Midnight in Paris (2011)

Country: USA

Language: English

Actors: Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Adrien Broody, Kathy Bates, Marion, Cotillard, Carla Bruni

Director: Woody Allen

Cinematography: Darius Khondji

A fantasy RomCom movie by Woody Allen. The story is set in Paris and revolves around a group of Americans – A father, mother, daughter and her boyfriend to whom she is engaged. This movie brings to life some of the largest contributors to Modernism and Surrealism, which is supposed to be the extreme form of Modernism.

The plot is simple, the daughter and her boyfriend take a free ride to Paris with her parents. Her father is there to broker a business deal. The girl’s parents are very wealthy and conservative, the boyfriend is a distracted Hollywood writer who is in the process of finishing his novel. So the boyfriend, the protagonist of this movie is a misunderstood person as far as his fiancé’s parents go. To compound the situation another pseudo-intellectual friend of his fiancé comes into the scene. While he dislikes & questions his intellect his fiancé adores him.

As the protagonist walks through the streets of Paris he is transported into the golden era of Modernism, the 1920’s and there he meets the greats of that era one by one. Gertrude Stein, Ernest Hemmingway, Scott Fitzgerald, Picasso, Matisse, T S Elliot and also the master Surrealists in Salvador Dali, Man Ray, Luis Bunuel et al. During his time in the 1920’s he falls for Adriana, the beautiful mistress of Picasso which she too reciprocates. At the behest of Hemmingway, Gertrude Stein reads the protagonists novel. She praises his writing abilities but questions why the main character is ignorant of his girlfriend’s affair with the pedantic character.

This leads to his breaking-up with his fiancé and settling in Paris as he always wanted to. Having taken the big decision, he goes for a midnight walk where he meets the antique shop owner. The lady who, like him loved the Modernist movement and the music of Cole Porter. The film ends with them walking together in rain.

A lovely movie, Darius Khondji’s cinematography is worth a mention. The marriage of romance, comedy & fantasy works really well in this movie and the credit for which needs to go to Woody Allen.

A good movie which I guess will be part of the Oscar shortlists in 2012.