set, interacting as workmates, filming scenes over and over again, and creating movie illusions — a candle that reliably illuminates an actor’s face, a whole scene being shot in fake snow — that genuinely educate us about the process of movie-making. The characters — actors playing other characters — are well-rounded and multi-faceted, and I can’t make this glorious thing sound like it isn’t a confusing pretension, but it’s bloody great. My favourite two lines are “Cut. We’ll shoot the scene when you find a cat who can act”, and “I’d dump a guy for a film but never a film for a guy”. Four knitting producer’s wives out of five.