Midnight In Paris
Midnight in Paris
Directed by Woody Allen
Photographed by Darius Khondji
2010
Starring: Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Marion Cotillard, Katy Bates
It's no secret that Woody Allen is a cinematic and comedic genius. From Annie Hall to Broadway Danny Rose Allen has explored all themes from Romance to Black Comedy. Armed with Allen's quirky, anxious dialogue, Owen Wilson does a spectacular job bringing to life that nostalgia that we all feel. The excellent cinematography makes Paris another character in the picture. Gil (played by Wilson) is a writer looking for inspiration for his latest novel. To his great luck, he somehow goes back to his preferred time, the roaring 20's. He gets to meet all these great artists from the time spends time with them, a writers fantasy, no? Well, like I mentioned before, this film is packed with Allanesque references and dialogue, but what separates this picture from the others is the great world of artistic knowledge within it. Every single time I watch this movie, it sparks something in me to research and learn about the lives of the great artists shown in this picture. My sophomore year in business school, I took a History of Western Arts class, this made the movie SO MUCH MORE enjoyable. I get extremely emotional when I watch this film just because of its beautiful rendition. Gil goes back in time to the 1920's which is what he believed was the best time to be alive and artist. Divergent to him, the artists inhabiting that era prefer La Belle Epoque and those living in the 1890's prefer the Renaissance. When Gil finally realizes this he has some sort of epiphany, and what's so wonderful about this movie is that us as the audience have that epiphany as well. It is quite clear from watching other Woody Allen movies, that the man knows exactly what he wants. What shots he needs to get, the performances, everything seems like its all quite planned. This is also evident in his movie's executions, especially Midnight In Paris. I guess a quick, but crude, way to put it is that we're always going to be somewhat nostalgic and sad, we just have to find happiness in our sorrow.
