126 - Day for Night, 1973, France. Dir. Francois Truffaut.

Saturday, May 6, 2017

126 - Day for Night, 1973, France. Dir. Francois Truffaut.

The orchestra tunes up.

The image of the sound track plays on the left side of the screen.  Portraying the sound track on the left side of the film.

The conductor speaks.

Silence, please.  Give me a nice clean soundtrack.

The orchestra begins.

The credits roll.

The conductor gives notes to the orchestra as the orchestra plays.

A still picture.

Dedicated to Lillian and Dorothy Gish.

Our film begins.

A city street.  Scores of extras.  Traffic.  Pedestrians.  Strollers.  Dogs.

A man emerges from the Metro.

Another man walks down the other side of the street in the other direction.

We move down on a crane.  Left on a dolly.  Take it all in.  Zoom in.

The two men approach one another.  Stop.  One slaps the other.

Cut!

Going again.

The 1st AD gives instructions on a megaphone.

-- The bus was two seconds late.

-- Background by the beauty parlor was late.

The Director works out the slap with the two leads.

The Camera department resets the camera on the crane platform.

The Producers go over the schedule.

Makeup touches up one of the leads.

The Script Girl teaches her intern.

-- Feet and frames, start and finish, then circle this.

Keep that light.  Kill that light.

A journalist broadcasts live behind the set flats.

The Producer escorts the older Lead to the journalist.  The Producer is named Bertrand.  He is played by Jean Champion, who is also known for The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964), Le Cercle Rouge (1970), and The Day of the Jackal (1973).

The older lead is named Alexandre.  He is played by Jean-Pierre Aumont.

The interview begins.

It is the story of a man in his 50s whose son brings his young English bride home to meet his parents.

The younger lead gives his interview.

It is the story of a young man who marries an English girl.  Three months later he introduces her to his parents at their seaside villa.

The bride will fall in love with the father-in-law.

The older male lead sees the film played as a romantic drama.  He will win the girl.

The younger male lead says the film is played as a tragedy.  He will lose the girl.

The 2nd AC, or Clapper, will slate the next shot.

Pamela 1, Take 4!

In France, the clap sticks are on the bottom of the slate.  In America, they are on the top.  To us, it appears as though he is clapping upside down--which we would use for a tail slate, at the end of a take.  But the writing is right-side-up.  They are using it as a head slate, at the beginning of the take.

We watch another take.

The city street.  Scores of extras.  Traffic.  Pedestrians.  Strollers.  Dogs.

We are not on the crane but on a dolly.  Closer.  Watching through our camera and not theirs.

The bus.  The lady with the dog.  The white car.

The young male lead comes up out of the Metro.  We now know his name is Alphonse.  He is played by Francois Truffaut's perennial star Jean-Pierre Leaud.

Red car.  Red car, faster.  Red car, pull out.

Camera, move in.

Cut!

Going again.

Montage.  17 takes.  Alphonse says that one was good.  The Director says let us do it again.  The Director is played by our director himself, Francois Truffaut.  In the film he is Ferrand.

Back to One.

Now we look down on the red crane, as it looks down into the Metro.

And we see the great outdoor HMI PAR light.

The kind of motion picture light that has stood the test of time.  That has remained through the technological developments of Tungsten, Fluorescent, and LED.

Because it replicates the sun.

It stands for Hydragyrum Medium Arc Iodide Parabolic Aluminized Reflector.

Say that ten times fast.  Then memorize it.

The HMI is the type of light.  The PAR is the fixture that houses it.

We do another take.

We watch the crane jib jib up.  We watch all of the action at once.  We are now in our master shot.

We pan left and see that the back side of the buildings are empty shells.

The entire city is on a studio backlot.

We are seven minutes into our two hour movie, and we have established our world.

We will now move into the Atlantic Hotel.  Into the lives of the crew who are working on this film.

