Woody Allen's latest film is a time-travelling comedy set in Paris-and it's a absolute delight. It's the first time Woody Allen has shot entirely in France and was the opening film for Cannes film festival 2011. Owen Wilson plays a romantic named Gil who longs for Paris of old and gets what he wants each night at midnight. Gil decides to wander the streets of Paris late at night in search of some inspiration. He meets up with F. Scott Fitzgerald (Tom Hiddleston) who offers him a lift, but what Gil doesn't realise is that he's going back in time to 1920's Paris.
Allen's worldview is a fantasy for the majority of Midnight in Paris. Gil ends up caught between the affections of three stunning women in two different time lines (Rachel McAdams, Marion Collitard and Lea Seydoux), not to mention the French first lady Carla Bruni. McAdams plays Gil's fiancee Inez who is busy cosying up with Michael Sheen's pompous professor. Marion is former Picasso paramour Adriana. Finally we have Lea who plays a shop assistant who has taken a fancy to Gil. Midnight recalls the clever intricacies of The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985) in which Jeff Daniels an ordinary film fan who finds himself interacting with characters from the screen. Here, Wilson, in one of his better performances. As a true believer and aspiring author, Gil is fascinated by his time tripping journey and yearns to go back and give Ernest Hemingway his novel manuscript. Hemingway promises to show the manuscript to his good friend, Gertrude Stein (Kathy Bates). Returning night after night at the same time every night he finds himself delving deeper and deeper into these great artists and becoming romantically involved with Adriana.
Paris is another star of the film, making you want to book the first flight over there as soon as you've finished watching. The films opening sequence of all the famous landmarks (from Moulin Rouge to the Eiffel Tower) intentionally underlines Gil's feeling of being an outsider.
It's actually quite interesting that Gil isn't concerned with the mechanics of time travel. Gil merely makes a plan to meet at the same place every night hoping to get picked up and transported back in time. It's also never explained how Gil gets back to modern times, merely just walking out whatever pub/house/club his in and somehow ending up back at his hotel with his fiancee Inez. There is also a sense of every character wanting to go back in time to what they feel is the ideal time to be living (Adriana wishes she could go back to the 1800's). There's definitely a work of wisdom from Allen, claiming nostalgia is a form of denial. Allen is telling people to live in their own time- to live in the moment, something Gil begins to realise when transported back in time for the final time. Given his back catalogue, the desire to compare Midnight in Paris with his past glories and failures is naturally going to happen with many critics and fans. Woody once again proves his gifts to film are still intact as he's made a truly charming film, but the best way to describe this film is to watch it and enjoy it entirely without worrying about whats gone on in the past.
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