Title: Midnight in Paris
Year Released/Rating: 2011 PG-13
Starring: Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Kathy Bates, Marion Cotillard
Directed By: Woody Allen
Written By: Woody Allen
Genre: Comedy, Fantasy, Romance
Star Rating: 5/5 stars
Where I Got It: Library Loan
Trivia:
- Director Woody Allen attempted to shoot the film in Paris in 2006, but abandoned the project as it was too expensive. In this version, the lead would have been played by David Krumholtz .
- Woody Allen stayed at the Hotel Le Bristol during filming - the same hotel where characters Inez and Gil stay.
- Carla Bruni, who plays the tour guide at the Rodin Museum, was also the First Lady of France at the time of filming (she has been married to then-President of France Nicholas Sarkozy since February 2008).
- When Zelda Fitzgerald suggests to Gil that they leave the party and go to Bricktop's, she is referring to Chez Bricktop, the famous Paris nightclub run by Ada Bricktop Smith. Ada Smith appeared as herself in Woody Allen's Zelig as one of the modern-day "witnesses".
- Hemingway and Gil visit Gertrude Stein, who is arguing with Picasso. In the background there is a portrait of her on the wall, painted by Picasso in 1906.
- The painting of Adriana is actually called "La Baigneuse" (The Bather) and was painted in 1928.
- 'Tom Hiddleston' received a letter from Woody Allen, along with 15 pages of the script, offering him the role of F. Scott Fitzgerald. "It was three sentences long," Hiddleston told Entertainment Weekly. "Dear Tom, I'm making a movie in Paris this summer. I attached some pages. I'd love for you to play the role of Scott." Hiddleston now has the letter framed and hanging up in his home office.
- The movie's key art incorporates Vincent van Gogh's famous painting "Starry Night." Interestingly, the character of van Gogh does not appear in the film, though he could well have done so in the "Belle Epoque" sequence.
Summary: While on a trip to Paris with his fiancée's family, a nostalgic screenwriter finds himself mysteriously going back to the 1920s every day at midnight.
Review:
I think I have found my new favorite Woody Allen movie. There's a mood to this movie that drew me in from the first shot. I love the shots of everyone walking around Paris. I love the colorization. I love the softness. Once I got through the sheer gorgeousness of the movie, I love each and every one of the characters. So many huge figures of the past. So many interesting twists to those characters and the present day ones. I even liked Inez. I know she's supposed to the bitch, but she's still very real. Oftentimes the bitch character is a stereotype. I didn't find that. I loved Marion Cotillard's character of Adriana. She was everything I can imagine a muse being. It's only with Gil that we see her a real person. Loved it! And Kathy Bates as Gertrude Stein is perfect casting! I love this movie. I love the bit of fantasy done in a very realistic way. And the dialogue is everything that I expect from a Woody Allen movie. I loved this one so much!
Best Bits:
- Gil: Yes, but you're a surrealist! I'm a normal guy!
- Adriana: That Paris exists and anyone could choose to live anywhere else in the world will always be a mystery to me.
- Gil: That was Djuna Barnes? No wonder she wanted to lead.
- Gil: You're very kind, but I wouldn't call my babbling poetic. Although I was on a pretty good roll there.
- Gertrude Stein: You have a clear and lovely voice. Don't be such a defeatist.
- Man Ray: A man in love with a woman from a different era. I see a photograph! Luis Buñuel: I see a film! Gil: I see insurmountable problem! Salvador Dalí: I see rhinoceros!
- Gertrude Stein: The artist's job is not to succumb to despair but to find an antidote for the emptiness of existence.