Odile, the make-up girl, is a petite brunette with a sprite-like personality and a quirky sense of style.  She is wearing a colorful patterned short dress with a yellow ribbon trim and striped shoulders, with eminence purple shear nylons and red clogs.  She has a red bandana tied into a floppy bow in her hair.  Odile is played by Nike Arrighi.

Joelle, the Script Girl, is a tall conservative redhead wearing a cream-colored blouse and bell-bottomed blue jeans with a black leather belt.  She carries her leather script bag as if it were a house-call doctor's bag.  Joelle is played by Nathalie Baye.  We saw her recently in Jean-Luc Godard's 1980 film Every Man for Himself.  You may also know her from the 2002 Steven Spielberg movie Catch Me If You Can.

Joelle has a tub but wanted a shower.  Odile has a shower but wanted a tub.  Joelle has come to ask the desk clerk to change rooms, but Odile overhears her and offers to change rooms directly.  The two begin talking.  They get excited.  They walk up the stairs together.  They bond.

Ferrand the director is pacing the hotel hallway.  He has an earpiece.  He has thoughts on his mind.  He is wearing a brown-leather jacket over a blue-collared shirt with a navy-blue tie.  He is looking intently at a hotel vase.  Perhaps he wants to use it.

Joelle asks Odile to give him some headshots.  She does.  Pictures of Julie.

Julie Baker.  The film's star.  Played by Jacqueline Bisset.  A British actress.  Not here yet.  She will be arriving later. 

Ferrand shows the pictures to the Camera Operator.  He is played by Walter Bal.  He is a tall man with shoulder-length hair, wearing a denim vest over a paisley white shirt with the sleeves rolled up.

They flip through the headshots as they anticipate what she will be like on set.

Walter saw her before.  In that film with the car chase.  Didn't she crack up once?  Ferrand says, Yes.  She had a nervous breakdown.  Walter remembers she did not finish that film.

Ferrand rationalizes.  But that was a year ago.  She married her doctor.  He can take care of her.  She is lovely.  She has light-green eyes.

Bernard arrives from around the corner.  Bernard is the Property Master.  Played by Bernard Menez.  He wants to show Ferrand the trick candle for the costume party.  Ferrand agrees.  He plugs it into an outlet in the hotel hallway.  He demonstrates it.  Ferrand is sold.

Ferrand shows Bernard the hotel vase.  He removes the flowers from it and picks it up.  He would like to see it in Severine's dining room in the film.

We have not yet met Severine.  She will be played by the great Valentina Cortese.  You might know her from Jules Dassin's American film-noir thriller Thieves Highway (1949).  Or Robert Wise's film noir drama The House on Telegraph Hill (1951).  Or Joseph L. Mankiewicz's The Barefoot Contessa (1954).  Or Fellini's Juliet of the Spirits (1965).  Or Franco Zeffirelli's Brother Sun, Sister Moon (1972).  Or Terry Gilliam's The Adventures of the Baron Munchausen (1988).  We are in 1973, and she is 50 years old.  She will play an older actress.  She is alive today at 94.

We expect Ferrand to have Bernard ask the hotel's permission to use the vase.  Instead, he says--

Take it.  Not a word to anyone.

Alphonse comes down the stairs flirting with Liliane.  In the way that we are used to Jean-Pierre Leaud doing when he plays Antoine Doinel.  But he is a different character here.

Liliane is the Script Trainee.  Or what we have already called the intern.  Ferrand gives the vaseless flowers to her.  She thanks him for the internship opportunity.  He says it is nothing.  They chat.  Ferrand moves on down the hallway.

Alphonse pulls Liliane to him and kisses her.

They establish that Ferrand lost some of his hearing in the Artillery.

Alphonse asks Liliane to walk ahead of him so he can watch her bottom swing.  She obliges him.  They enter a room as the maid exits with a used room service tray.  He looks back out to watch the maid walk away.

Lilian calls him out on it.  He asks if she is jealous.  She claims she is not.

