François Truffaut gives us a behind-the-scenes romantic comedy in which the love interest is moviemaking. Every love affair must have its complications, and so the production within the production is plagued by accidents, erotic misadventures, and wayward performers, including an alcoholically forgetful diva, an imported ingénue not quite over her nervous breakdown, and an uncooperative kitten—plus, of course, Jean-Pierre Léaud, who can actually deliver lines like the plaintive “Are women magic?” with a straight face. Meanwhile, the director, played by Truffaut himself, has recurring black-and-white dreams of a cinephilic childhood.