Movie · 1973 · Comedy, Drama · 1h 56m · PG · French
Curator score: 9.1/10 (78.1K ratings)
A movie for people who love movies.
Overview
A committed filmmaker struggles to complete his latest project while coping with a myriad of crises, personal and professional, among the cast and crew.
Ratings
Curator score: 9.1/10
IMDb: 8.0/10
Letterboxd: 4.19/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 98%
TMDB: 7.8/10
Director
François Truffaut
Production
Les Films du Carrosse, Productions et Éditions Cinématographiques Françaises, Produzione Intercontinentale Cinematografica (PIC)
Cast
Jacqueline Bisset, Valentina Cortese, Dani, Alexandra Stewart, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Jean Champion, Jean-Pierre Léaud, François Truffaut, Niké Arrighi, Nathalie Baye, Maurice Seveno, David Markham, Bernard Ménez, Gaston Joly, Zénaïde Rossi, Xavier Saint-Macary, Marc Boyle, Walter Bal, Jean-François Stévenin, Pierre Zucca
Curator Review
Verdict
A witty, affectionate backstage comedy-drama that turns the chaos of filmmaking into both a joke and a love letter. It’s especially rewarding if you enjoy ensemble stories, movie-set minutiae, and films that blur the line between life and performance.
Best for
cinephiles
fans of ensemble comedies
viewers who love movies about moviemaking
people who enjoy bittersweet, lightly chaotic character studies
fans of French New Wave cinema
Skip if
you want a tightly plotted story
you dislike self-reflexive or meta filmmaking
you prefer high-stakes drama over conversational ensemble work
you need a single clear protagonist to follow
Overview
Day for Night is one of cinema’s great self-portraits: playful, affectionate, and just anxious enough to feel true. Truffaut treats the film set as a tiny ecosystem of egos, crushes, accidents, compromises, and last-minute improvisations, where the production itself becomes the drama. The result is funny without being glib and sentimental without becoming soft-focus nostalgia.
Worth noting
What makes it endure is the balance between craft and feeling. It understands that filmmaking is both labor and illusion, a place where people lie to keep the machine moving and still somehow make something beautiful. The movie’s loose, ensemble-driven structure can feel shaggy, but that looseness is part of the point: a film set is never orderly, only temporarily held together.
Bottom line
For viewers who love cinema as a lived-in world, it’s a near-perfect experience. It’s not just about making a movie; it’s about why people keep making them despite the stress, vanity, and emotional wreckage. The affection is real, the satire is sharp, and the final effect is deeply generous.
Top Letterboxd reviews
mia lee vicino (4★) · 1683 likes
“I’d dump a guy for a film but never a film for a guy!”
charming, genuine, and brave enough to tell the three essential truths about filmmaking:- movies are more important than life- everyone in the cast and crew is boning each other- cats cannot act
demi adejuyigbe (4.5★) · 945 likes
I love movies about movies and I love being on a set so much. I miss the energy, and the busyness, and the hustling unpreparedness! I loved how unfocused this movie was– no singular plot, no central character to follow, just a series of dramas surrounding a single production. It feels like a Christopher Guest movie with the dial turned way down. Love it!
russman (4.5★) · 871 likes
That kitten was a horrible actor.
noen (5★) · 463 likes
The best film about making a film! Is one of the only ones who understand that filmmaking is in equal parts a dream and nightmare, maintaining the union of the cast by lies, ego and last-minute rewritings.
Jean-Pierre Léaud is neurotic, Jacqueline Bisset is brilliant and all the other characters are one step away from a nervous breakdown. Five stars and a stress headache well earned.
sam (4.5★) · 410 likes
“I’d drop a guy for a film. I’d never drop a film for a guy!”
no truer words have ever been spoken.
1980 · Action, Comedy, Drama · 2h 11m · R · Curator 5.6/10 (21.4K ratings) · Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video, Peacock Premium, Night Flight Plus, Amazon Prime Video with Ads, Peacock Premium Plus
A surreal, self-aware film-world puzzle that plays with illusion, control, and movie-making as spectacle.