Produced by Letty Aronson, Stephen Tenenbaum, Jaume Roures
Screenplay by Woody Allen
Starring: Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Marion Cotillard, Kurt Fuller, Michael Sheen, Mimi Kennedy, Carla Bruni
Music by Stephane Wrembel
Cinematography: Darius Khondji
Editing by Alisa Lepselter
Distributed by Sony Pictures Classics
Release date: June 10, 2011 (Wide)
Running time: 94 minutes
Country: United States, Spain
"Midnight in Paris" is a romantic comedy film which is written and directed by Woody Allen. It tells the story of a successful but creatively unfulfilled Hollywood screenwriter, Gil Pender, and his bride, Inez, who are on vacation in Paris with the conservative parents of the fiancée. So while Gil is doing his utmost to finish his first novel, which is about a man working in a nostalgia shop, Inez rejects his ambition as a romantic daydream and emboldens him to stick with the more gainful screenwriting. Their divergent purposes become increasingly excessive as he travels back in time each night at midnight. During his trips Gil meets lots of eminent people from last century like Cole Porter, Alice B. Toklas, Josephine Baker, Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and others.
- Owen Wilson as Gil Pender
- Rachel McAdams as Inez
- Kurt Fuller as John, Inez's father
- Mimi Kennedy as Helen, Inez's mother
- Michael Sheen as Paul Bates
- Nina Arianda as Carol Bates
- Carla Bruni as Museum Guide
- Yves Heck as Cole Porter
- Alison Pill as Zelda Fitzgerald
- Tom Hiddleston as F. Scott Fitzgerald
- Corey Stoll as Ernest Hemingway
- Sonia Rolland as Josephine Baker
- Daniel Lundh as Juan Belmonte
- Thérèse Bourou-Rubinsztein as Alice B. Toklas
- Kathy Bates as Gertrude Stein
- Marcial Di Fonzo Bo as Pablo Picasso
- Marion Cotillard as Adriana
- Léa Seydoux as Gabrielle
- Emmanuelle Uzan as Djuna Barnes
- Adrien Brody as Salvador Dalí
- Tom Cordier as Man Ray
- Adrien de Van as Luis Buñuel
- Serge Bagdassarian as Detective Duluc
- Gad Elmaleh as Detective Tisserant
- David Lowe as T. S. Eliot
- Yves-Antoine Spoto as Henri Matisse
- Laurent Claret as Leo Stein
- Vincent Menjou Cortes as Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
- Olivier Rabourdin as Paul Gauguin
- François Rostain as Edgar Degas
- Karine Vanasse as Belle Époque woman
- Michel Vuillermoz as King in Versailles
The director of this film is Woody Allen, and it speaks for itself. He's unique. I respect his important contribution to cinematography. His movies are ingenious containing elements of absurdity and satire. As for this picture, it isn't the exception. The plot, the cast, the special effects - everything is divine!
Frankly speaking, I'd known Owen Wilson only as a comedy actor. "Midnight in Paris" showed me him from another side and it was liked by me. He took part of a romantic idealist who is in search of his place. Owen played his role splendidly, in my opinion, I can say that. Tom Hiddleston also surprised me. His Loki from "Thor" and F. Scott Fitzgerald are absolutely different characters but he was able to cope with them perfectly. I suggest if I see the name of Tom in the cast of another film, I'll watch it. And it's impossible not to say that Adrien Brody's Salvador Dalí is inimitable.
"Midnight in Paris" also interested me because of the atmosphere of Jazz Age, one of my favourite times. The movie absolutely transmits this time so captivated me in that way.
Advantages
- Music
- Tom Hiddleston as F. Scott Fitzgerald
- Adrien Brody as Salvador Dalí
- Marion Cotillard as Adriana
- Woody Allen
- The atmosphere of the 20th century
- The idea
- The story
Disadvantages
- Too little Tom Hiddleston
"Strangenesses"
- How does Gil Pender travel in time?
Clue Moments
- Meetings with famous people
The main theme of the film is Time. More exactly, our own relationship to it. Many of us believe that were born at the wrong time and in the wrong place, and precisely this problem was affected by Woody Allen."The grass is always looks greener on the other side" - the proverb will be always relevant. One wants to receive pleasure from the parties in the Jazz Age, another would like to live in the Renaissance, a third - in the Middle Ages. So we spend lots of time in dreams forgetting to be here and now and to enjoy the moment. But it's quite possible that people, who lived in our favourite era, did not appreciate their own time and dreamed to be found in the other one.
Nostalgia - an anguish for home, a misery for the past. It was considered as a disease for a long time and it's not surprising. The past always seems perfect, so it's so attractive. But in fact we simply idealise it, not knowing the problems and concerns of the time.
The film is set in Paris, the dream for many. A lot of people want to live here, delighting views, the atmosphere. Beautiful landscapes, images from the works of French writers and films - all these paint a picture in our imagination. A perfect picture, of course. This image attracts, allowing our fancy to run wild.
Living right now - it's really difficult. Daily problems, concerns, worries make us shrink into our world of dreams. Although in order to fulfil your reverie, you need only to show the force. You need to act. We must fight for everything in this life, the less achievable your goal seems to you, the more you need to fight. Just do something, not only think and dream. We all, as Gil Pender, can change ourselves, our life and our attitude to it.
Soundtracks
- Sidney Bechet - Si Tu Vois Ma Mere
- Swing 41 - Je Suis Seul Ce Soir
- Original Paris Swing - Recado
- Stephane Wrembel - Bistro Fada
- Conal Fowkes - Let's Do It (Let's Fall In Love)
- Conal Fowkes - You've Got That Thing
- Josephine Baker - La Conga Blicoti
- Conal Fowkes - You Do Something To Me
- Daniel May - I Love Penny Sue
- The Charleston City All-Stars feat. Enoch Light - Charleston
- The Charleston City All-Stars feat. Enoch Light - Ain't She Sweet
- Dana Boule - Parlez-Moi D'amour
- Conal Fowkes feat. Yrving feat. Lisa Yeras - Barcarolle From "The Tales Of Hoffman"
- The Czech National Symphony Orchestra - Can-Can From "Orpheus In The Underworld"
- Francois Parisi - Ballad Du Paris
- Francois Parisi - Le Parc De Plaisir
* * *
Gil: Would you read it?
Ernest Hemingway: Your novel?
Gil: Yeah, it's about 400 pages long, and I'm just looking for an opinion.
Ernest Hemingway: My opinion is I hate it.
Gil: Well you haven't even read it yet.
Ernest Hemingway: If it's bad, I'll hate it because I hate bad writing, and if it's good, I'll be envious and hate all the more. You don't want the opinion of another writer.
* * *
Ernest Hemingway: No subject is terrible if the story is true, if the prose is clean and honest, and if it affirms courage and grace under pressure.
* * *
Gertrude Stein: We all fear death and question our place in the universe. The artist's job is not to succumb to despair, but to find an antidote for the emptiness of existence.
* * *
Ernest Hemingway: I believe that love that is true and real creates a respite from death. All cowardice comes from not loving, or not loving well, which is the same thing. And when the man who is brave and true looks death squarely in the face like some rhino hunters I know, or Belmonte, who's truly brave. It is because they love with sufficient passion to push death out of their minds, until the return that it does to all men. And then you must make really good love again. Think about it.
* * *
You may see the trailer here.
You may see the trailer here.
Plot: 8/10
Entertainment: 9/10
Acting: 8/10
Originality: 8/10
Music and Sound: 8/10
8/10
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