Effetto notte is the Italian term for a technique that allows night scenes to be filmed during the day. The term comes from Françoise Truffaut’s 1973 film Day for Night, and the effect is also referred to as “the American night” due to its omnipresence in American cinema. Effetto notte results in a striking interplay between light and shadow, at once eerie and powerful, and it is just this effect that suits the U.S.-based artists included in this exhibition. Addressing the concepts of realism and truth in a world of “alternate facts,” these emerging artists set out to investigate new approaches to figurative imagery that reflect today’s distortions of verity. The more than 150 works in “Day for Night” will be featured in Barberini’s illustrious halls on the main floor—celebrated for their stunning Italian Baroque design—as well as in the Appartamento del Settecento, which is rarely open to the public. —Nyla Gilstrap