Films can be about film. Lions Love (…and Lies) and One Hundred and One Nights, both directed by Agnés Varda, have the distinction of being films that are centered around the concept of filmmaking.
Lions Love (…and Lies) focuses on three actors and a director (Viva, James Rado, Gerome Ragni, Shirley Clarke) in Hollywood in the late 1960s. In doing so, it blends hippie culture, real life, and fiction. One Hundred and One Nights achieves a similar feat. Varda was asked to make a film celebrating the hundredth birthday of cinema. The result is a comedic film where Monsieur Cinema (Michel Piccoli) hires a young student (Julie Gayet) to remind him of the work of his youth, since his memory is failing him. Along the way, a series of filmmakers stop in to congratulate him on his accomplishments. Overall, both of these films delight in the experimental nature that filmmaking can sometimes be, as well as how real life and fiction sometimes blend together.
These films, playing as a double feature, are not to be missed. They both experiment with the medium of film, and delight in it.
Lions Love (…and Lies)
1969
dir. Agnés Varda
112 min.
One Hundred and One Nights
1995
dir. Agnés Varda
101 min.
Double feature!
Screens Friday, 1/31 (Lions @ 4:30 & 9:15, Nights @ 7:00) at Brattle Theatre
Part of the ongoing series: Varda Rarities