Day for Night by Francois Truffaut 1973

A very meta movie for film nerds. A movie about making a movie with all the people and parts that collide to make it possible. In Day for Night, Truffaut himself appears as the director. You have the aging leads, the younger cast, and the crew all living and working together making the drama on and off the screen. As a theatre kid the personalities were well known to me but still made you laugh and scream with rage. Even though set in the 70s this would still be a great manual about making a movie. There are so many people and parts to be played before you can even turn on the camera. I guess it ruffled a few French New Wave feathers when it came out. Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard fell out over it, never to reconcile. While now it is a charming period piece, I can see why some filmmakers wouldn’t want the public to see behind the curtain.

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