Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris

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Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris Movie Wilson, McAdams, and Allen Review on the set of Midnight in Paris By Dorri Olds

n his new movie, Midnight in Paris, Porter’s jazz resounding in the background. acting experience he said, “I had a small Woody Allen did what he does best. Gil is engaged to Inez (Rachel McAdams), part and I thought why not?” I He created a character out of a city an unbearably shallow and domineering Inez gobbles up Paul’s every word while and added his signature sleight-of-hand brat. Her father (Tom Hiddleston) is a Gil kvetches in disgust and dashes off to magic. Think Purple Rose of Cairo when a staunch Tea-Party-Loving Republican snob. walk the streets of Paris. Paul delivers the handsome leading man stepped out of a Fed-up with writing commercial schlock, movie’s subtext, “Nostalgia is denial, a flaw screen to romance a depression-era Mia Gil yearns to write a meaningful novel. This in the romantic imagination of people who Farrow, or when Zelig appeared on the perturbs his fiancée Inez who wants him to find it difficult to cope with the present,” nightly news with the Pope and Calvin stick with his shtick to keep big checks rolling but Gil can’t hear through Paul’s haughty Coolidge. in. Gil, a romantic mostly-mensch with his attitude. Instead Gil chases after beautiful, Midnight in Paris reverberates with that head in the clouds, is the polar opposite. He’s vulnerable Ariana (Marion Cotillard), a same abracadabra — wish fulfillment — a simple guy seeking meaning, squirrelly French muse, but in the time he spends delivered by an auteur. “I always feel that around pretentious wealth—a recurring with her it becomes clear she’s trapped in only a magical solution can save us,” said theme in Allen’s movies. a mirror enigma—idolizing her golden era, Allen. “The human predicament is so tragic Inez is such a pain in the tuchus it’s clear La Belle Époque. The lesson learned is he and so awful that, short of an act of magic, that their only link is an initial infatuation cannot enjoyt the present if fixated on the we’re doomed.” based on sex. Gil can no more recapture past. Owen Wilson, born with the middle the joy than Alvy Singer could with lobsters Ernest Hemmingway (Corey Stoll), name Cunningham, seemed an odd choice in Annie Hall. Gil loves getting caught in Salvador Dali (Adrien Brody) and Gertrude to play Allen’s alter ego. Not only is he a goy, the rain but Inez shrieks, worrying about Stein (Kathy Bates) lighten things up and he was raised in Texas, not New York. her thousand dollar shoes. The disconnect Gil gets his joyful walk in the rain. “I knew I’d have to rewrite the script a between them is glaring. Midnight in Paris is pure Woody Allen, bit,” Allen said, “but it was worth it.” The message, “Be true to yourself or a Jewish genius masked behind Gil, his Wilson’s character, Gil, is like Allen you’ll be miserable,” may seem too on-the- Gentile doppelganger. This film could in other ways. A successful American nose and postcard shots of Paris too corny, easily secure Woody Allen’s 24th Oscar screenwriter filled with neurotic nostalgia- but it all works. nom. fueled musings, he romanticizes Paris the Michael Sheen plays Paul, Inez’s ex- way Allen does Manhattan. Gil idealizes the boyfriend, a pompous, arrogant twit who Dorri Olds (DorriOlds.com) is Roaring 20s, the Golden Age. He imagines argues historical facts with a Paris tour a freelance writer, social media his heroes—F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest guide (played by Carla Bruni-Sarcozy, the consultant and web designer. Parts Hemingway, Gertrude Stein—writing their real First Lady of France). When Allen was of this article previously appeared in masterpieces in the City of Light with Cole questioned about hiring a woman with no The Jewish Daily Forward.

Resident June 2011 • 153