picture from http://runawayjuno.com/2012/03/15/runaway-movie-midnight-in-paris/I have a lot of favourite movies but Midnight in Paris is one of the few that I totally TOTALLY fell in love with and that stayed in my mind for weeks after.
Midnight in Paris is a story about Gil, a Hollywood writer who loves the 1920 golden age of Paris and loves to move to Paris. One midnight, when he is walking in the street of Paris during his holdiay, an old car stops and the passengers invite him to go to a party which he later on realizes that he is back in the 1920's, where he meets his favourite writers, musician, artist and other famous names, such as Ernest Hemingway, Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, T.S. Eliot, etc . He also meets the beautiful Marion Cotillard whom I adore very much. I love everything about Marion Cotillard, the way she talks, the way she smiles, her past movies, etc. LoL DONT GET ME STARTED. When Gil sees that Adriana (Marion) loves and wants to live at another era (The Belle Epoque which she sees as the real golden era of Paris), Gil realizes that no period is ideal and he, in the end, grows to appreciate the present era and intends to live there.
I feel the magic of a great special film throughout. There is a part when Gil gives a man at the party named Bunuel an idea for his next movie: A group of guests sit down to dinner and after the meal is over, they mysteriously find themselves unable to leave the house. "But why?" Bunuel asks. "They just can't" Gil explains. Bunuel says it doesn't make any sense. Gil asks him to just think about the idea.
I wasn't familiar with Bunuel at the time I was watching so I googled him afterwards and found that he (Luis Bunuel) wrote and directed one of the best Mexican film and the story is about a group of dinner party guests who is unable to leave the house the next morning. So, in Midnight in Paris Gil must have seen the movie and when he meets Bunuel at that era/year he cheekily gives him that idea :)
Midnight in Paris shows the best of Paris, the arguably most romantic city, present and past day, day and night, sunshine and rain. The music is gorgeous! ('Cole Porter' sings 'Let's do it. Let's fall in love' which is one of my fav song of all time). This movie has everything, It has comedy, fantasy, romance, adventure! all the iconic names and figures make it abit classic and art-sy. Totally different from any movies I've seen ever. It is so deep, yet so light. It is beautiful, memorable, unique, charming and magical.
Roger Ebert (Chicago Sun-Times) described it as 'a daydream for American lit major'.
Peter Travers (Rolling Stone) wrote 'Allen used a camera to make such urgent, passionate love to a city'.
I love Woody Allen movies. I always love his smart scripts and his sweet stories. His movies don't always appeal to everyone, isn't for everyone and don't have over the top perfect ending, but personally, I love them. It feels personal in a way.
As Roger Ebert said 'Either you connect with it or not. I'm wearying of movies that are for 'everybody' - which means, nobody in particular. 'Midnight in Paris' is for me, in particular, and that's just fine with moi'.
Like books, I love movies that I can connect with, and it doesn't necessarily have to have storylines that I can relate to. It's more of the way the movies are made.
In Midnight in Paris, there is a scene in which Gil comes out from a bookstore in Paris. The bookstore is the famous and iconic Shakespeare and Company. I found this clip and I totally fell in love with the bookstore :)
"The magic of being in an independent bookshop like here...and the other world that it opens up to you, and the invitation to just live and breath imagination, is extraordinary..."
After seeing Cole Porter singing Let's fall in love in Midnight in Paris, I re-watched De-Lovely in DVD. I first saw De-Lovely in the cinema about 6-7 years ago when it just came out. De-Lovely is a musical biopic based on the life and career of Cole Porter, his amazing musical works and his troubled relationship with his wife. She is his muse and the love of his life and yet he had affairs everywhere, as he said, "I wanted every kind of love that was available, but I could never find them in the same person or the same sex."
She knew and understood, she let him have his freedom and accepted him as he was. It was hard for her, and this is one of their last scene together before she passed away. It is so touching >_< and the song is sooo beautiful.
"Everyday of our lives we are on the verge of making those slight changes that would make all the difference."
"The trouble is, you think you have time", --Buddha
"Looking back, I have this to regret, that too often when I loved, I did not say so."
This is another beautiful song from Cole Porter which I love so muchhhhh.
So please be sweet, my chickadee
And when I kiss ya, just say to me
"It's delightful, it's delicious, it's delectable, it's delirious.
It's dilemma, it's de limit, it's deluxe, it's de-lovely"...
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