FILM: Midnight in Paris dir. Woody Allen (2011)

Woody Allen’s latest film is a beautiful and amusing homage to Paris in the 1920s. It follows Gil (Owen Wilson) and his fiancée Inez (Rachel McAdams) on their holiday in Paris. Both Wilson and McAdams played their parts fantastically: McAdams plays a beautiful and spoilt, all-American blonde who is exasperated by Gil’s romantic and fantastical musings and Wilson plays a whimsical Hollywood script writer,who is desperate to escape America and move to Paris to become a successful novelist. Wilson plays the Woody Allen protagonist wonderfully, capturing Allen’s signature neurotic intelligence without becoming a cheap imitation of his acting. From the outset is it obvious the two characters are a mismatch and Gil soon leaves Inez' company to go on solitary late-night walks through Paris. As the clock strikes midnight, a vintage car pulls up and he is transported back to his favourite era, the 1920s. He meets all the major artists of the period: the Fitzgerald’s have fantastic energy and Allen's depictions of Ernest Hemingway and Salvador Dali are hilarious. I loved the lavish and indulgent, nostalgic celebration of the 1920’s complete with jazz music, beautiful dresses and wild partying. Marion Cottilard, the 'art-groupy', loved by Hemingway and Picasso is beautiful and captivating, perfectly suited to the glamour of the 1920s. The shots of the cobbled streets of Paris in the dusky street-lit darkness are stunning: the film is a touching and beautiful musing on time, nostalgia and love and you cannot help but follow in Gil’s footsteps and fall in love with the city in this beautiful and inspiring film. Without taking anything away from The Artist, I have to say that Midnight in Paris is the best film of 2011 that I have seen so far.

My favourite scene - Gil meets Dali (excuse the subtitles): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GU7IGKDqcSU