One Hundred and One Nights

Camille, a young film student, travels to the isolated château outside Paris to discuss cinema with Cinéma. She discovers that Cinéma's memory is failing and that he frequently slips into revealing delusions of being other people. The visit is conducted under the watchful eye of his loyal majordomo Firmin as Camille settles into a routine of nightly conversations.

Camille observes that Cinéma's mind is 'full of stars' and that he often confuses himself with other figures from film and life. The actor’s memory slips become a spectacle as he drifts between personas. These episodes shape Camille's thesis focus and the tone of their ongoing meetings.

Camille learns from the groundskeeper that Cinéma has a great-grandson named Vincent who has not been seen in ten years. Vincent is the sole living heir to Cinéma's vast fortune, making him crucial to any inheritance scheme. Seizing the opportunity, Camille and her boyfriend Mica begin plotting to hire an actor to impersonate Vincent.

Camille and Mica arrange for Vincent's impersonator, a friend of a friend, to pose as Cinéma's great-grandson. The plan hinges on convincing the groundskeeper with believable childhood details supplied by Camille. The ruse is designed to extract Cinéma's inheritance to fund Mica's short film.

The impersonator arrives at the château posing as Vincent Cinéma and successfully fools the groundskeeper with plausible backstory. Camille pretends not to recognize him, allowing Cinéma to greet the return of a son-like heir with joy. The illusion briefly stabilizes Cinéma's mood as the plot unfolds.

Alain Delon comes to visit, but Firmin denies him access since only Vincent may see Cinéma. Soon a group of Japanese tourists arrives, with Mica among them, further unsettling Cinéma and testing Camille's patience. The atmosphere grows chaotic as the deception edges toward exposure.

Camille arranges a garden party to indulge Cinéma's theatrical sensibilities. Marina, mistaken for Elizabeth Taylor by the guests, attends and becomes a catalyst for the scheme. She manipulates events to secure Cinéma's fortune for herself, threatening to derail Camille and Mica's plan.

As Cinéma's mental state deteriorates, he envisions attending the Cannes Film Festival with Camille. He hallucinates Catherine Deneuve on his lake and even imagines Robert De Niro, blurring the line between fantasy and reality. These visions reinforce his distrust of conventional commemorations and deepen his longing for desire.

Camille takes Cinéma to Mica's film set, hoping to harness his mythic aura for the project. He faints at a striptease and insists they take him to Hollywood, where he separately envisions meeting famous actors like Harrison Ford. The dream sequence reinforces his urge to escape to the world of cinema.

Upon returning from the Hollywood fantasy, Camille and Vincent share a kiss, complicating the love triangle and Camille's loyalties to Mica. Mica then asks to reclaim Camille, signaling the unraveling of the original plan and therapeutic dynamics. The kiss marks a turning point in their relationships.

Cinéma's mental state continues to degrade, and the narrative leaves his ultimate fate intentionally unresolved. In a closing voice-over, he rejects commemorations in favor of desire and anarchy. Some time later, Marcello visits and removes several items from the now-empty château.

Marcello departs with a handful of items, symbolizing the end of Cinéma's era and Camille's interrupted journey. The château feels hollow as the film closes on a note of ambiguity about Cinéma's true fate. The final image lingers on the emptiness left behind.