English Title: Day for Night
Les Films du Carrosse
Starring: François Truffaut, Bernard Menez, Nathalie Baye
Directed by: François Truffaut

Synopsis: Art imitates life as a director (played by director François Truffaut) struggles to make a movie despite time limitations, financial setbacks and drama amongst the cast and crew.

Cat Burglars (Scene Stealers): One segment in this hilarious look at filmmaking shows the film crew trying to shoot a scene where the principles are in a hotel bungalow and set a tray of food outside the door.  This is when a cat actor is supposed to come in and eat from the tray.  But as we all know, cat actors don’t always do what they’re supposed to do.  In this instance, the little gray kitten which property man Bernard (Bernard Menez) has provided just won’t enter the scene and hit its mark.

Bernard repeatedly tries to get the kitten to do what they want.

At one point Bernard even throws the kitten into the scene (how many times have we seen such “catapults” in movies?) but still the kitten won’t cooperate.

The script girl, Joëlle (Nathalie Baye) finds the studio cat, a tabby which she is holding by the scruff.  They try the studio cat and although it takes a while to get to the milk on the tray it at least gives them the shot they need.

This sequence was inspired by the director’s attempts to get this same shot for his film The Soft Skin.

Final Mewsings: You can lead a cat to a movie set but you can’t make him act.

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