Cavell and Day for Night

Abstract CAVELL AND DAY FOR NIGHT: For Cavell, movies are the pre-eminent form of art of the twentieth century, uniquely suited in their material bases and modes of organization to scrutinize possibilities and inhibitions of free and meaningful human life. He develops this thought not abstractly, but rather through attention to singular films that have attracted his interest and generated his felt conviction in their presentations. Do any films exist beyond those about which Cavell has specifically written that have this kind of power? Developing Cavell’s thought, this essay argues that François Truffaut’s Day for Night––a movie about making a movie––is an exemplary instance of a film that convincingly depicts and reflects on the nature of free and meaningful human life that is also shadowed by partiality and finitude.