One Hundred and One Nights

One Hundred and One Nights (French: Les cent et une nuits de Simon Cinéma) is a 1995 French comedy film directed by Agnès Varda.[3] A light-hearted look at 100 years of commercial cinema, it celebrates in vision and sound favourite films from France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the USA. It was entered into the 45th Berlin International Film Festival.[4]

For the Arab literary work, see One Hundred and One Nights (book).

One Hundred and One Nights
French film poster
Directed byAgnès Varda
Produced byDominique Vignet
Written byAgnès Varda
StarringMichel Piccoli
Marcello Mastroianni
CinematographyEric Gautier
Edited byHugues Darmois
Production
company
Distributed byCiné-Tamaris
Release date
  • 25 January 1995 (1995-01-25)
Running time
101 minutes
CountryFrance
LanguageFrench
Box office$294,900[1]
49,150 admissions (France)[2]

Plot

With his hundredth birthday approaching and his memory failing, Simon Cinéma hires Camille, a bright young film student, to visit him in his isolated mansion outside Paris for 101 days and relive for him the history of the cinema in which he has been involved all his life. In his opulent seclusion, he models himself on Norma Desmond and his butler on Erich von Stroheim.

They watch clips from his collection, listen to snatches of dialogue and music, and discuss (not too deeply) famous films, directors, and characters. Actors from many countries drop in to visit him, in person or as memories: Marcello Mastroianni, Gérard Depardieu, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Alain Delon, Jeanne Moreau (to whom he was once married), Hanna Schygulla (another former wife), Catherine Deneuve, Robert De Niro, Sandrine Bonnaire, Anouk Aimée, Fanny Ardant, Gina Lollobrigida, and Jane Birkin.

A subplot involves Camille's boyfriend Mica, who is trying with friends to make his first film and decides that the wealthy old man should help finance it. He persuades Vincent, who has been in India for years, to pose as Simon's long-lost grandson and heir. That plan is foiled by Elizabeth Taylor (played by a double), who gets Simon to leave everything for medical research. With Camille, Simon attends the Cannes festival and makes a triumphant return trip to Hollywood. Finally, he agrees to act a Mafia chief in Mica's film.

Cast

References
  1. "One Hundred and One Nights". JPbox. Retrieved 14 February 2014.
  2. Box office information for Jean Paul Belmondo films at Box Office Story
  3. Maslin, Janet. "NY Times: A Hundred and One Nights". The New York Times. The New York Times Company. Retrieved 2 April 2009.
  4. "Berlinale: 1995 Programme". berlinale.de. Retrieved 31 December 2011.
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