{"id":3119,"date":"2009-09-22T20:26:19","date_gmt":"2009-09-23T00:26:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/?p=3119"},"modified":"2009-09-22T20:26:19","modified_gmt":"2009-09-23T00:26:19","slug":"101-nights-of-simon-cinema-1995-agnes-varda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/archives\/3119","title":{"rendered":"101 Nights of Simon Cinema (1995, Agn\u00e8s Varda)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Camille: “Can I come during the day, from 5 to 7?”
\nMarcello: “The magic hour for lovers.”<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/p>\n

Simon Cinema (Michel Piccoli) isn’t doing too well, confined to his mansion-museum with his butler (Truffaut\/Duras vet Henri Garcin) and best friend Marcello Mastroianni (as himself, sort of). Film student Camille (Julie Gayet, the girl with the giant gag vase in My Best Friend<\/a><\/em>) is hired to talk with Simon about movies for 101 nights, and her boyfriend (Mathieu Demy) takes advantage of her position to cast the legendary Mr. Cinema in his student film.<\/p>\n

Michel and Marcello:<\/em>
\n\"image\"<\/p>\n

Garcin and Gayet:<\/em>
\n\"image\"<\/p>\n

But the plot is just an excuse for some fun. Every star of French cinema shows up, major films are mentioned (nothing is discussed in any depth – no time). Anouk “Lola” Aim\u00e9e, Catherine Deneuve and Robert De Niro take a boat ride. Sandrine Bonnaire appears as both her Vagabond self and Joan of Arc<\/a>. Piccoli drops the Simon shtick and the white wig for a minute and compares cinematic death scenes with G\u00e9rard Depardieu (“that old devil Demy!”) before a poster of their co-starring Seven Deaths<\/em> film…<\/p>\n

Gerard and Michel:<\/em>
\n\"image\"<\/p>\n

Sandrine d’Arc:<\/em>
\n\"image\"<\/p>\n

Hanna Schygulla (Fassbinder films, Passion<\/em>) and Jeanne Moreau (Jules and Jim<\/em>, The Lovers<\/em>) play Simon’s ex-wives. There are seven dwarfs. There’s a conspiciously Bonheur<\/a><\/em>-looking sunflower shot. Alain Delon arrives by helicopter (reminiscent, though it maybe shouldn’t be, of the out-of-place helicopter in Donkey Skin<\/a><\/em>).<\/p>\n

Gayet with Alain Delon:<\/em>
\n\"image\"<\/p>\n

Jeanne and Hanna:<\/em>
\n\"image\"<\/p>\n

It’s all very light and playful. I’m sure I missed a thousand references, but it keeps many of them obvious enough to remain accessible (if you didn’t catch the meaning when a bicycle is stolen outside the mansion, someone cries “italian neorealism strikes again!”).<\/p>\n

Mathieu Demy meets Fanny Ardant:<\/em>
\n\"image\"<\/p>\n

The credits list how many seconds and frames were used from each featured film – impressive – and also all the stolen music cues.<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/p>\n

tour bus guy: “Glad to see you on form.”
\nSimon: “Form of what?”
\n“Why, you seem content.”
\n“Form and content, a debate even older than I am.”<\/p>\n

At Cannes:<\/em>
\n\"image\"<\/p>\n

NY Times: “While covering so many bases, Ms. Varda never makes more than a glancing allusion to anything, and at times the film is such an overloaded grab bag that it grows exasperating. Or even baffling; for unknown reasons, Stephen Dorff turns up in a pantheon of great Hollywood stars.”<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/p>\n

LA Times: “Michel Piccoli plays Monsieur Cinema, who embodies the history and spirit of film, and in particular, that Fabulous Invalid, the French motion picture industry itself. (Since Varda is such a playful director, Piccoli is sometimes simply himself.) Monsieur Cinema may have been inspired by the director of the landmark Napoleon<\/em>, the late Abel Gance, whom Piccoli resembles when he puts on a long silver-white wig.”<\/p>\n

Lumiere brothers:<\/em>
\n\"image\"<\/p>\n

Doctor Belmondo and Jack Nance:<\/em>
\n\"image\"<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Camille: “Can I come during the day, from 5 to 7?” Marcello: “The magic hour for lovers.” Simon Cinema (Michel Piccoli) isn’t doing too well, confined to his mansion-museum with his butler (Truffaut\/Duras vet Henri Garcin) and best friend Marcello Mastroianni (as himself, sort of). Film student Camille (Julie Gayet, the girl with the giant […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[451,910,937,173,628,91,34,463,388,300,552,938,936,175,705],"class_list":["post-3119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie","tag-1990s","tag-agnes-varda","tag-alain-delon","tag-catherine-deneuve","tag-clint-eastwood","tag-filmmaking","tag-france","tag-gerard-depardieu","tag-harrison-ford","tag-jane-birkin","tag-jean-claude-brialy","tag-jeanne-moreau","tag-marcello-mastroianni","tag-michel-piccoli","tag-robert-deniro"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3119"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3119\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3249,"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3119\/revisions\/3249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}