Anybody need a Cannes opener?
The French did, and Woody Allen’s “Midnight in Paris” lifted the lid quite nicely last month. Out popped a bon-bon of a rom-com that should now charm Yankee audiences as much as the Euro-chic.
The last Allen movie to kick off France’s big annual film festival was his hilarious “Hollywood Ending” back in 2002. This Cannes opener is a bit more electric, equipped with a cameo appearance by the French first lady.
Hero of Mr. Allen’s flight of fancy at hand is frustrated Hollywood hack screenwriter Gil (Owen Wilson) — frustrated, specifically and ironically, by his huge success. What he really wants is to be a novelist, and where he really wants to live is in 1920s Paris — a time and place with which he is obsessed.
‘Midnight in Paris’
- Starring: Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Marion Cotillard, Michael Sheen.
- Rating: PG-13 for some sexual references and smoking.
The film’s stunning montage-prologue takes us ever so slowly and swooningly from the Parisian morning to its eponymous midnight hour: Gil is there on a trip with his beautiful fiancee Inez (Rachel McAdams). If anybody ever needed a premarital getaway to the city of his dreams, it’s Gil — but he didn’t need the company of his in-laws-to-be-from-hell. Inez and her Tea Party parents (Kurt Fuller and Mimi Kennedy) are there strictly for the shop-till-you-drop opportunity.
To make matters worse for Gil, they bump into Inez’s ex, Paul (Michael Sheen), a pedantic expert on everything. Wine, art, literature, Versailles, Etruscan stemware? You name it, Paul is an authority on it. There is nothing the man doesn’t know and isn’t eager to tell you about at length. And he’d be glad to read and critique Gil’s great-American-novel-in-progress.
Gil wants no one’s literary opinion except maybe Hemingway’s. But for that he’d need a vehicle that could take him back in time. Angst, and ye shall receive: Wandering around Montmartre in a drunken haze at midnight, Gil is stunned when a 1920s-something Peugeot full of retro-revelers pulls up and invites him along for an evening on the town with the vintage A-list artistes.
Then and thereafter, everybody who is/was anybody turns up — more brilliant American emigres and European geniuses than you can shake a breadstick at. Scott and Zelda (Alison Pill and Tom Hiddleston) are there. So is Hemingway (the terrific Corey Stoll), at his most earnest: “Have you ever hunted?” he asks Gil. “Only for bargains,” comes the reply.
Kathy Bates dispenses instant insightful literary analysis as Gertrude Stein (a ruse is a ruse is a ruse), while Picasso broods and Adrien Brody does Dali and even the reclusive T.S. Eliot shows up — “Prufrock’s like my mantra!” gushes Gil.
As the Mr. Allen surrogate, Owen Wilson utters Gil’s guilelessly clever lines with Woodyesque cadences and an innocent wonder reminiscent of his characters in “Wedding Crashers” and “The Royal Tenenbaums.” He’s never better than in his final confrontation with Inez and her parents, in their matching hotel bathrobes.
But Mr. Wilson’s best match is Marion Cotillard as Adriana — everybody’s muse of the ’20s, mistress of Modigliani and Braque as well as Picasso — as gorgeously alive and carefree as Paris itself. By way of beautiful women, for good measure, Mr. Allen gives us Carla Bruni (aka Madame Nicolas Sarkozy) in the playful role of a museum tour guide.
The film’s real star, of course, is Paris, glowing and bewitchingly seductive in all its time eras here, thanks to Mr. Allen’s best visual-period rendering since “Purple Rose of Cairo” (1985) and “Bullets Over Broadway” (1994) — kudos to cinematographer Darius Khondji — and to brilliant use of such signature Cole Porter tunes as “Let’s Fall in Love.”
All in all, it’s the ultimate neurotic New Yorker’s ultimate “Paris, Je t’aime.”
Study question: Does anybody HATE Paris? When I took my mother and Aunt Thelmah to the Folies Bergere in the ’70s, our haughty waiter seated us at a table with two nuns. On another visit, I dropped my hotel room key down a sidewalk grate, and my resulting visit to the Parisian sewers was not nearly so romantic as the Phantom of the Opera’s or the Madwoman of Chaillot’s.
Well, never mind. Mr. Allen fell in love with Paris during the shooting of his debut film, “What’s New Pussycat?” (1965). He has no real sci-fi interest in time-travel, except as a useful device to plumb his recurring themes of love, longing and the pursuit of a happiness likely to end in pain. This is his pan-artistic meditation on the time-space continuum: Nostalgia as a denial of the painful present (and fear of the dubious future), for people who live in the past… Remember that awful old “Midnight in Paris” perfume and talcum powder in the cobalt-blue bottles that we bought our moms and dads (at Woolworth’s) for Christmas presents?
One man or woman’s Belle Epoque is another’s dull present. What’s remarkable is that Mr. Allen, at 75, is still making sweet, dreamy, upbeat pictures. This Parisian midnight is Woody’s Twilight Zone — like Rod Serling, in a relaxed mood.
I’ve said it before and beg your indulgence to say again: The least of Mr. Allen’s films are better than the best of the commercial dreck. And “Midnight in Paris” is by no means his least. Notice the PG-13 rating? Got any smart tweens or teens lying around the house? Pry ’em kicking and screaming away from the tube and the cartoon or franchise-sequel caca in the theaters, and drag them to “Paris.” See what they make of it.
Just don’t dive for any great depth, lest you hit your or their heads on the bottom.
