Woody Allens movie Midnight in Paris - Essay Example

Woody Allen’s Movie “Midnight in Paris” First and ENGL 2120 or ENGL1020 Summary/Response Woody Allen’s Movie “Midnight in Paris” Summary: “Midnight in Paris” is a typical Woody Allen film taking the genre of romantic comedy forward. Written and directed by Woody Allen himself, the movie made its graceful first appearance in the Cannes Festival of 2011 held in the month of May. The film is produced by a renowned Spanish group bearing the title ‘Mediapro’ and the production house of Allen Gravier.

The film is a multi-starrer film and stars, Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Marion Cotillard, Kathy Bates, Carla Bruni and Adrien Brody among others. The plot of the film centres round an American family who set out to travel to the capital of France for certain business needs and includes an young couple basically the protagonists of the story who are engaged and are compelled to come across a situation which guide them to the fact that life apart from their own is merely an illusion. The plot of the film involves fiction where the hero of the film, Gil played by Owen Wilson gets transported to 1920s at the stroke of the midnight hour in Paris and very soon comes back to his present also, which is 2010.

His fiancee Inez, played by Rachel McAdams, is sceptic about the fact and along with her parents is critical about Gil’s sacrificing the lucrative career of scriptwriting of Hollywood for his novel. The group is joined by Paul played by Michael Sheen and Carol played by Nina Arianda. Gil is an ardent fan of the Lost Generation and the novel that he is writing captivates a man who works in the nostalgia shop. Inez is fascinated towards Paul and Gil gets more engrossed to his transported world of the 1920s where he gets to meet Earnest Hemingway, Zelda and F.

Scott Fitzgerald. From them he relentlessly draws inspiration for his novel and in the meanwhile Inez gets more and more involved with Paul who is an authoritative in nature and claims himself as a serious intellectual. Gil tries to convince Inez to teach the method of getting into the past but she denies and disapproves the fact. Gil starts to spend more nights into past and this frustrates Inez and raise the suspicion of Inez’ father who appoints a detective to follow Gil during his late night wanderings.

But this attempt ends into vain as the car vanishes before the eyes of the detective. Gil grows affinity towards Picasso’s mistress Adriana. After a short span of courtship with Adriana, Gill decides to focus on his present and Adriana decides to stay in the Belle Epoque, the golden era of Paris. At the end of the film, audience face Gill retrieving his novel from the Gertrude Stein who admires his novel but contradicts to the fact that the character based on the real life character of Inez has a growing affair with the character resembling Paul is not recognised and is admitted by the protagonist of Gill who closely resembles him.

Gill decides to revert back to the present and admit it. He sits to confront the fact with Inez and comes to learn that already Inez and Paul have become quite close. Inez tries to satisfy Gill by telling that things are going to fall back to its normal place once they return back to California. Gill disapproves the fact and breaks-up with Inez. He is seen walking down the street of Paris as he plans his further stay out there and meets Gabrielle who walks with him and he proposes a walk to her home indicative of the fact that a new relationship is about to begin.

Response: The film “Midnight in Paris” has the romantic extravaganza which forms a kind of a treat to the senses and intellectual aspect of the film is very high which provides good food for thought. The fact and the fiction are amalgamated in the film so naturally that it is clearly able to create the division between the real world and the reel world which to some extent is the motif of the film as well. The plot, setting, music and casting and the characterisation are so strong in the film that any audience would easily get engrossed into the film transporting himself along with the transition of Gill who is moving from past to present.

The film is also quite informative as it presents a glorious age of Paris and helps us to look into the extravagant part of one of the most romantic cities of the world. The film for all these attributes are acclaimed and praised and is successful commercially as well as critically.