Midnight in Paris

I'm back to blogging... mostly because I enjoyed this movie, perhaps a little too much!

MIDNIGHT IN PARIS

I've known about this movie for a while and sure, it was nominated for an Oscar, BUT, Owen Wilson is in it! The last Owen Wilson movie I actually liked was Zoolander, hello 2001 (that's 11 years ago! How did time fly that fast?). Did you know there might be a Zoolander 2 coming out?? Okay, anyways, I was initially caught by this movies pretty movie poster and the fact that it's set in Paris! But little did I know that it's actually a quality movie (Woody Allen fans might be thinking "duh").

Let's start with Owen Wilson's character: Gil. Gil is an ex-movie script writer who is in Paris with his Fiancee, Inez (who is played by Rachel McAdams and P.s. I love this name!), who are traveling with Inez's parents on a business trip. Gil, meanwhile, is writing his first novel about a man who works in a Nostalgia shop. One night, when walking back to his hotel, he gets somewhat lost and then gets into a car with people he doesn't know. They take him to a party with people dressed in 1920s garb. Gil, who is fascinated by the scene, is taken aback when he meets Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald. He then every night makes the same trip back to the 1920s every night and wakes up in 2011/2012. It just so happens that the 1920 era is his favorite, ideal era in which to live.

The plot starts to thicken as Gil begins to fall in love with a woman in the 1920s, however, Gil and the lady take a car into the 1890s one night. We begin to find out that the woman feels like the best era is the 1890s and wants to stay there.

So why do I love this movie? Paris is beautiful! The costumes are fabulous! And Woody Allen writes a beautiful, lovely, rich script that is believable and gets me to care about Gil. But beyond that is to compare with my desires. I feel like I, like Gil, was born into the wrong era. I love the 1920s, the ROARING 20s. Gil learns in the end that while we may want to live in the 1920s, the people in the 1920s may not necessarily love the 1920s but the 1890s. And those in the 1890s do not think that the 1890s is the best era but that the renaissance era is the most favorable. Thus, we should embrace the era we live in as each moment is precious and will never be lived in again. This, 2012, may be the year that people in 2040 will wish they lived in!! Can you believe it? This is the golden age (even if we don't yet know it!). Embrace, embrace, embrace this time. We can know and appreciate the past, but we didn't live that time, we live now! And I think that's what Woody Allen wanted us to learn! And learn we shall!


Don't take my word for it... get out there and catch this beautiful, very well done movie!! And fall in love with your fellow literary characters once again!

And finally, the best part of this movie is Gil's appreciation of Paris in the rain. Paris. Rain. I like it. I would love to walk with my sweet heart anywhere in the rain... and yes, without an umbrella would be okay. But to be in Paris would be even more special!


Paul: Nostalgia is denial - denial of the painful present... the name for this denial is golden age thinking - the erroneous notion that a different time period is better than the one ones living in - its a flaw in the romantic imagination of those people who find it difficult to cope with the present.