Synopsis: 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... 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. [More]