Midnight in Paris (2011)

Midnight in Paris is a film I have wanted to watch for a long time but have never got round to. After watching Woody Allen receive the Cecil B. DeMille award at last nights Golden Globe ceremony I was inspired to finally sit down and watch it. I am so glad I did.

Midnight in Paris is such a beautiful movie, and so inspiring, I'm seriously thinking about booking a holiday in Paris after seeing this film. Owen Wilson though perhaps not your conventional Woody Allen type is actually perfectly fitted for the role. He plays Gil a disenchanted screenwriter trying earnestly to be a writer who happens to be on holiday in Paris with his Fiance Inez (Rachel McAdams) and her family, neither of whom seem to like Gil very much and have a habit of ganging up on him.

Enamored with Paris and it's beauty the nostalgic Gil imagines what it would be like to have lived in the city in its golden age; the 1920's. Bizarrely when taking an evening stroll as the bells toll midnight an old fashioned car appears and stops in front of him. He is beckoned to the car and is taken to a club. But this is no ordinary club in it the incomparable Cole Porter is playing one of his songs at the piano and he mingles with Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald. At first he thinks he is dreaming but when he meets Ernest Hemingway he possibly naively accepts that what is happening is real and not some sign of mental illness and in doing so goes back to the 1920's every night at midnight where he meets the likes of Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dali.

The only issue I have is that we don't get to spend more time with such interesting characters, Tom Hiddleston pre-Thor fame is Fitzgerald and loving every minute of it as is Adrien Brody as Dali. Every actor seems to be enjoying themselves in this film and that is half of its charm; you want to be there with them, knowing that it is a fascinating and immense time in history. Rachel McAdams is great in what must be the only performance she has ever done where she is unlikeable but that is entirely the point, it is clear to the audience but not to Gil from the beginning that they are not well matched at all, she is too superficial and shallow for a man who has so much depth and ability to see the beauty around him. He was as he says born in the wrong era, he is moving at a much slower pace like those of the past he comes to love. Inez is a modern women with modern pleasures and is moving far to quickly to appreciate the things Gil does.

It also doesn't help that Gil falls in love with the mistress of Picasso Adriana, played with an underlying glamour by Marion Cotillard, and that Inez is having an affair under Gil's nose with the increasingly annoying Paul played by Michael Sheen (the couple hit it off in real life as well as they dated for 2 years after meeting on the film in 2011). However Gil does not end up with either women which would be what most people would expect and neither does he stay in the past as I among others surely thought he would. It is a young girl with an appreciation for Cole Porter who bumps into Gil at the end of the movie who is the right person for him. It is something we would not have guessed but is still so obvious and we leave them strolling through Paris in the rain content in knowing that they will be able to possibly enjoy the city together.

I related with this film on many levels, the truly inspiring idea of being in another era and meeting some of the most amazing people to have walked the earth seems like the most thrilling experience, though obviously impossible. However I have always had that same feeling of being born in the wrong time, and have that same desire to see and appreciate the history of certain moments or eras. That is probably why I soak up all the old music that I can and why I watch as many old movies as i can get my hands on.

I have not been a huge Woody Allen fan in the past, I own Annie Hall (1977) which I enjoyed but did not truly understand the genius of (I think I'l give it another watch) and I saw Blue Jasmine released at the end of 2013 which was an amazing piece of cinema which has started reaping rewards (Cate Blanchett won the Golden Globe for best actress last night). Midnight in Paris for me, because of my personal relation to it has definitely been my favourite.

Please watch the film, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did, Please share this post and Please comment below tell me what you thought, I'd love to know.