"Film within a film" motifs and films about filmmaking have been around for several decades, with François Truffaut's magnificent Day for Night standing like a colossus atop the genre. The legendary French director now has company from Japan--Mitsuo Yanagimachi, writer/director of Who's Camus Anyway? (Kamyu nante shiranai). Like Truffaut's masterpiece, Yanagimachi's inventive film about a collegiate film school project contains tangled webs of melodramatic fun along with moments of self-reflection.

Yanagimachi clearly loves the French New Wave with frequent references to Truffaut and Godard, but he channels Robert Altman's style throughout the film. Echoing Altman's famous The Player opening shot, Who's Camus Anyway? begins with a seven-minute continuous tracking shot that surveys a Tokyo university campus where film workshop students are planning a project called "The Bored Murderer." He continues with additional Altmanesque touches throughout--his perpetually moving camera gradually unfolds character studies of his ensemble cast, using a great deal of improvisation and overlapping dialogue.

There's always ready-made drama behind the scenes, and the students are dealing with a flurry of filmmaking tempests for starters--with just five days remaining before shooting, the lead actor has just quit; the young director's girlfriend obsessively stalks him at all hours; and the filmmakers remain confused about the existential motive that drives their protagonist to commit a senseless murder. More complications arise quite naturally during the well-paced drama.

Student director Matsukawa (Shuji Kashiwabara) strives to hold the project together, but he's continually besieged with challenges--the most frustrating one involving his possessive girlfriend Yukari (Hinano Yoshikawa), who takes on Adele's persona from Truffaut's The Story of Adele H. She relentlessly tracks his every move, threatens to kill him if he sleeps with any cast members, harasses him about marriage, and finally begs for three sperm samples to guarantee bearing his child. He agrees to the last in order to get money for editing software. But he's still short on funds, so he leaps at a chance to pimp himself for the remaining sum (without regard for Yukari's murder threat). Thus, we see into his dual nature--a charismatic aspiring director very focused on his goals, yet indifferent and perfectly willing to use people when necessary.

Assistant director Kiyoko (Ai Maeda) labors to understand their screenplay's protagonist by comparing him to Camus' The Stranger and having their new lead actor Ikeda (Hideo Nakaizumi) explore the parallel Meursault character. She simultaneously struggles to cope with her own confusing emotions without her steady boyfriend on the scene. Meanwhile Ikeda ranks as the most bizarre. Not only is the effeminate actor's sexuality ambiguous, but also he just may immerse himself too deeply into his existentialistic acting role. This gradual transformation is achieved very effectively, provoking empathy and building suspense about how this will play out.

Another significant thread evolves from the opening scene with sad-eyed former director and now professor Nakajo (Hirotaro Honda), who silently pines for beautiful young student Rei from afar. In case viewers don't "get" this Gustav von Aschenbach character reference from Thomas Mann's Death in Venice as a pivotal character, Yanagimachi cements it firmly by having the students refer to him as "Old Venice" and prominently displays a DVD copy of Luchino Visconti's 1971 film in the professor's office.

Best Film award-winner at the 2005 Tokyo International Film Festival, Who's Camus Anyway? is now available in the U.S. on DVD through Film Movement. It ranks among the top offerings in their catalogue. Yanagimachi achieves a rare balance with his deftly conceived film, providing an entertaining character study with a talented ensemble cast that move naturally through their roles and bringing the narrative to a surrealistic conclusion that lingers long after the final credits have rolled.