Day for Night (1973) - Movie Review Example

In a nutshell, the film delves into the intersecting stories of the cast and crew that are working on the set of a movie. Truffaut eschews linear storytelling in favor of a more anthological approach. Truffaut himself narrates the film lending a sense of cohesiveness to the overall piece. To his credit, he is able to bring a general sense of narrative to the resulting interweaving storylines from the film’s ensemble cast of characters. The film eventually culminates with a few plot twists that will no doubt surprise all but the most keenly observant audience members.

By the film’s conclusion, Truffaut makes it quite clear that his satire is meant to be his way of expressing his love for his craft and filmmaking as a whole. In fact, Festa (2012) sums it up quite nicely when he said that “for folks behind film looking glasses, their day job is life itself”. Doubtless, the film’s ensemble cast of characters is one of its greatest strengths. Truffaut succeeds in gathering a memorable set of characters. Between the over-the-hill screen legend, the aging ex-opera singer, the handsome young lead and the sexy female vixen who is recovering from a nervous breakdown, what’s not to love?

Ebert (1997) points out another of the film’s strength lies in the numerous “behind-the-scenes” moments. The audience is shown the tricks behind a lot of moviemaking magic such as the use of filters to make daytime scenes look like they were shot at night and fake snow to name a few. These might be a touch old hat for a modern audience, but that certainly does not diminish their charm. Truffaut also manages to underscore a lot of the things that tend to go wrong during production. The sort of things moviegoers do not see when they watch the finished product such as actor’s temper tantrums, animals missing their cues and so forth.

It is more than likely that similar films such as Ed Wood drew inspiration from Truffaut’s piece. Despite its many strengths the