Day for Night (1973)

François Truffaut: Ferrand, le réalisateur

Photos 

Quotes 

• director Ferrand : Making a film is like a stagecoach ride in the old west. When you start, you are hoping for a pleasant trip. By the halfway point, you just hope to survive.

• Ferrand : "The Godfather" is showing all over Nice. It's wiping out every other movie.

• Alphonse : [after being dumped by his girlfriend]  I need money to go to a whorehouse.

  director Ferrand : Come on Alphonse. Go back to your room, re-read the script, learn your lines, then try to sleep. Tomorrow we work. That's what matters. Don't be a fool. You're a very good actor. No one's private life runs smoothly. That only happens in the movies. No traffic jams, no dead periods. Movies go along like trains in the night. And people like you and me are only happy in our work. I'm counting on you.

• Ferrand : What is a film director? A man who's asked questions about everything. Sometimes he knows the answers.

• Ferrand : Tell him the car crash we're shooting tomorrow will be in American night.

  Julie : What is American night?

  Ferrand : A night scene shot in daylight with a special filter.

  Julie : Ah, day for night.

• director Ferrand : People used to stare at fires. Now they watch TV. We need to see moving images, especially after dinner.

• director Ferrand : I speak English well, but don't understand it!

• Ferrand : Quiet! A full rehearsal. Let's go, Séverine.

  Séverine : "I don't understand you Alexander! You're - "

  Alexandre : "Peculiar"

  Séverine : Oh, yes.

  Ferrand : It's all right! Take it from the top, right away. Let's go, Séverine.

  Séverine : "I don't understand you Alexander! You've been peculiar, lately. Walking out on dinner last night! That was an insult to Julie." Damn! I said Julie instead of Pamela.

  Ferrand : Not to worry.

  Séverine : I've got an idea! I'll use numbers, the way I do for Fellini! Instead of "I don't understand you Alexander..." I'll say, 22, 83, 16, 72, 5, 3, 18, 9, 14, 7, 9. 17, 10, 10, 4, 18, 69...

  Ferrand : Impossible, Séverine. In France, we have to say the lines.

• Ferrand : She's always around!

  Joelle : She's Lajoie's wife.

  Ferrand : She thinks she's a crew member?

  Joelle : No, she thinks women are after him! She makes his life hell. He's too weak to dump her. We call them "The Sorrow and the Pity"!

• Joelle : The scene needs a new idea. Call your co-writer!

  Ferrand : I thought of it. He's in Japan. He's adapting Turgenev's "First Love". Set in modern Japan. Great idea!

• Joelle : Back to work! You dictate, I'll type. We promised it to Julie tonight.

  Ferrand : Okay, back to the kitchen. No more guilt or sense of shame. They decide to run away like thieves in the night.

  Joelle : "Pamela" could actually say that! We must show that she's completely lucid. She loved the son, now she loves the father. That must come across.

  Ferrand : Yes. Julie explained it very well. Here's her interview in the morning paper: "The girl realizes the boy she married is only a pale reflection to his father." She understood the script! Why? Because her mother was an actress. She knows Hollywood, where many kids try to live up to famous parents. Fairbanks, Barrymore and others.

• Séverine : It's not my fault!

  Ferrand : Cut! Once more.

  Séverine : It's not my fault if I'm confused! I don't know if she's Odile, the actress. Or, Odile the make-up girl! In my day, acting was acting and make-up was make-up! No wonder I'm confused!

• Ferrand : We do the kitchen scene tomorrow.

  Julie : Can I have my lines?

  Ferrand : After dinner tonight.

  Julie : That's not much time!

  Ferrand : It's not written yet. Read it once and put it under your pillow. In the morning, you'll know it by heart!

  Julie : Optimist, huh!

• Ferrand : We'll shoot the scene when you find a cat that can act!

• Ferrand : Walter, have a look. The pictures of Julie.

  Walter, le chef opérateur : I remember her in that movie with the car-chase.

• Ferrand : Cinema is King!

• Ferrand : Let's go before it gets dark!