Woody Allen's MIDNIGHT IN PARIS is a sincere pleasure

Midnight in Paris comes off as a sweet love letter to one of Woody Allen’s favorite cities (it doesn’t compete with his portrait of New York). I could imagine his neurotic, creative process. He probably took a quiet stroll along the Parisian street, went into his apartment, hopped in the shower (his thinking sanctuary), and then bam—the idea came to him in a wet flash.

            “Well, ya know, ya, I think, ya, wouldn’t it be a spontaneous, creative move, if-ya-know, I was somehow magically transported into the 1920s and hung out with all of the great literary and artistic heroes of our time in the cultural arts center of the world?”

            Midnight in Paris isn’t Allen’s best film to date, but it’s still an endearing and dreamy venture.  His signature is written all over it. He’s one of the few filmmakers, who both writes and directs all of his work, and it’s very distinctive; no one can make a Woody Allen picture besides the prolific director himself. I’m quite enamored by Allen’s simple, yet beautiful vision of every shooting location—New York, Paris, or London—I feel as though I walked into a classical Hollywood musical set. The camera is usually static and the music is mellow, but there’s a grace to all of his images.

            The film is about a Hollywood screenwriter, Gil (Owen Wilson), who vacations in Paris with his fiancé, Inez, (Rachel McAdams) and her family, hoping to find inspiration for his new novel. During one of Gil’s walks, an old car pulls up and he’s swept away to a party where he’s conversing with Picasso, Cole Porter, F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, and Ernest Hemingway. He’s captivated by the nostalgia of the city’s romantic flavor; this unusual fervor clashes with his fiancée, Inez, who prefers to buy over-priced furniture and go dancing, while Gil prefers to take a refreshing stroll at midnight. The book he’s writing is about a man who owns an old, memorabilia shop, full of sentimental history. The scenario in Gil’s story sets-up the exposition for the character’s time-warp into old Paris.

When Gil and his soon-to-be-family are dining at a café, Inez runs into an acquainted couple. This happens a lot in Woody Allen’s films. Friends will run into old friends and new sparks will fly.  When the couples double-date, they passive-aggressively compete with one another—whether it be beauty, intellect, or sex. My favorite competing couple was in Allen’s black-and-white masterpiece, Manhattan (1979), but his latest film, Midnight in Paris, is still a joy to watch. The film contains the classic overlapping dialogue, dining settings, and typical-Woody-neurosis.

The way Woody Allen shoots says a lot about his personality. For example, he prefers to shoot on a cloudy day because it’s easier to control the lighting, and it gives the images a pastel-hue. In addition, he prefers to keep the camera rolling, inertly panning back and forth, which draws more attention to the performances than the camera work.

Most importantly, he shoots at a rapid pace. Woody Allen likes to be done by 6:00 pm, so he can rush to dinner at a reasonable hour. Midnight in Paris was selected as the opener at the Cannes Film Festival. I’m sure the French greatly appreciated this gesture.

*** (out of four stars).