{ London Film Fest 2011: Midnight in Paris. (Not a LFF film) }

[delga]

Midnight in Paris
Director: Woody Allen
Writer: Woody Allen
Cast: Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Marion Cotillard
Trailer

"There's no city like this in the world."

Midnight in Paris (a title I am having difficulty remembering) is not part of the London Film Festival, but I went to see it as a way to pass the time before heading to Mayfair.

Gil is a Hollywood script writer who is trying to write a novel. In Paris with his fiancée, Inez, and her parents, he falls in love with the city all over again. Quietly anxious about his future plans, he feels immense nostalgia for Paris in the 1920s. One night, at the stroke of midnight, he is invited into a taxicab - a taxicab from 1920s Paris. On his nightly excursions he meets with the influential writers, artists and thinkers of the time, whilst in present day, his travelling party becomes more and more annoyed with his solitary behaviour.

I do not know Woody Allen as an auteur. I know he's a talking point in the film world, that his earlier work is renowned ad that, as with most things, people rate his newer work less favourably. The only other film of his that I have seen is Vicky Cristina Barcelona which I found compelling without really being able to say why. I liked that the end of that film didn't tie the story into a neat bow, I found the narrative style different, and I liked all the light in the frames.

I liked that about Midnight in Paris, too. It is lit with a glow throughout, warm and inviting. I thought Owen Wilson managed to play Gil with exactly the right amount of wonder without becoming a caricature of himself. I thought McAdams was perfectly horrible, as Inez ought to be. And I loved the cacophony of characters. The film is a post-modernist's wet dream, folding in on itself, its characters sincere but its tone ultimately ironic when it pushes Adriana (Cotillard) into La Belle Époque and draws Gil back to present day, a wiser man.

The film is extremely self-aware, and delightful in its conceit. I enjoyed it immensely; it was nice to see something more light-hearted after all the Film Festival's depressing indie fare.

Special guest appearance by Maitre Joséphine Karlsson herself, Audrey Fleurot! I tried not to be too excited, but I was anyway.