They have twin beds.  They put them together.  She says he could have asked for a double bed.  He says that would have meant going through Lajoie, the Production Manager.  Who will be played by Gaston Joly.

The beds are heavy.  He says it is tougher than moving an audience.

She says Pierrot the set photographer has given her a list of great little restaurants up in the hills.  Pierrot will be played by Pierre Zucca.  Who is the still photographer of this film.

Why did Pierrot give her a list of bistros?

Alphonse counters that they are in a city with 37 movie theaters.  He intends to go to the movies.  And eat if there is time left over.

She refuses.  He agrees to do what she wants on one condition.

That you marry me.

He proposes!

Outside Jean-Francois has Odile the make-up girl try on an outfit so that she can be in the scene.

Ferrand the director talks to us in voice-over as he walks across the lot.  Shooting a film is like crossing the Wild West in a stagecoach.  You start out hoping for a nice voyage but soon you wonder if you will ever reach your destination.

He has lots of decisions to make.  Sometimes he knows the answer and sometimes he does not.

Lajoie the Production Manager shows him two cars--a red one and a white one.  He picks a third, a blue one.  Which belongs to his AD.  Maybe he will not mind.

Bertrand the Producer says the Americans insist the film be finished in seven weeks.  Ferrand will talk to Jean-Francois about it.  Jean-Francois is the 1st AD.

Odile shows him Severine's wig.  Is it too light?  Ferrand does not know.

Bernard the Property Master shows him a group of guns.  Ferrand picks one for the final scene.

It is time to watch Dailies.  Or Rushes.

All crew report to the screening room.

Severine is absent.  She never comes to rushes.  Alexandre is at the airport.  There may be something wrong in his private life.  Or he may be picking up someone.

Ferrand talks to Yann.  The editor.  Played by Yann Dedet.  The editor of this film.

We watch the Rushes.

We watch the reactions.

Liliane shares a cigarette with Pierrot the Photographer.  Alphonse sees it and grows jealous.  He reaches over to touch her.  She accepts.

Lajoie the Production Manager rushes in to tell Bertrand the Producer some news.  Bertrand tells the crew.

There has been a power failure at the lab.  The footage of the crowd scene has been lost and will have to be reshot.

It is time for the first scene between Alexandre and Severine.

The crew sets up an interior shot on the sound stage.

Alphonse tells Ferrand that he and Liliane will be getting married.  Ferrand congratulates him.  Alphonse asks Ferrand to be his best man.  Ferrand is flattered.  He agrees.

Later on set Ferrand congratulates Liliane.  After he leaves she looks as though she does not know what he is talking about!

A man introduces Ferrand to two women.  He is pitching them to him.  How did he get here?

Jean-Francois the 1st AD approaches and tells Ferrand he needs him for something urgent.  He walks him away.  Ferrand asks what is urgent.  Jean-Francois says, Nothing.  I was rescuing you.

Jean-Francois is played by Jean-Francois Stevenin.  Who is the 2nd AD of this film.  Or in France, the Assistant Assistant Director.  Jean-Francois is short and somewhat stocky with balding hair and a low center of gravity.  He looks like a cross between Jason Alexander and Walton Goggins.  He is wearing a green varsity-style jacket over a mustard plaid collared shirt.

Another stranger is sitting on set.  Talking to the Producer.

Ferrand asks who he is.  Jean-Francois says he is the police officer who gave them permission to film in the street.  So Bertrand invited him to watch.  Ferrand asks, Do I watch him work?  When he arrests people?  Jean-Francois laughs.  Ferrand has to work in front of onlookers.  He does not like it.  It is part of the job.

They set up the shot.

They roll.

They slate.

They call Action.

Severine begins but says the wrong name.  Another take.  Severine begins but forgets her line.  Another take.  Severine asks Ferrand if she can do it as she does it with Federico, with numbers.

