Midnight in Paris, written and directed by Woody Allen

Midnight in Paris, written and directed by Woody Allen

Midnight in Paris is a formidable comedy!

-          C’est genial! As the French would say

It is sophisticated, thought provoking, amusing, intelligent and…science fiction to a certain, acceptable extent.

This great film won:

-          The Academy and Golden Globe for Best Writing, Original Screenplay

-          It was also nominated for Best Motion Picture, Best Performance by an Actor, Best Director and won many prestigious prizes

The hero is an American writer, Gil, portrayed by a very casual, excellent Owen Wilson, who seemed to be also playing:

-          Woody Allen-

-          I thought the actor had the manner, the style of the writer- director of the film

-          But I could be wrong

Gil is travelling with Inez and her rich parents to Paris, a city that mesmerizes the American writer and eventually takes him to another world.

The relationship with Inez and her parents is complicated.

The father is suspicious of this man who is indeed very different and finally not really suited for his daughter.

He hires a detective that confirms the worries and reports that Gil is taking an automobile every night.

One of the very humorous moments of the film involves the aforementioned detective that takes one of these cars…

-          Only he arrives in the middle ages, at the court of some king

-          And the courtiers and guards are chasing him in the splendor of Versailles- if that was the palace- and want to take his head off

For the main twist in the plot involves…time travel.

Fortunately, this is not taken seriously, it only serves as an occasion for meditation and other hilarious moments.

Gil is fortunate to travel to a time that he considers The Golden Age.

That is of course disputed by a woman he falls for who claims that the 1890s are the Golden Age and indeed:

-          They meet Paul Gauguin and Edgar Degas

-          This is after they had come to the table of Henri de Toulouse Lautrec

A metaphysical discussion ensues and it has many funny elements, inserted by Gil with his mention of…antibiotics:

-          What is the Golden Age

-          Some would say 1890s, but then others would go further to…Kublai Khan perhaps

Anyway, Gil was satisfied with the period to which he had first travel and where he has met the geniuses of the age:

-          T.S. Elliot, Salvador Dali, Gertrude Stein, Pablo Picasso, F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda, Ernest Hemingway and others…

This of course is the occasion for exquisite, magical dialogue that is also memorable in its depth and intensity:

-          “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.”

One of the stars involved in this momentous project is the…First Lady of France at the time of the filming, Carla Bruni

The first lady of France reads and translates…imagine Melania, that would make some comedy, only it would be slapstick and or laughing at the disabled…

“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 then the man who is brave and true looks death squarely in the face, like some rhino-hunters I know or Belmonte, who is truly brave... It is because they make love with sufficient passion, to push death out of their minds... until it returns, as it does, to all men... and then you must make really good love again.”

A wonderful motion picture.