Other posts with Woody Allen:
Belle de Jour Presentation In a film class my partner and I did a video presentation on the film Belle de Jour and the filmmaker Luis Bunuel. Bunuel was a surrealist, so if the video doesn’t quite makes sense, its not supposed to. ___________________________________________________ I am presently going through the characters referenced in Woody Allen’s […]
I am currently going through the characters referenced in the Woody Allen movie “Midnight in Paris.” Today I am looking at Henri Matisse. Below is a press release from a museum in San Francisco: the steins were known for their saturday evening salons, where artists, writers, musicians, intellectuals, and collectors gathered to discuss contemporary art, […]
Adriana and Gil are seen above walking together in the movie “Midnight in Paris.” Adriana was a fictional character who was Picasso’s mistress in the film. Earlier she had been Modigliani’s mistress and later Georges Braque’s mistress before moving on to Picasso according to the film story line. Actually Picasso had taken girls from others […]
An article from Biography.com below. I am currently going through all the personalities mentioned in Woody Allen’s movie “Midnight in Paris.” Today I am spending time on Coco Chanel. By the way, I know that some of you are wondering how many posts I will have before I am finished. Right now I have plans […]
The Thinker (1879–1889) is among the most recognized works in all of sculpture. In fact, below you can see Paul who constantly is showing up Gil with his knowledge about these pieces of art. He shows off while describing Rodin’s life story when all four of them are taking in “The Thinker.” However, he is […]
Artists and bohemians inspired Woody Allen for ‘Midnight in Paris I love the movie “Midnight in Paris” by Woody Allen and I am going through the whole list of famous writers and artists that he included in the movie. Today we will look at Salvador Dali. In this clip below you will see when Picasso […]
2011 Roger Arpajou / Sony Pictures Classics Lea Seydoux as Gabrielle in “Midnight in Paris.” Adriana and Gil are seen above walking together in the movie “Midnight in Paris.” Adriana was a fictional character who was Picasso’s mistress in the film. Earlier she had been Georges Braque’s mistress before moving on to Picasso according to […]
How Should We Then Live 7#3 2011 Roger Arpajou / Sony Pictures Classics Owen Wilson as Gil in “Midnight in Paris.” Paul Gauguin and Henri Toulouse Lautrec were the greatest painters of the post-impressionists. They are pictured together in 1890 in Paris in Woody Allen’s new movie “Midnight in Paris.” My favorite philosopher Francis Schaeffer […]
How Should We Then Live 7#1 Dr. Francis Schaeffer examines the Age of Non-Reason and he mentions the work of Paul Gauguin. 2011 Roger Arpajou / Sony Pictures Classics Kurt Fuller as John and Mimi Kennedy as Helen in “Midnight in Paris.” I love the movie “Midnight in Paris” by Woody Allen and I am […]
Midnight In Paris – SPOILER Discussion by What The Flick?! Associated Press Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas in 1934 This video clip below discusses Gertrude Stein’s friendship with Pablo Picasso: I love the movie “Midnight in Paris” by Woody Allen and I am going through the whole list of famous writers and artists that […]
2011 Roger Arpajou / Sony Pictures Classics Gad Elmaleh as Detective Tisserant in “Midnight in Paris.” I love the movie “Midnight in Paris” by Woody Allen and I am going through the whole list of famous writers and artists that he included in the movie. Juan Belmonte was the most famous bullfighter of the time […]
Woody Allen explores fantasy world with “Midnight in Paris” 2011 Roger Arpajou / Sony Pictures Classics Corey Stoll as Ernest Hemingway in “Midnight in Paris.” The New York Times Ernest Hemingway, around 1937 I love the movie “Midnight in Paris” by Woody Allen and I am going through the whole list of famous writers […]
What The Flick?!: Midnight In Paris – Review by What The Flick?! 2011 Roger Arpajou / Sony Pictures Classics Alison Pill as Zelda Fitzgerald and Tom Hiddleston as F. Scott Fitzgerald in “Midnight in Paris.” 2011 Roger Arpajou / Sony Pictures Classics Owen Wilson as Gil in “Midnight in Paris.” 2011 Roger Arpajou / Sony […]
The song used in “Midnight in Paris” I am going through the famous characters that Woody Allen presents in his excellent movie “Midnight in Paris.” This series may be a long one since there are so many great characters. De-Lovely – Movie Trailer De-Lovely – So in Love – Kevin Kline, Ashley Judd & Others […]
Photo by Phill Mullen The only known photograph of William Faulkner (right) with his eldest brother, John, was taken in 1949. Like his brother, John Faulkner was also a writer, though their writing styles differed considerably. My grandfather, John Murphey, (born 1910) grew up in Oxford, Mississippi and knew both Johncy and “Bill” Faulkner. He […]
I love the movie “Midnight in Paris” was so good that I will be doing a series on it. My favorite Woody Allen movie is Crimes and Misdemeanors and I will provide links to my earlier posts on that great movie. Movie Guide the Christian website had the following review: MIDNIGHT IN PARIS is the […]
Here is an article I wrote a couple of years ago: Solomon, Woody Allen, Coldplay and Kansas What does King Solomon, the movie director Woody Allen and the modern rock bands Coldplay and Kansas have in common? All four took on the issues surrounding death, the meaning of life and a possible afterlife, although they all came up with their own conclusions on […]
Coldplay seeks to corner the market on earnest and expressive rock music that currently appeals to wide audiences Here is an article I wrote a couple of years ago about Chris Martin’s view of hell. He says he does not believe in it but for some reason he writes a song that teaches that it […]
Actor Peter Falk, best known for his role in “Columbo” has died at 83 years old. His family released a statement confirming his passing.
The Daily Hatch 