A reference to the legendary Italian director Federico Fellini.  Suggesting that in Italy--or with Fellini anyway--they shoot MOS, or without sound, and then dub in the lines later.

She demonstrates.  17, 23, 5, 94, 48, 2, 33.  And she plays it with great drama and feeling.

We have mentioned that Valentina Cortese, who plays Severine, really filmed with Fellini, in Juliet of the Spirits.  Did she really say numbers instead of lines?

Ferrand says No to her request.  Here we shoot direct sound.  He pulls down the microphone from above and shows her.  You will have to say the lines.

Another take.  Severine misses the lines again.  She calls for Joelle, the Script Girl.  She demands cue cards.  They make cue cards.  Joelle shows her where they have hung them to the wall and behind the column.

Another take.  Severine does a walk-and-talk.  Alexandre sits in the chair listening.  Odile the make-up girl, acting as the maid, opens and closes the door.  Severine goes to open the same door but opens the wrong door, the door to the left.  The closet door.  She grows more emotional.

Another take.  She does it again.  Another take.  She does it again.  Another take.  She does it again.

Bernard the Property Master has come over to spray dulling spray on the door.  Severine grabs him and tells him he is the only one who understands.  She kisses him.  She invites him to her dressing room afterwards.  He turns and gestures to the crew that she has been drinking.  Heavily.

Ferrand clears the set of all non-essential personnel.  Alphonse goes to leave.  Ferrand says, Not you.  You may stay.  Alphonse says he would rather go watch a movie anyway.

Liliane the Script Intern gossips about Severine's drinking.  Joelle the Script Girl defends Severine, rationalizing.  Her son has leukemia.  The call could come any time.

Severine blames it on her wig.  It is too tight.  It is giving her headaches.

They wrap the scene for the day.  They will try again tomorrow.

Ferrand sleeps.  He has dreams.  Dreams that haunt the director.  Voices speaking to him.  Why do you not make political films?  Why do you not make erotic films?  The Americans insist you make the film in seven weeks.

He dreams of himself as a young boy.  In black and white.  Walking down the street.  Bandying a cane.

Another day.  We are outside.

Ferrand asks Jean-Francois, Who is that strange woman on set.  Sitting and knitting.

Lajoie's wife.  She goes with him everywhere.

A new actress is on set.  Stacey.  She will play Alexandre's secretary.  On vacation with him.  She walks with Joelle.  She speculates that Ferrand does not like her.  Joelle tries to assure her.

Alphonse and Liliane are over by a sailboat arguing.

We are at a swimming pool.

Stacey complains to Ferrand that she does not want to wear a bathing suit.  Ferrand explains that it makes the scene work better.

Stacey does the scene.

The camera crew are working on a platform built out over the swimming pool.

Joelle can see now why Stacey did not want to wear a bathing suit.  She points it out to Ferrand.  She is three months pregnant!

Ferrand talks to Bertrand the Producer.  He wants to fire her and get another actress.  Bertrand says No.  Ferrand shows him the schedule.  She will be coming back in a few weeks.  By then it will be obvious.  Bertrand says she has an iron-clad contract.  The stronger hand always wins.

The Composer calls and they listen to the score over the phone.

In a typical Nouvelle Vague moment, Ferrand empties his duffel bag of film books while we listen to the score.  We see the film books.  They are about--

Bunuel.  Dreyer.  Lubitsch.  Bergman.  Godard.  Hitchcock.  Rossellini.  Hawks.  Bresson.

Bertrand suggests that the secretary be pregnant in the film.  Ferrand considers it.  Then he says it will be confusing.  It will appear as though Alexandre is the father.  It will confuse the plot.  They end with no decision made.

Julie Baker, the British star, arrives at the airport.  Flash bulbs go off.  The paparazzi follow her.

She holds a press conference.

They ask what the story is about.  She says it is about a woman engaged to a man who then meets his parents and falls for the father.

