Day for Night

In Brief: François Truffaut’s Day for Night (1973) is not only a great movie about movies, but it’s fascinating as an example of how international cinema truly is. By this I mean that while we think of foreign film as a separate world, Day for Night is clearly the kind of movie that could only have been made during that era from about 1965 through 1975 and is very much a part of the explosion of art-house fare as mainstream film that existed during that time. Truffaut reveals just enough without revealing too much, and he does so with a purpose — that purpose being to make you marvel all the more at the true magic of how all this can ever result in a coherent, let alone great film. And yet it does. That’s the beauty of Day for Night and the secret of its own potent magic. This excerpt was taken from a review by Ken Hanke published on July 15, 2009.