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Midnight in Paris - (2011) - Allen
These are the good old days
The set-up? A couple with wedding bells in their future has scored a free trip to Paris with her rich parents. While her father oversees a business merger between of two conglomerates; Inez (Rachel McAdams) and her mother partake of the great opportunities for shopping and pre-furnishing their Malibu beach house. Whereas Gil (Owen Wilson) discovers the romance and allure of Paris has triggered thoughts of abandoning his lucrative career as a Hollywood screenwriter and wants to stay in Paris afterwards to write a real book. In the roaring twenties, Paris was the only place to be if you were a serious artist.
At this point in time, I doubt anyone goes to a Woody Allen film expecting him to re-invent the wheel. He's staked out his claim decades ago, and by his own admission, if you stood with both arms outstretched, you can touch the limits of his fictional world. There's constant reminders of him borrowing bits and pieces, recycling jokes and at times entire characters from his older movies.
For instance, you could overlay an opening from one of his earlier films onto this one. Owen Wilson's voice: "Chapter one. He adored Paris. He idolised it all out of proportion. ... " Uh, no. Make that "He romanticised it, all out of proportion". Better. " To him, no matter what the season was, this was still a town that existed in pastel colored postcards and pulsated to the great tunes of Cole Porter " Etc, etc. That opening would time out here almost exactly to the second.
Nice details? They seem to have shot Marion Cotillard with a softer focus. I liked how the " Vacationing Americans" seem to be color coordinated with the sumptuous decors and recede naturally into the flora and fauna of those moneyed backgrounds. The in-joke when Gil asks the tour guide at the Rodin museum about French mistresses. (Before she was the first lady, she was the first mistress) The in-joke when Gil suggests a movie plot to a filmmaker and the future director finds it completely nonsensical. Gil gets off a good zinger when he meets Tommy " I have measured out my life in coffee spoons " Sterns.
Best thing? The nice reminder we don't need pages of exposition and heavy machinery to simulate time travel. Here, the transition was done in the wink of an eye. A church bell chimes. Slightly inebriated party goers cruise up to Gil in a chauffeured vintage car and invite him into their merry midnight revel. And when they pull up to their destination; the way the exhaust gently envelops the car, suggests steam and that the car is cooling off from the 1.21 giggawatts required for the leap backwards in time.
The actors aren't really there to score deep dramatic roles, they flesh out stock characters in Allen's repertory (and pad their resume with a prestigious entry at the same time) And since they tend to be the best of the best, they do this very well. Some sparkle a little more brightly simply because they given a little extra work. Like the bellicose novelist can't resist a telling observation about a character in Gil's manuscript. Or Inez's old friend (Michael Sheen) from her college days, Paul is a delightful and pedantic windbag who loves the sound of his voice.
"Honey, these would look really great on the veranda"
For the umpteenth time, Rachel McAdams is misused once again. Although I kind of liked how she quietly, over poses her body in certain scenes, recalling perhaps all the statuary they are seeing all over town?
The lead role is such an archetype to Allen's cinema that he's immediately judged on how well he impersonates the part---which almost dooms most actors to failure since everything has been tailor made, cutting around Allen's weaknesses and playing to his strengths. A lot charm of the movie comes from Owen Wilson choosing not to impersonate Woody Allen, but instead play the character. It's not laugh out loud funny, with Allen taking his typical pot shots here but more of a gentle ribbing, which may go with the territory---if you're in the company of touchy novelists, asking everyone to step outside with him.
Midnight in Paris ~
Product placement: the City of Light
Midnight in Paris - (2011) - Allen
These are the good old days
The set-up? A couple with wedding bells in their future has scored a free trip to Paris with her rich parents. While her father oversees a business merger between of two conglomerates; Inez (Rachel McAdams) and her mother partake of the great opportunities for shopping and pre-furnishing their Malibu beach house. Whereas Gil (Owen Wilson) discovers the romance and allure of Paris has triggered thoughts of abandoning his lucrative career as a Hollywood screenwriter and wants to stay in Paris afterwards to write a real book. In the roaring twenties, Paris was the only place to be if you were a serious artist.
At this point in time, I doubt anyone goes to a Woody Allen film expecting him to re-invent the wheel. He's staked out his claim decades ago, and by his own admission, if you stood with both arms outstretched, you can touch the limits of his fictional world. There's constant reminders of him borrowing bits and pieces, recycling jokes and at times entire characters from his older movies.
For instance, you could overlay an opening from one of his earlier films onto this one. Owen Wilson's voice: "Chapter one. He adored Paris. He idolised it all out of proportion. ... " Uh, no. Make that "He romanticised it, all out of proportion". Better. " To him, no matter what the season was, this was still a town that existed in pastel colored postcards and pulsated to the great tunes of Cole Porter " Etc, etc. That opening would time out here almost exactly to the second.
Nice details? They seem to have shot Marion Cotillard with a softer focus. I liked how the " Vacationing Americans" seem to be color coordinated with the sumptuous decors and recede naturally into the flora and fauna of those moneyed backgrounds. The in-joke when Gil asks the tour guide at the Rodin museum about French mistresses. (Before she was the first lady, she was the first mistress) The in-joke when Gil suggests a movie plot to a filmmaker and the future director finds it completely nonsensical. Gil gets off a good zinger when he meets Tommy " I have measured out my life in coffee spoons " Sterns.
Best thing? The nice reminder we don't need pages of exposition and heavy machinery to simulate time travel. Here, the transition was done in the wink of an eye. A church bell chimes. Slightly inebriated party goers cruise up to Gil in a chauffeured vintage car and invite him into their merry midnight revel. And when they pull up to their destination; the way the exhaust gently envelops the car, suggests steam and that the car is cooling off from the 1.21 giggawatts required for the leap backwards in time.
The actors aren't really there to score deep dramatic roles, they flesh out stock characters in Allen's repertory (and pad their resume with a prestigious entry at the same time) And since they tend to be the best of the best, they do this very well. Some sparkle a little more brightly simply because they given a little extra work. Like the bellicose novelist can't resist a telling observation about a character in Gil's manuscript. Or Inez's old friend (Michael Sheen) from her college days, Paul is a delightful and pedantic windbag who loves the sound of his voice.
"Honey, these would look really great on the veranda"
For the umpteenth time, Rachel McAdams is misused once again. Although I kind of liked how she quietly, over poses her body in certain scenes, recalling perhaps all the statuary they are seeing all over town?
The lead role is such an archetype to Allen's cinema that he's immediately judged on how well he impersonates the part---which almost dooms most actors to failure since everything has been tailor made, cutting around Allen's weaknesses and playing to his strengths. A lot charm of the movie comes from Owen Wilson choosing not to impersonate Woody Allen, but instead play the character. It's not laugh out loud funny, with Allen taking his typical pot shots here but more of a gentle ribbing, which may go with the territory---if you're in the company of touchy novelists, asking everyone to step outside with him.
Midnight in Paris ~
Product placement: the City of Light