They ask about her private life.  Her breakdown.  Her marrying of her doctor.

She remains calm and pleasant throughout.  The press conference ends.  Behind the scenes she is exhausted.

She introduces her husband, Dr. Nelson.

Another day of shooting.

Lajoie's wife is in the shot.  Sitting and knitting.  Ferrand asks if she can move back.  She does.

He asks Joelle why she is always there.  Joelle explains that she is so jealous of Lajoie that she keeps a constant eye on him.  She makes his life hell and he is too week to dump her.

The crew calls them The Sorrow and the Pity.

They all laugh.

Alphonse sits in the car with Julie Baker.  He asks her if she has stage fright.

Ferrand sees Liliane kissing Pierrot the Photographer over in the trees.  That will not end well.  He calls her in to slate the scene.

Liliane slates the scene.

We move inside.  We film the scene.

Severine and Julie Baker.  Alexandre and Alphonse.  All in the scene together.

Alphonse and Liliane have another argument.  He got her the internship so they could be together.  She says she never wanted to be a Script Supervisor in the first place.  She wanted to be an editor.  He says she should have told him.  He could have worked it out.

Ferrand calls him back to set.

Ferrand and Alexandre are walking.

Sorry to make you die again.

I'm used to it.  In 80 films I've died 24 times.  Electrocuted, stabbed, shot, but never a natural death.

Ferrand goes to Yann and Martine.  Martine Barraque.  The other real film editor on this film.  They show him and Stacey the dailies of Stacey in the pool.  The pregnancy does not show.  It is okay.  Stacey may leave for her plane.  See you in a few weeks.

Alphonse grabs Jean-Francois's arm.  I have a question.  Are women magic?  No, and neither are men.

Another crew member tells Ferrand his mother just died and he needs three days off.  Ferrand understands.  But he is losing a hand.  The pressure builds.

They film a scene with a cat.

Bernard flies in the milk.

Alexandre the father plays the scene with Julie the daughter-in-law.  Julie sets the food tray outside the door.

Bernard wrangles the cat.  The cat does not wish to be wrangled.

Get the boom out of the shot.  We will dub in cat sounds later.

Bernard explains that the cat has not eaten in three days.  He is supposed to be hungry and should run to the food.

We will shoot the scene when you can find a cat who can act.

Joelle criticizes Bernard.  I told you to get two cats.

Joelle goes and gets the studio cat.  They film the scene again.

The studio cat does its job on the first take.

Fix the focus.

The studio cat plays around the tray and eats the food.  And licks the milk.

Cut!

They get the shot.

The crew are happy.

Alphonse asks Alexandre his question.  Are women magic?

Alexandre gets that faraway look.  He had memories.  Some are, yes.  But some are not.

Alexandre rides with Dr. Nelson to the airport.  He assures him that Julie will be OK.

Dr. Nelson explains.  Everyone is afraid of being judged.  But in your profession, judgment is part and parcel.

And there is more kissing in your job than any other.

Alexandre agrees.  We do a lot of kissing.

They say the handshake was invented to show that one is unarmed and not a foe.  We need more than that.  We have to show that we love each other.

Christian arrives at the airport.  Christian is with Alexandre.

Alphonse asks Bernard.  Are women magic?

Bernard says their legs are.  That is why they wear skirts.

Bertrand reminds Ferrand that Union rules require a 12-hour break.  They have to shoot the kitchen scene tomorrow.

They are all going to a movie.  The Godfather is playing.

Julie Baker stays back to memorize her lines.  Ferrand needs to write them.

Ferrand and Joelle go over the script.

They discuss film theory.  Then get back to work.  The kitchen scene.  They need to work out the scene between Julie and Alexandre.  And write her lines.

Ferrand describes it.  Joelle suggests they use that line.  They turn to her press conference written in the newspaper.  She herself described it.  They work it out.

Julie is the child of a great actor.  It affects her.  They discuss children of great actors.  Fairbanks.  Barrymore. 

