Les cent et une nuits de Simon Cinéma

I felt like I was in a dream, maybe one of Fellini's dreams of long ago, while I enjoyed every moment of this exciting film. Marcello is wonderful and so are so many others in this film... see DeNiro fall in the pond! Find it, rent it...

I love Agnes varda, her whimsy, her pluck, her imagination. But this film is one silly lemon that does not fit into to Varda's usually creative body of work. To be blunt, the film is only a pretext to get very famous names on the screen for 5 seconds or 5 minutes on a flimsy pretense of a script. Varda is lucky: she has the clout and longevity in cinema that allows her to call on all these big names and get an answer (heaven, even Robert de Niro and Harrison Ford showed up for their cameos!) but there is no plot, or a sophomoric one, and hardly any thread to get moved by. It is a nice collection of cinematic quotations, visual or oral, and a nutty collection of famous faces that were asked to show up probably only to increase the chances of this dud to interest any audience. It is light and inoffensive, but so silly at time that one is bewildered: all that time and money for this self absorbed nonsense? An homage to cinema? Naw. Mostly of waste of time for all involved. I am glad Varda has done many better films to be remembered by.

If you love film, and especially if you love French films, this small gem of a movie will get under your skin delightfully. Agnes Varda has created an utterly engaging, witty, wry, self-deprecating and altogether irresistible tribute to the directors and stars of classic French cinema and some American ones as well. Varda manages to poke fun at all the ridiculous pretentiousness of movie-making while understanding all the reasons why we---audience and actors and filmmakers alike---still fall hopelessly, helplessly, and contentedly in love with the magic of moving pictures. See this movie on a warm summer night with someone you love and who also loves the movies...

Michel Piccoli lives in a mansion outside Paris, filled with the memorabilia of his lifetime, one in which he has been a movie actor, director, producer.... everything. His memory, though has faded, so he hires Julie Gayet to talk to him about old movies. At first she's thrilled with the money, the greats of the movie who come to visit, but gradually she develops a plan to get her hands on the old man's money, so her lover, Mathieu Demy, can make his own movie.

Agnès Varda's movie has a very obvious subtext, about the careless amnesia of the movies, but while the symbols remain constant throughout, with references in the dialogue and sight gags from the previous century, in the end it is a game, a celebration of movies of all sorts, the newest, liveliest, and seemingly moribund lively art that she obviously adores.

With more stars than there are in the heavens.

Agnes Varda, one of the best film directors from France, takes us on a nostalgic trip through the world of cinema. Ms. Varda pays homage to the Lumiere brothers, the inventors that revolutionized the art of making movies, as they keep appearing whenever Simon Cinema, the old character at the center of the film calls for them. The two men show up enveloped in lights, perhaps a tribute and a reference to their surname.

The film concentrates on Simon Cinema and his memories. After all, he has been around for quite a while and has survived many movements and styles during his time as a creator. Simon lives in splendor in a château in the country, attended by his male servant, Firmin, and two maids. Simon decides to employ an assistant to help him sort out his memories. When he engages the lovely Camille, he gets an eager young woman who is in love with a young would be director.

There are great moments in the film as when Simon is visited by Marcello Mastroianni. Both actors, now of a certain age, compare notes from their pictures. Simon Cinema accuses Fellini of copying his bathroom scene in Godadard's "Contempt", in his own "8-1/2". Hanna Schygula and Jeanne Moreau arrive together to see the great man. Alain Delon comes in a helicopter, only to be turned away by Firmin, the servant, who only wants to tell the actor how much he admired him and have him sign his autograph album.

There are other poignant vignettes, like the one involving Sandrine Bonnaire, who arrives at the estate dressed as the vagabond she played in Ms. Varda's own film. Then she changes into a noble woman and finally she transforms herself into Joan of Arc. Catherine Deneuve and Robert DeNiro have a good time together in a small vessel in the pond.

Michel Picolli is excellent as the older man who is recalling the movies. Julie Gayet makes a luminous contribution as Camille. Henri Garcin, is the servant Firmin, a crazy combination of servant and personal assistant. Mathieu Demy, the director's son appears as the aspiring director, Mica.

Ms. Varda created a light film about making movies. The material covers many years of film making, not only in France, but in America, and other places as well. It is indeed a sentimental journey that no cinema fan should miss.