Customer Reviews

One Hundred and One Nights [VHS]

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Once again Fox Lorber has subverted a very good film by notputting it in its proper aspect ratio. . . This is especially ironicsince the film is a wonderfully silly homage to the 100th birthday of cinema. The DVD is proof just how much the businessmen can screw up this art form. But the film has a BIG allstar cast with Michel Piccoli playing Mr. Cinema. Marcello Mastroianni gives a wonderfully silly spoof of himself (topped only by the short scene of Jean-Paul Belmondo working as a quack doctor after giving up acting.) And where else can you see Robert DeNiro woo Catherine Deneuve in a small boat on a very small pond? I watch lots of foreign cinema and even I'm left guessing at many of the film references so good hunting. It helps to have seen more than a few Bunuel films. And Piccolli does an imitation of Orson Wells I haven't stopped laughing about.

But if you DO love movies, well, the more you love and appreciate them, the more you will love and appreciate this one! This is an AMAZING homage to movies and to the role they play in our lives. It is boundless in its imagination, wit and charm, and it balances beautifully between the sophisticated and the sentimental. I love the cinema from France and from all other countries, but I watched this with someone who had not seen many films outside the USA and he still managed to adore this, even though he was unfamiliar with many of the films and stars that are referred to in this film. The more familiar one is with French cinema, the more one will appreciate this film, but there are plenty of Hollywood films and stars that are referred to as well (including a scene with a Liz Taylor clone that is hilarious!). This film's quintessential charm will hold anyone in a spell who knows intrinsically that cinema equals MAGIC! Varda understands that perfectly (as did her late husband, the great director Jacques Demy, who she also refers to in this film). She creates a loving tribute to the past century of films just in time to celebrate its centennial (fans of the Lumiere Brothers and Georges Melies will identify some great gags associated with their films!). If you aren't already obsessive about movies, you will be after seeing this one!
This one definitely deserves a hundred and one stars!!

THE DVD WAS SUPPOSED TO BE SUBTITLED IN ENGLISH! WHOEVER WROTE THE AD WAS HONEST BUT WHAT HE/SHE DID NOT SAY WAS IT ONLY WORKS DURING THE TRAILER!
THE ENTIRE MOVIE HAD NO SUBTITLE!

The DVD has no English subtitles so don't buy this unless you can understand French.

I own 5 different players capable playing of dvds and none of them are able to access the english subtitles on this disc, which is a great shame because I now own a film which I loved the first time around but can never watch (and understand) again.

I completely disagree with the reviewer from New York! I LOVED this video! Any fan of old french and italian cinema will love this title! What a treat to see such great talents as Mastrioanni, Depardieu, Deneuve, Moreau - just to name a few, together with American actors such as DeNiro and Eastwood. Going down memory lane with M. Cinema and having the opportunity to see old film clips from past european films is truly delicious! If you're a film history buff and appreciate the european flavor of expression, you will love this film!

But it was hard for me to tell, because the subtitles didn't work on my copy, or the next one I got.....

ONE HUNDRED AND ONE NIGHTS, or rather LES CENT ET UNE NUITS DE SIMON CINÉMA, ought to appeal to those steeped in French New Wave, Italian Neo-Realist, and various other genres and movements in European cinema. Produced in the hundredth anniversary year of moving pictures, give or take a month or two, it's a Euro-cinemaphile's delight. One-hundred-year-old Mr. Cinema's memory is fading, and he hires a pretty - nay, beautiful - young woman to stimulate his memory with talk of movies past.

With my rube's knowledge of European cinema I knew almost every scene in this film referenced an earlier movie or star, although I was never quite sure who or which. For instance, the beautiful Camille (Juliet Gayet) must ride a bicycle to Mr. Cinema's estate, and in one scene, for no particular reason, the bicycle is stolen. Although I've never seen it, I'm sure act was meant to remind us of Vittorio de Sica's "The Bicycle Thief." Marcello Mastroianni has a fairly substantial role in the film, too, playing `The Italian Friend' of Mr. Cinema's who wants to buy his old films. Mastroianni is dressed as a magician in a number of scenes, with an identically costumed actor behind him pulling a rabbit out of his hat. I figure - this is a guess - that this is supposed to remind us of a Fellini film, although that's about the best I can do with that. And so it goes. Old French actors and actresses like Alain Delon and Jean-Paul Belmondo have small parts. Can't place the woman in the flowing purple robes, though, who I think is sposed to be personating Death. The one person I definitely recognized was Robert de Niro, who played a scene in a swan gondola with Catherine Deneuve, although both spoke French half the time.

I'm not mocking any of this. If I were more familiar with the actors and the movies this one would probably have been a lot of fun. Without that to fall back on, though, the movie wasn't all that terrific. Camille has a boyfriend with whom she schemes to cheat the old man out of enough money to finance a movie he's making, but even that plot stream seems borrowed or reflected from an earlier source. ONE HUNDRED AND ONE NIGHTS was okay, a kind of disjointed time-killer that would probably be a lot more appropriate for a lover of European cinema.

It is so sad to see such a brilliant filmmaker (and so many talented actors) create such a stupid, incoherent, pointless, unfunny, meandering, clichéd-filled, hodge-podge of a film. It is horrifying to witness the indignities that she imposes on her poor actors (particularly Jeanne Moreau). How is it possible that the same woman can create such brilliant, insightful and truly beautiful films (like Vagabond and Cleo From 5 to 7) and then also create such lousy ones (like 101 Nights and Kung-Fu Master)? Does she have an evil twin? Is she schizophrenic? What is going on?