Can you picture how drop-dead gorgeous this city is in the rain? Every city has its own character, at least in Woody Allen’s films. There are countless times when we hear that a good story must hold itself on its own, it doesn’t really matter where it takes place. That is certainly untrue if the city happens to be Paris. ‘Midnight in Paris’ is Woody Allen’s attempt at dealing with everything that is either Parisian or else something that has come to be associated with himself.
New York has been a city that Allen
has portrayed a lot in his work. His best works, Annie Hall and Manhattan
have a lot of the city itself in them. The hustle-bustle, loneliness,
dysfunctional relationships, and the idea of a city busy with itself creep in
effortlessly into these films. Midnight in Paris could well be a French
arthouse film. It has a lot of elements associated with the ‘cerebral French
filmmaker’. It could find itself being discussed in intellectual circles: men
with receding hairlines, dark suits, thick-rimmed acetate glasses, cigarettes,
and coffee, debating on its relevance. But what pulls the film out of a select
audience and a monotonous commentary is Allen’s narrative and direction.
Midnight in Paris is
about a couple vacationing in Paris. Gill Pender (Owen Wilson) is a jaded yet
successful Hollywood screenwriter who is trying to write his first novel. His
fiancée Inez (Rachel McAdams) is the daughter of a rich businessman and wants
to live a luxurious and materialistic life in Malibu. Gill is a completely
different person, though. A romantic at heart, he wants to settle down in Paris
and write real literature instead of writing forgettable scripts to earn a fat
paycheque in Hollywood. He has also fallen prey to what is referred to as the
‘Golden Age thinking’. The idea that the era that has gone by is far better
than the times one lives in. Further down the story, he actually gets to time
travel to the age he thinks is the golden age: Paris of the 1920s. He meets
literally everyone from that era: Hemingway, the Fitzgeralds, Picasso, Matisse,
Dali, and so on. He finds love in Adriana (Marion Cotillard), who is also prey
to his thinking. For her, the best era is the Belle Époque.
The movie starts with a 3 ½ minute
montage of Paris with Cole Porter’s ‘Let’s Do It’ in the background. It is easy
to see that Paris is indeed a place that attracts dreamers and romantics. The
cinematography of the movie is especially brilliant. The way the city is
portrayed in warmer colors in all its glory makes it highly palatable. The
lights that shine on cobwebbed buildings, the orange glow on the Seine, the
ambiance of the 20s Paris draw even the driest viewers into the romantic
daydream.
The movie
explores a variety of themes: romance, existentialism, modernism, nostalgia.
But essentially it is about a man trying to come to terms with a conflict he
has been carrying on for a while. The conflict is a celebrated debate, though.
Whether what has passed is the golden age or the one we live in? And whether an
existential and materialistic life is happier than a fulfilled life following
one’s true calling?
Gill finds himself conflicted not just in terms of life choices he
must make but also in the love of three women. His current fiancé, Inez, a
representative of his current existential life, materialistic and morose.
Adriana, his passionate dreamy love from the era he longs to visit, Paris of
the 20s. And then there is Gabrielle (Léa Seydoux), a fresh respite from the
morose existence and the delusional past, who welcomes his idea of staying in
Paris and its beauty in the rain.
The movie is not free from the clichés
that have come to be associated with Woody Allen as a writer and filmmaker. He
has survived for far more than his fair share of making films relevant to the
times. The fact that some still manage to move audiences speaks volumes about
his vision. Gill is the non-conformist protagonist who doesn’t really fit into
the scheme of things as it were. Ernest Hemmingway is the feisty man who
equates the absence of fear to making true love to a woman. Salvador Dali is a
surrealist who would rather focus on his baritone than the problem at hand.
There is humor in the chaos, soft sarcasm in difficult situations. As usual,
the end is open for a new beginning, only one believes that it isn’t too late.
Midnight in Paris is a giant merry-go-round in the theme park that happens to be Paris. Everyone can take a ride, though everyone won’t be equally impressed. Allen’s ability to infuse pertinent themes of existence and nostalgia into a narrative around Paris and its history of art is certainly praiseworthy. The present in the film is a bit problematic, yet the glorious past fuses well with the narrative. This is certainly not the best offering from him, his best has long been in the past. But Midnight in Paris is a worthy contender if we consider his recent work.
Originally published on www.highonfilms.com on 11th June, 2020.
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