The film quiz comes on TV.  Jean-Francois and Bernard watch.  The desk clerk watches them.  They know all the answers. 

Montage.

Julie memorizes her lines.  They shoot takes of the scene.  They pipe in fake rain.

Something magical is happening.

Julie and Alexandre are saying the lines Ferrand and Joelle wrote last night.  Julie knows them.

The shot works.  It is a beautiful moment.

Ferrand has another dream.

He as a boy is walking down the streets in black and white, bandying his cane.  He arrives at a gate.

The next day.

Alphonse makes excuses to Ferrand.

Ferrand walks through the lot talking to Jean-Francois as he talks to us in voice-over.

We are at the halfway point.  The film is coming together.  Cinema is king.

Montage.

Ferrand works with the tilt of Julie's head.  Alphonse steps through the dolly track as the dolly pulls away from him.  Ferrand works with the tilt of Julie's fingers.  The crew squats as the camera pans past them.  Severine smiles.  The camera zooms.  Focuses.  The actors in the car are pulled by a tow dolly.  Julie slates the scene herself.  The crane moves up.  The camera points to us.  The score plays.

Magic is happening.

Even Alpohonse and Liliane are getting along.

Company Move.

Julie and Alphonse have the day off.  She will go antique hunting.  He will go to a movie.

The company drives to the country.

They follow the directional signs that were placed for them ahead of time.

Bernard stops for Joelle.  She is on the side of the road with a flat tire.  He helps her change it.  She invites him into the woods for a moment.  He helps her with something else.

On set.

They set up on the side of the road.

Where is Joelle?  Where is Bernard?

Some locals pass by with a donkey pulling a cart.

Hey!  Whatcha doin'? / Making a movie. / Well, if ya need some stars, we're available.  Yuck yuck yuck.

They dress up the stuntman.  He drives the car around the curve.  Falls out.  The car plunges over the cliff.  The stuntman is OK.  Second camera got it.

They got the shot.  The stuntman is wrapped.

The stuntman drives off with Liliane.

Wait!  He was supposed to give Jean-Francois a ride.

Back at the studio, Julie thanks the stuntman for doubling her.  She asks how it went.  He says they got it on the first take.

Liliane informs Julie that they are in love and that he is taking her to London.

Wait.  What?

Liliane is engaged to Alphonse.  She has been messing around with Pierrot.  But she is going with the stuntman to London?  When did this happen?

They will not miss me, she explains.  I am a fifth wheel.

Julie counters.  She delivers a Truffaut ethic.  An ethic for all filmmakers.--

You don't just walk out on a film.

What does Alphonse say? / He'll get the surprise tonight. / He will be terribly upset. / He is always terribly upset. / This is wrong.  You are being cruel.

Time for a company picture.

Julie drives up in the red car.  Mme. Lajoie is sitting.  Sitting and knitting.  Watching.

Stacey arrives.  Pregnant.  Very visibly.

Pierrot is setting up the camera.

Alphonse is looking for Liliane.

Julie takes Alphonse aside to tell him.

Pierrot watches as if he knows already.  And is in on it.

Alphonse says it had to end this way.  But then runs off.

Joelle finds out.  She expresses another Truffaut ethic.--

I'd dump a guy for a film but never a film for a guy.

Ferrand sleeps.  A third time.  Neon CINEMA signs flash in his dreams.

He as a boy walks down the city streets in black and white, bandying his cane.  He approaches the gate.  It is a movie theater.  Closed for the night.  He uses the cane to pull a wheeled kiosk to him.  And takes all the pictures off it.

Citizen Kane.

The boy is in love.

In love with Citizen Kane.

In love with movies.

Another day.

Julie in a pink dress climbs a tall ladder to a high platform with a false wall and French doors.  It is designed to appear that Julie lives across from her in-laws.

She opens the doors and steps out onto the balcony and talks to them.

