Day and Night (1997 film)


Day and Night is a 1997 French drama film directed by public intellectual Bernard-Henri Lévy and starring Alain Delon, Lauren Bacall, Arielle Dombasle and Francisco Rabal. The film follows a French author who fled to Mexico for a quiet life and an actress who is willing to seduce him to get a part in a film adapted from one of his books. It is considered by some to be one of the worst films of all time.

Plot

Alexandre is an ageing writer who lives as a monarch in the depths of Mexico. Surrounded by his court, he staves off boredom with alcohol, boxing, women and ballooning. Desiring to acquire the adaptation rights of Alexandre's first novel, film producer Filippi and his actress Laure soon arrive in the life of the celebrated author. Alexandre and Laure gradually become closer and set off extreme passions in the heart of the community.

Cast

When the film premiered at the 47th Berlin International Film Festival in 1997, hundreds of journalists walked out of the screening and those that stayed audibly ridiculed the film. Day and Night was considered the worst French film since 1945 by Cahiers du cinéma, and considered as a possible "worst film in history" by the French version of Slate. Variety claimed that the film was, "Laugh-out-loud awful without touching the cult realm of 'so bad it's good," Françoise Giroud stated "It's a bad movie, there's no question", and L'Humanité called it an "Absolute debacle". An original documentary, Anatomy of a Massacre, was released with the Day and Night DVD, and focused on the film's intense negative reception and failure.