Simon Cinema is a century-old producer-director with a failing memory played by celebrated French actor Michel Picoli. Cinema hires beautiful film buff Camille to stimulate his memory and enliven the last days of his life. In the process, all of film history is summoned as actors and actresses, apparitions and illusions commingle in a fluid spectacle brought to life by Cinema's furtive memory. Marcello Mastroianni heads up the cast of cinematic luminaries as film history is referenced in a labyrinth of cinematic moments, icons, trivia, and highlights. All the while, Camille hatches a plan to inherit Cinema's money to fund her boyfriend's first film.

Agnes Varda reflects on her fifty years of filmmaking as well as the entire hundred-year history of the medium. Casting Michel Piccoli (CONTEMPT, BELLE DU JOUR) both as himself and also as Simon Cinema, legendary figure of film history, Varda sets up a rollicking parable of cinematic flashbacks, cameos, and commentary, all supported by a light romantic intrigue. When Simon Cinema hires beautiful Camille, an aspiring film buff, to help spur his memory, a stylized and compelling parade of film clips, images, actors, and icons makes cameos at Cinema's spacious villa on the outskirts of Paris. Filmed in beautiful and extravagantly lush hues and outlandish and constantly changing sets, the film progresses as a series of comedic memory-jogging sessions. As Cinema and his "Italian friend" Marcello Mastroianni discuss and argue, they are visited by, among others, the founders of film--the Lumiere Brothers, Anouk Aimee, Jean Paul Belmondo, Catherine Deneuve, and Robert De Niro. Along the way Camille concocts a halfhearted plot to claim Cinema's inheritance in order to fund her boyfriend's first film. Not only a passionate backward glance at the history of film, ONE HUNDRED AND ONE NIGHTS also states a case for a future generation of film lovers and filmmakers.

DVD Features:

Region 1 Encoding
Keep Case
Interactive Menus
Scene Access
Production Credits
Filmographies
Awards

Julie Gayet: French Actress
Michel Piccoli: French Actor
Marcello Mastroianni: Italian Actor
Henri Garcin: Actor
Mathieu Demy: French Child Actor

Agnes Varda: Director/Screenwriter

"...[Varda] creates a whirl of film's greatest hits....Engaging..."