Midnight In Paris (12A.)
Directed by Woody Allen
Starring Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Marion Cotillard, Michael Sheen, Tom Hiddleston and Kathy Bates. 94 mins
Something very strange happened in cinemas across America over the summer, something that hadn’t happened for a very long time: people, a lot of people, went to see a Woody Allen film. Almost every Woody film since Bullets Over Broadway has someone prepared to hail it as a return to form, but repeated grim disappointment had hardened us to these false claims. It turns out Midnight in Paris is indeed a good Woody Allen film; not great, but one that can be enjoyed without having to make allowances for.
It doesn’t start well though. The opening is an unimaginative slideshow of Paris scenes that could have been selected by any passing tourist before we are introduced to our protagonist Gil (Wilson) who is an archetypal Allen figure - a successful but unfulfilled Hollywood screenwriter who yearns to be a great novelist and is obsessed with the Paris of the 1920s.
(A few years from now when I’m battling feral youths in an apocalyptic wasteland for food and fuel I will look back on the career of Woody Allen. He might possibly have lived as charmed a life as the 20th century had to offer - lived in beautiful cities, dated beautiful women, had the most indulged career of any film maker - and somehow still felt dissatisfied. And I will marvel at how spectacularly western civilisation misallocated its resources during its period of dominance.)
After the Manhattan style opening, it shifts into the fantasy territory of Purple Rose of Cairo: while on a midnight stroll Gil finds himself magiced back to the Paris of the 1920s. It is remarkable how little Allen has developed over a 60-year career - he started out in his stand-up days making jokes about hanging out with Hemingway, Picasso, Stein and the Fitzgeralds, and now he’s got to film it.
In fact, what really makes Midnight in Paris work is that, remarkably, Owen Wilson turns out to be the best surrogate Woody ever; or at least on a par with Michael Caine in Hannah and Her Sisters. He has a charm that just that dissolves all objections.
Allen loves a good city and it’s clear that Paris rank up there with New York in his affections. Allen made four films in London but didn’t garner it with a fraction of the love Paris gets. Odd though that this is a celebration of the French capital that is almost devoid of French people.
Directed by Woody Allen
Starring Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Marion Cotillard, Michael Sheen, Tom Hiddleston and Kathy Bates. 94 mins
Something very strange happened in cinemas across America over the summer, something that hadn’t happened for a very long time: people, a lot of people, went to see a Woody Allen film. Almost every Woody film since Bullets Over Broadway has someone prepared to hail it as a return to form, but repeated grim disappointment had hardened us to these false claims. It turns out Midnight in Paris is indeed a good Woody Allen film; not great, but one that can be enjoyed without having to make allowances for.
It doesn’t start well though. The opening is an unimaginative slideshow of Paris scenes that could have been selected by any passing tourist before we are introduced to our protagonist Gil (Wilson) who is an archetypal Allen figure - a successful but unfulfilled Hollywood screenwriter who yearns to be a great novelist and is obsessed with the Paris of the 1920s.
(A few years from now when I’m battling feral youths in an apocalyptic wasteland for food and fuel I will look back on the career of Woody Allen. He might possibly have lived as charmed a life as the 20th century had to offer - lived in beautiful cities, dated beautiful women, had the most indulged career of any film maker - and somehow still felt dissatisfied. And I will marvel at how spectacularly western civilisation misallocated its resources during its period of dominance.)
After the Manhattan style opening, it shifts into the fantasy territory of Purple Rose of Cairo: while on a midnight stroll Gil finds himself magiced back to the Paris of the 1920s. It is remarkable how little Allen has developed over a 60-year career - he started out in his stand-up days making jokes about hanging out with Hemingway, Picasso, Stein and the Fitzgeralds, and now he’s got to film it.
In fact, what really makes Midnight in Paris work is that, remarkably, Owen Wilson turns out to be the best surrogate Woody ever; or at least on a par with Michael Caine in Hannah and Her Sisters. He has a charm that just that dissolves all objections.
Allen loves a good city and it’s clear that Paris rank up there with New York in his affections. Allen made four films in London but didn’t garner it with a fraction of the love Paris gets. Odd though that this is a celebration of the French capital that is almost devoid of French people.
