Midnight in Paris (2011)

They say it’s the flaw of the romantic imagination, denial of the present, but Woody Allen creates a wistful masterpiece by toying with the surrealism of our imaginations. Nostalgia has divine power, the kind that transforms everything around us into its own art form. This is one of Allen’s best – a story about the novelty of our idealism.

Short off its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May, Allen’s 41st film draws similarities to Manhattan, and the main character, Gil Pender (Owen Wilson) can be seen as Allen’s substitute, but not as chaotic. There are certain Woody-esque themes, literature, sexuality and psychoanalysis. Midnight in Paris will give you a quixotic fantasy that teaches both the dreamer and the intellectual not to be fooled simply by what lays before their eyes.

Penders and Inez (Rachel McAdams) are engaged and join their family on a business trip to Paris, where they hope to escape from the lives they live in California. Penders is a Hollywood writer, but is in the middle of writing a novel. He believes Paris is most beautiful when it rains, and that its real beauty lies beneath its lights. His fiancé however is more of a realist, she identifies with the intellectual side of reality.

Advertisement One night, Penders goes for a walk and when the bells strike midnight a car passes by with what appears to be locals going to a party. He’s encouraged to join and does. He’s been transported to the 1920’s with the likes of Ernest Hemmingway, Pablo Picasso, Scott Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein (Kathy Bates) and others – the era he is portraying in his book with the people he idolizes.

Every night he sneaks away from his unaware fiancé and returns to what he calls “the golden age” of Paris. What is a golden age without a golden girl? Penders falls for Picasso’s girlfriend Adriana (Marion Cotillard), and soon the two begin a rendezvous that unfolds the meaning of “the golden age”, and ponders when nostalgia is too much for the beholder.

Owen Wilson is the gem of this movie. He’s plays his role with kid-in-the-candy-store attitude. He’s passionate about what he’s experiencing, and that crosses over to the sophistication of his acting. He’s the hopeless romantic among the surrealists of the 1920’s, if that makes sense.

Midnight in Parissolidifies Allen’s expertise as a director and writer, and he undoubtedly helped Wilson craft his role. The film is light and fluffy, but in a good way, like charming and sophisticated go together. We are talking about a movie that takes place in the crème de la crème of all cities that is. Woody Allen is a gift to American cinema.

Midnight in Paris has so much class. Each one of us is an artist, so what is the trigger that plunges us into our own era of happiness?

Bold prediction (I made this originally when it came out.)

Owen Wilson will be nominated at the Oscars for Best Actor and Midnight in Paris will be nominated for Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, Best Cinematography (Darius Khondji) or all three. The win is a hard prediction to make.