IN SAYING
EVERYTHING ABOUT A MOVIE?
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IN SAYING EVERYTHING ABOUT A MOVIE? |
| ONE HUNDRED AND ONE NIGHTS (A HUNDRED AND ONE NIGHTS) (CENT ET UNE NUITS DE SIMON CINEMA, LES) (director/writer: Agnès Varda; cinematographer: Eric Gautier; editor: Hugues Darmois; music: ; cast: Michel Piccoli (Simon Cinema), Marcello Mastroianni (Italian friend), Henri Garcin (Firmin, the butler), Julie Gayet (Camille), Mathieu Demy (Mica), Emmanuel Salinger (Vincent) and Fanny Ardant, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Sandrine Bonnaire, Catherine Deneuve, Robert De Niro, Gerard Depardieu, Harrison Ford, Anouk Aimee, Gina Lollobrigida and Jeanne Moreau (as themselves); Runtime: 101; MPAA Rating: NR; producer: Dominique Vignet; Winstar Video; 1995-France/UK-in French with English subtitles) |
| "I found it to be
the only Varda film I didn't like."
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz French filmmaker
Agnès
Varda
("The Gleaners and I"/"Cleo From 5 to 7"/"One Sings,
The Other Doesn't") tries to cover the entire history of films
in this playful but terribly silly homage film to
cinema. Varda's
excesses turn the farce into a mess that is as
interesting to look at
as a train wreck is for gawkers. It plays out as a
goofy minor
Fellini-like movie filled with some creative touches
by the talented
Varda, uber cameos from both Hollywood and European
stars (from Anouk
Aimee to Robert De Niro, with some 30 actors in cameo
roles), mucho
annoying juvenile wit, referring in some way or other
to more than 50 films
and a nauseating hero
worship for the stars. It's the kind of film that
should please film
buffs and those impressed with star power more than
others. I found it
to be the only Varda film I didn't like. The slight
preposterous plot
has the 100-year-old eccentric movie
producer/director/actor Simon
Cinema (Michel
Piccoli), a
symbol for movie history, hire an attractive young
film school graduate
student Camille (Julie Gayet) to be his muse and help
the senile old
man remember details about his illustrious career in
the movies. The
weak subplot, done without
conviction, has the struggling student, in love with
an aspiring
director named Mica (Mathieu Demy, Varda's son),
scheme to con the
wealthy Simon out of his fortune. Simon is visited by his
friends
Marcello Mastroianni and Gerard Depardieu, who recall
their films with
a nostalgic fondness. One of the highlight scenes is the
arguing which
scene in a bathtub came first--Mastroianni's in 8 1/2 or
Piccoli's in Contempt.
In the meantime the
sometimes bed-ridden Simon sees ghosts of the
Lumiere
Brothers
and chatters away about pics from Citizen Kane to King
Kong
and movie personalities from a talking cow
as Luis
Buñuel
to Buster Keaton. Varda throws everything
against the wall, but very little sticks in this
pointless lame comedy. REVIEWED ON 3/18/2010 GRADE: C Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews" © ALL RIGHTS RESERVED DENNIS SCHWARTZ |