I just watched Midnight In Paris - a movie written and directed by Woody Allen. It just reinforces my respect for the guy's creative genius. I had seen his Annie Hall, and though that movie didn't have a 'story' per se, it had clicked big time because of the character detailing (including their eccentricities), dialogues, realism and goofyness of the protagonist.
Midnight In Paris is like a second installment in many ways. The themes and details of both the films are totally different. But within first ten minutes of the film itself you start seeing glimpses of Annie Hall 'isque characters, eccentricities, subtle shades of each characters, and you immediately appreciate that it's not a usual movie with loud hints and mannerisms, but a classy one with subtle treatment and a Woody Allen stamp on it. And I don't mean it in a cliched way.
The movie uses time-travel, but that's not the point of the movie. Real thing is the fantasy of what would happpen after such a time travel. It's not about time-travel, but it's about what happens when a wannabe author, who likes to engage in nostalgia, finds himself in the middle of the age in the past which he likes to think of as the golden age.
Don't we all have the tendancy to indulge in the bouts of such nostalgia? Don't we think of the 50s and 60's and 70's when the world was a simple place to live, when there were not much vehicles on the street, when there were no overloaded communication devices to attend to, when there used to be gifted authors, gifted musicians, singers, when one could attend to those Maifils/Katha-kathans/Sabhas when legends like Atre, Savarkar, P L Deshpande were around? Don't we think the golden age was when the Indian Freedom Movement was gaining momentum? when you could intermingle and get inspired by the like of Chaphekar brothers, Savarkars, Bhagatsinghs, Sukhdevs, Bose, Azads, etc?
The movie is not about time-travel, it's not about a love story between characters of different era either, though there is subtle one going on. It's actually and really about the craving desire that we all have about how the current era we are living in, sucks, in comparison with some era in the past.
The crux of the movie comes when this girl from past (1920s), with whom our protagonist is in love with, goes to some era in her past (1850s), which she thinks of as a golden age, and the guys from that era think some other era in their past (rennaissance) was the actual golden age! An intriguing reminder to us all that the grass can be greener on our side as well, from the perspective of some other side. The strength of the movie is how subtly this very message is conveyed. No preachings, no pedantics, no in-your-face dialogues. Just a subtle transition and it makes one think.
There was this one scene I really liked in the movie. Gil, the protagonists, asks a lady guide in a theme park, if it's possible for one person to love two women at the same time. He gives a reference to some artist in the 1920s, and she says "well, he loves both of those women differently!". He startles, gathers himself, and says - "well, yeah, I forgot you people (the french) are more evolved in this department." That was bang on! Exactly how I perceive them to be. Going by the French movies I have watched so far, or the French characters I have seen so far, I have come to have similar opinions about those people.
The movie is a gem. I especially like the goofy yet intellectual treatment of the topic, which, probably because I have come to like Annie Hall so much, seems like having a Woody Allen signature on it. I somehow manage to relate to both these characters (Woody Allen's from Annie Hall, and Owen Wilson's from this Midnight In Paris) a lot.
Aside from this, I feel, had Woody Allen been not as old as he is, he would have acted in it himself instead of Owel Wilson. Like he did in Annie Hall. And he would have done even more justice to the character, not because Owel Wilson was bad, oh no, but because I think he made that character for himself (or keeping his character from Annie Hall in mind)
This one will sit there along with Annie Hall as one of my all time favourites, for sure.
Midnight In Paris is like a second installment in many ways. The themes and details of both the films are totally different. But within first ten minutes of the film itself you start seeing glimpses of Annie Hall 'isque characters, eccentricities, subtle shades of each characters, and you immediately appreciate that it's not a usual movie with loud hints and mannerisms, but a classy one with subtle treatment and a Woody Allen stamp on it. And I don't mean it in a cliched way.
The movie uses time-travel, but that's not the point of the movie. Real thing is the fantasy of what would happpen after such a time travel. It's not about time-travel, but it's about what happens when a wannabe author, who likes to engage in nostalgia, finds himself in the middle of the age in the past which he likes to think of as the golden age.
Don't we all have the tendancy to indulge in the bouts of such nostalgia? Don't we think of the 50s and 60's and 70's when the world was a simple place to live, when there were not much vehicles on the street, when there were no overloaded communication devices to attend to, when there used to be gifted authors, gifted musicians, singers, when one could attend to those Maifils/Katha-kathans/Sabhas when legends like Atre, Savarkar, P L Deshpande were around? Don't we think the golden age was when the Indian Freedom Movement was gaining momentum? when you could intermingle and get inspired by the like of Chaphekar brothers, Savarkars, Bhagatsinghs, Sukhdevs, Bose, Azads, etc?
The movie is not about time-travel, it's not about a love story between characters of different era either, though there is subtle one going on. It's actually and really about the craving desire that we all have about how the current era we are living in, sucks, in comparison with some era in the past.
The crux of the movie comes when this girl from past (1920s), with whom our protagonist is in love with, goes to some era in her past (1850s), which she thinks of as a golden age, and the guys from that era think some other era in their past (rennaissance) was the actual golden age! An intriguing reminder to us all that the grass can be greener on our side as well, from the perspective of some other side. The strength of the movie is how subtly this very message is conveyed. No preachings, no pedantics, no in-your-face dialogues. Just a subtle transition and it makes one think.
There was this one scene I really liked in the movie. Gil, the protagonists, asks a lady guide in a theme park, if it's possible for one person to love two women at the same time. He gives a reference to some artist in the 1920s, and she says "well, he loves both of those women differently!". He startles, gathers himself, and says - "well, yeah, I forgot you people (the french) are more evolved in this department." That was bang on! Exactly how I perceive them to be. Going by the French movies I have watched so far, or the French characters I have seen so far, I have come to have similar opinions about those people.
The movie is a gem. I especially like the goofy yet intellectual treatment of the topic, which, probably because I have come to like Annie Hall so much, seems like having a Woody Allen signature on it. I somehow manage to relate to both these characters (Woody Allen's from Annie Hall, and Owen Wilson's from this Midnight In Paris) a lot.
Aside from this, I feel, had Woody Allen been not as old as he is, he would have acted in it himself instead of Owel Wilson. Like he did in Annie Hall. And he would have done even more justice to the character, not because Owel Wilson was bad, oh no, but because I think he made that character for himself (or keeping his character from Annie Hall in mind)
This one will sit there along with Annie Hall as one of my all time favourites, for sure.
