Midnight in Paris: Woody Allen's Love Song for Paris

After a dazzling and savoring engagement with London and Barcelona, the old but tireless Woody Allen chose Paris as his next source of inspiration. Unlike his rather critical or distanced viewpoint in the earlier films such as Match Point and Cassandra's Dream, where London is seen as a place fraught with violence and murder, this time Woody Allen casts away his critical lens and gives an all-embracing gesture towards the greatly admired city of Paris.

The story revolves around a literary bookish man named Gil Pender, who comes to Paris with his fiancee Innez to meet her parents just before the wedding but finds himself instantly attracted to the city and inclines to settle there. However, unlike Gil, Innez is a material girl who thinks it's impossible to live outside America and is in line with her parents who regard Gil as a madman to some extent. While Innez sympathizes with Gil's writing talents, the misunderstanding between them grows and Gil finds himself wandering in the hidden valleys of Paris in the dark.

Apparently, he loses his way hom. Gil simply rests at a street corner and waits for a taxi. However, it is only when the clock strikes twelve that the truly mysterious part of Paris unfolds itself to Gil. An ancient-style chariot with a wagoner in old costume stops in front of Gil and from the chariot appears a staggering young man with a glass of wine hollering for Gil to come inside. Driven by great curiosity, Gil hops in the chariot to a place he could never have dreamt of. It is another parallel time and space where Scot and Stella Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Cole Porter, Ms. Gertrude Stein, Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dali still live.

         Gil Pender (Olive Owen) and Adrianna (Marion Contillard) wander in the night of Paris         

Just to think of it, if you could have your scribbling manuscript revised by Gertrude Stein and have a deep conversation with Ernest Hemingway about life and death, while engaging in a romantic affair with the mistress of Pablo Picasso! I admit it sounds intriguing enough, but wait a minute, you do not take it too seriously, do you? However, Woody Allen wants us to indulge in that magical space a little longer before the magic spell dies off and everything returns to its normal state.

One important theme inherent in the film is the idea of the best time. To Gil Pender, the best time is Paris in the 20s, while to Adrianna, the girl who Gil falls in love with, the best time of Paris is The Belle Epoque (around 1900) when artists like Monet, Degas were active. However, to Monet and Degas, their ideal of the best time may further belong to the Renaissance Period. In a word, everybody has their own version of the best time, and just because of such difference, everybody should have their own slice of happiness. Therefore, at the end of the film, Gil determines that they were unfit for each other and splits up with Innez who confessed she was having an affair with her ex-boyfriend. He finally settles in Paris.

By displaying a great array of literary icons who spent most of their fertile years in Paris, Woody Allen pays homage to a period of time when American writers were welcomed in a comfortable and inspiring place where they could depict the true circumstance of their time without the interference of the mechanistic methods and industrial fervor that were taking place in America. As Gertrude Stein pointed out, "Paris is the place where we can write truly from our mind." As the "true intellectual" of American cinema, Woody Allen certainly would not let go of his Paris complex.

Moreover, the cast of Oscar-winning actor Andrian Brody and actress Marion Contillard, along with talented Olive Owen and Rachel McAdams, not to mention Carlo Bruni, the elegant First Lady of France, all prove the unique attractiveness of Paris as well as the great charisma of the director Woody Allen himself.

 May you enjoy Paris in the rain.

                                                                                                                 This stands original.