The red light flashes.  We are filming.

Montage.

Ferrand watches the dailies.  The film passes through the sprockets.  The music plays.  The car stunt.  Magic.

Joelle goes into a hotel room.  She finds Odile with Bernard.  She is not bothered.  She smiles.

She goes to Alphonse's room.  He will not come out.

Severine holds court at dinner.  She regales them with stories of Hamlet.

Severine calls out a man.  Why are you sitting over there?  Come join us.  Jean-Francois explains he is not a member of the crew.  He is a hotel guest.  Severine invites him over anyway.

Julie asks Joelle to get Alphonse.  Joelle explains he is sulking and she is used to it.  Julie asks her to get him anyway.

Severine explains to the hotel guest the life of a filmmaker.  We live together .  We work together.  We become a family.  And then it is gone.

Alexandre tells a story about Severine.  They were working in Italy.  Someone said, "She is better than Eleanore Duse."  He said, "Yes, she is a real doozy."

Alphonse comes out of his room.  He wants someone to give him money for a brothel.

Ferrand says No.  He tells him to go into his room and learn his lines.

Ferrand gives Alphonse some fatherly advise.  Some more Truffaut wisdom.

Tomorrow is a workday, and it is the work that matters.  You are a good actor.  No one's personal life runs smoothly.  That only happens in the movies. 

Movies run along like trains in the night.

And people like you and me are only happy in our work.

Late at night Alphonse calls Julie and tells her that he is leaving.  It is up to her to save the day.

She goes to his room and saves the day.

They have a great conversation where she dispenses wisdom.  She says Liliane and the stuntman will not work out.  He will tire of her and she will feel lost in London.  She will be back in two weeks.

He complains.

My love affairs have always been disasters.  I thought women were magic.

She responds.

Everyone's magic. . . . Or no one is.

The next morning Odile goes looking for Julie.  She is not in her room.

Joelle has been up all night.  Lajoie thought they had already shot the costume party, so he sent the costumes back.  She went to the airport to retrieve them.

Julie wakes up with Alphonse.  She gets up to set the alarm for him.  He wakes up thinking they are now in love.  He wants her to stay.  She has to work.  She tells him to sleep.

She goes to her room.  She gets dressed for the day.  She goes downstairs.  She and Odile leave the hotel together.  Julie has served the needs of the film.

Alphonse reads it differently, as only Alphonse can.

He calls and leaves a message for Dr. Nelson.  He tells him that he and Julie are now in love and demands that he set her free.

Dr. Nelson calls Julie in her dressing room.

Bernard tries to get reimbursed for his expenses.

Alphonse has gone missing.

Joelle enters and says Julie has locked herself in her room.

Stacey comes up, and Julie lets her in.

Perhaps she feels an expectant mother would understand.

Joelle puts the pieces together.

Mdme. Lajoie is outraged by these people.

Your precious cinema!  I think it stinks!

Stacey explains to Bertrand the Producer.  She wants some tub butter.  In a block.

TUB BUTTER.

Bertrand puts pressure on Bernard.  He is Props, after all.  Get some tub butter!

Bernard protests.  It is not in the script!

They all run out to find it.

Alexandre takes it all in stride.  He is a seasoned veteran and has seen it all before.

I've known far more costly whims.

He tells the Assistant Production Office Coordinator a story about Hedy Lamarr.

Who installed a rain machine in her garden in California to remind her of Austria.

Bertrand and Joelle frantically open sticks of butter into a bowl to mash them together.

There is no tub butter in the whole Riviera!

Jean-Francois calls.  He has found Alphonse.

Racing go-carts at a go-cart track.

Ferrand himself carries the tub butter sculpture to Julie's room.

The towel on her wall says Jean Cocteau.

She cannot believe Alphonse made the phone call.  Ferrand knows he acted like the child he is.  But Dr. Nelson is a wonderful man.  He will get over it.

