Midnight in Paris

Owen Wilson plays Gil, the latest in a long line of characters that would have been played by director Woody Allen if he were younger. Allen's creative take on Paris and intellectualism is inventive, witty, and (I know this is a cliche) a return to his glory days as a director. Gil is a writer who worships an ideal that paints Paris as the hub of literary excitement in the 1920s. As he and his rather shallow fiancee Inez (Rachel McAdams) gad about the Parisian countryside with a know-it-all wanker named Paul (Michael Sheen), Gil begins to fall in love with Paris itself. It's a romance that will lead him to begin walking the streets one night, where he discovers a way to travel back in time to the 1920s and begins hanging out with personal heroes like Ernest Hemmingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Salvador Dali and Luis Bunuel.

It's such a nerdy concept, especially in bringing all these surrealists and modernists to the screen, and it's cute that Allen has chosen to do something like this in his old age. The opening shots of Paris are remniscent of the director's earlier classic Manhattan, though instead of black and white he uses a gold and yellow colour palette that calls to mind great painters like Monet and Van Gogh. Usually Allen is best known for his depictions of New York, but here it's another city and another way of life. In Paris he has the historical hub of artistry, and he uses this to examine ideas about the people and eras we idolise. A big part of this is nostalgia and our relationship with it, and the ironies that underlie it. Gil's novel is literally about nostalgia, and his journey to the 1920s (and then later to the 1890s) allows him to explore this in a more concrete fashion.

You won't like this film if you're not able to watch the lives of intellectuals without cringing. Inez and Paul represent all the worst things the intellectual class has to offer. Sheen is almost farcial in his depiction of the boorish Paul (and he does a decent American accent too), and McAdams is suitably condescending as she fawns over him. In this respect, Wilson is perfect as the lead... he's just such a likeable guy when he isn't trying too hard to be funny, and he brings an easygoing quality to a role that could've come across as whiney in that stereotypically Woody Allen way. The humour in this film is rather subdued and will probably vary for each viewer depending on their knowledge of the historical figures involved. Corey Stoll is hilariously confident, straight-talking and tough as Hemmingway, and the sequence where Gil travels even further back to the 1890s humourously demonstrates the subjectivity of 'golden ages'. I liked this film a lot more than I expected it to, it's a fun idea and it will speak to anyone with a passing interest in literature and the attitudes of artists. Some people will see it as being more about Gil and Inez's relationship, but I saw that as very much a small subplot compared to the sheer joy of seeing Owen Wilson as a laidback time-travelling writer.

DIRECTOR: Woody Allen
WRITER/SOURCE: Woody Allen
KEY ACTORS: Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Marion Cottilard, Michael Sheen, Kathy Bates, Kurt Fuller, Carla Bruni, Mimi Kennedy, Adrien Brody, Tom Hiddleston, Corey Stoll

RELATED TEXTS
- Woody Allen has started making films outside of America fairly recently, partially for funding reasons. The first of these were filmed in the UK - Match Point, Scoop and Cassandra's Dream. He also filmed in Spain, for Vicky Christina Barcelona and You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger.- - The novel that Hemmingway wrote during his time as part of the 'Lost Generation' was The Sun Also Rises.

- F. Scott Fitzgerald's life story has also featured or semi-featured in the films Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle, Beloved Infidel and Last Call.

AWARDS

Academy Awards - won Best Original Screenplay. Nominated for Best Film, Best Director and Best Art Direction.
AFIs - nominated for Best International Director, Best International Film and Best International Screenplay
BAFTAs - nominated for Best Original Screenplay.
Golden Globes - won Best Screenplay. Nominated for Best Film (Comedy/Musical), Best Director and Best Actor - Comedy/Musical (Owen Wilson).
Independent Spirit Awards - nominated for Best Cinematography and Best Supporting Actor (Corey Stoll).