Intcatinfo A Masterpiece!

Merolliv I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

Humaira Grant It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Deanna There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

larry4665 They are filming "Meet Pamela."You watch the film the first time and you might think it's telling us about how films are made, and about all the people. I did. Then on another viewing, you might wonder if they are doing it right. The film goes along in an interesting way and suddenly, still photos of Jacqueline Bisset fill the screen and wow! But when she is acting the part of Pamela, the director puts a wig on her and she becomes ordinary. What? How can they bring in the star and not use her? But then perhaps they are doing it right, you can't have her outshine the co-stars too much. Then you might wonder about other decisions in making "Meet Pamela." Now you might be looking for bad decisions. What is the deal with the script girl? She has beautiful red hair and blue eyes, wears large goggle-like glasses, must be wearing 5 inch heeled boots yet never stumbles despite her long strides. She is always watching the acting and sees everything with those goggles. She has that script and her stop watch. She knows which scenes can be shot today and which can't. She is always there, it seems, somewhere in the frame, but rarely do we get a good look at her. She must be beautiful, but gee, can't we see her some more? Can't I see her some more? She never looks towards us, she looks only at the acting. We see a lot of side views of her. Unlike the actors, the script girl is completely task-oriented. Her work is far more important to her than any personal relationship. She is completely stable. Actors are taught to express their emotions for their part, with gestures, facial expressions, anything. But this character is not emotional at all, so I wonder if the script girl was a difficult part to play for an actress-with all that emotional restraint.In fact, from the Trivia section, it appears someone thought that she was not an actress, but a script girl. That is how well the actress did her job here. The script girl understands the emotions of all the actors who are under stress. She knows why each one of them has problems, and defends them when someone complains to her. Maybe she makes it up, but I believe her every time. She is aware when someone else is not doing his job properly and is ready to step in and fix things by herself. She even can help out the director with a few ideas here and there. So now I wonder: is this film is about the script girl? She's indispensable. Maybe this film is about whatever you think it's about. Perhaps it's a different film for each viewer-even for each viewing.

Jackson Booth-Millard I found this French film in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, and from the description I read, it sounds like exactly the kind of film that would feature, a film about filmmaking, directed by François Truffaut (The 400 Blows, Shoot the Pianist, Jules et Jim), The title, originally la nuit américaine ("American night") is in reference to the filmmaking process, whereby sequences filmed outside in daylight are adjusted in post-production to appear as if they are taking place at night. Basically it chronicles the production of Je Vous Présente Paméla (Meet Pamela, or May I Present Pamela), a clichéd melodrama about a French man who marries English woman Pamela, brings her to France to introduce her to his parents, however his father and his the wife fall in love with each other, she leaves her husband to live with him. Victorine Studios is shooting the movie in Nice, it stars ageing screen icon Alexandre (Jean-Pierre Aumont), former diva Séverine (Valentina Cortese), young heart-throb Alphonse (Jean-Pierre Léaud) and British actress Julie Baker (Jacqueline Bisset) who is recovering from both a nervous breakdown. In between the production, many of the crew members have their own stories, including the director Ferrand (François Truffaut) who tangles with the many problems one deals with when making a movie. Behind the camera, the actors and crew go through several romances, affairs, break-ups, and sorrows, production is especially shaken when one of the secondary actresses is revealed to be pregnant. Later Alphonse's fiancée leaves him for the film's stuntman, which leads Alphonse into having a one-night stand with an accommodating Julie, he mistakes Julie's pity for true love, the infantile Alphonse informs Julie's husband of the affair. After actors having drinking problems, immaturity, neediness and emotional instability, and many other production problems, Ferrand and producer Bertrand (Jean Champion) do complete the film, but Alexandre dies in hospital, on the way to hospital. Also starring Dani as Liliane, Alexandra Stewart as Stacey, Nathalie Baye as Joëlle and David Markham as Dr. Michael Nelson. Everything that could possibly go wrong in a film within a film does go wrong, mishap after mishap, take after take, it spoofs everything that you expect in the making of movies, it is both funny and clever, a very interesting and watchable satirical drama. It won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. Very good!

vitachiel Movie about a movie who's director is the director of the movie's movie. Nice to have a look behind the scenes of film making, although much of it looks rather staged, including bad acting and over-acting. Which makes the fictional movie about people making a movie really looks like people making a fictional movie. In a movie that you don't really like, sometimes there's one scene that almost makes up for the rest of the movie. A scene that you will probably never forget. Like the Japanese guy doing a karaoke act of the Sex Pistols in Lost In Translation, here the WOW scene is the short cat intermezzo. Silence... tension...touched... A moment of true movie magic.

PassPopcorn "Day for night" is a technique used in cinematography to shoot a scene during the day and make it look like night by applying special filters or particular film stock. The original title of the movie, La nuit américaine, is the French phrase for the technique, and also a nod to American cinema, which Truffaut thought had a great influence on the French New Wave. This 'movie about movie-making' was also greatly inspired by Fellini's 8 1/2, only Day for Night appears to be the funnier, less main-character-centered version of 8 1/2. It won an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 1974.Day for Night follows the lives of members of a filmmaking crew, rushing to finish a movie called 'Je Vous Presente Pamela' before the deadline. I'd say there is no protagonist, although the director Ferrand (François Truffaut) keeps things together and going, while living in fear of not finishing the movie in time. There is Julie (Jacqueline Bisset), brought from Great Britain to play Pamela, who has recently suffered a nervous breakdown. Then we have Alphonse (Jean-Pierre Léaud), a boy in the body of a man, who seems to want to marry any girl that sleeps with him; and Severine (Valentina Cortese, nominated for Best Actress in a Supporting Role), an actress who develops a drinking problem since she can't cope with her aging; and many others.Along with The 400 Blows, this is an autobiographical movie. But, unlike the aforementioned, Day for Night is a funny, entertaining view of Truffaut's adult life and of his job. Also, unlike 8 1/2 – which is a movie about not being able to resolve one's personal problems and wanting to quit filmmaking – this is all about working hard, overcoming all sorts of obstacles and ultimately finishing what you started. As I said before, it doesn't concentrate on one character only, which makes it a bit chaotic – but in a very enjoyable way – as well as interesting and never tedious. The actors' great performances manage to get a reaction from the audience whenever something happens to their characters, regardless of how long they've been on screen.Hommages to other great directors are worth mentioning too. In a scene, Ferrand receives a package full of books that are supposed to help him with his movie: the books are about Buñuel, Rossellini, Bergman, Hitchcock, Godard and others. Then there is Ferrand's dream about himself as a child, going to a closed cinema only to steal photos of Orson Welles' Citizen Kane, perhaps symbolising only his love for the movie, or also him knowing he (and any other director?) will never film anything better, so he can only steal from it. All in all, this is a very realistic movie that leads us through many struggles so we can reach some sort of Greek tragedy-like catharsis with the happy ending, and rejoice with the characters.Rating: 9/10 Read more at http://passpopcorn.wordpress.com/