Julie threatens to quit the movies.

Jean-Francois uses the time on set to record sound effects.

Stacey brings Dr. Nelson to set.  No one was doing anything, so I got him.

Odile is getting Alphonse ready.  Joelle appears.  He tells her he is quitting the movies.

She calls his bluff.

Good idea.  You do that.

She walks off smiling.

He is stunned.

Odile finishes and walks off like a sprite.

Ferrand writes new dialogue for Julie and gives it to Odile to take to her.

Dr. Nelson takes care of Julie.

He gives her a pill.  He loves her.  He is gentle.  He understands.  She recovers.

Odile brings the dialogue.

Even if that's true, I'll never be able to forget.  I've decided to live alone.  Now I know that life is rotten.

Her own words to Ferrand.

That man will use anything!

They film the scene.

She enters with the trick candle.

They play the score on a vinyl record live.

They do another take.  That was the best one.

Bertrand rushes in with bad news.

Tragic news.

Ferrand talks to us in voice-over.

We're waiting for the film's English insurance representative.  The film's fate is in his hands.

What I've always dreaded has happened.

The era of studio films had died.

So says Ferrand.

We watch more rushes.

The English insurance representative speaks.

He is played by the British novelist Graham Greene!  Who is known in the film world for This Gun for Hire (1942), Ministry of Fear (1944), Confidential Agent (1945), Brighton Rock (1947), The Fallen Idol (1948), Saint Joan (1957), The Quiet American (1958), Our Man in Havana (1959), and of course The Third Man (1949).

No.  It's impossible.  You cannot reshoot the scene with Alexandre with another actor.  You will have to simplify the plot.

Ferrand and Joelle talk it through.

We will shoot it from a distance.

We will shoot him in the back.

We will shoot it in the snow.

They pump in the snow.  Lots of snow.  White, wet foam.

Ferrand gives camera notes to Walter.

Joelle brings in the stand-in.

Walter notices his hair is too long.

Ferrand asks Odile to trim it.

Bernard shows them the gun.

The scores of extras walk in the snow.

Alphonse tells Ferrand he plans to take a film in Tokyo.  Turgenev.  First Love.  A Frenchman filming a Russian story in Japan.  So he can be 13,000 miles away from his problems.

Dr. Nelson and Julie say goodbye.  They are heading to Australia for a medical conference.

We film the scene we have seen before.

The opening scene.

Instead of slapping Alexandre, Alphonse shoots him.  Shoots him from a distance.

We finish the scene.

We wrap.

The company packs up to leave.

See you at Unemployment.  We can sign up together.

Bernard turns down Jean-Francois' request to ride with him.

This is a subtle point in the picture.  Remember when Lajoie showed Ferrand a red car and a white car?  Ferrand chose the blue car.  Jean-Francois's car.  He said he was sure Jean-Francois would not mind.

They do not bring it up again, but later Jean-Francois needed a ride from the stuntman, and now he asks Bernard for a ride.  He has given up his car in service of the film.

Odile and Yann are getting married.

What!

Someone on this set was able to keep something a secret.

The journalist wants someone to interview.  Ferrand will not do it.  Bernard does it.

Was this not a hard film to make?  I heard there were some rocky moments.

Not at all.  It went fine!  And we hope audiences enjoy as much as we enjoyed making it.

We zoom out to the sky.

We watch from above as the music plays.



Day for Night is Francois Truffaut's love letter to cinema.

As The Last Metro is his love letter to the theatre.

Jean-Luc Godard wrote him a nasty letter in response to this film.  He is like the voice Ferrand heard in his dreams, demanding that he make political films.  Francois Truffaut wrote Godard a scathing letter in return.

It was the end of their friendship.

Godard went on to noodle with films that are unwatchable to many people, claiming some kind of moral high ground over his political positions.

Truffaut went on to make heart-felt, entertaining, beloved films that will stand the test of time.

The End.

Fade to Black.