Last nite Mr Taurus and I had a sweet date nite at BAM to see Woody Allen's latest, "Midnight in Paris".
Yet another Allen flick set in a European capital rather than his home turf, Paris, like London and Barcelona before it, provides a renaissance of inspiration. Allen hasn't been this creative and smart and light in awhile with the plot centering on an American writer in Paris nostalgic for the great times of the expat Lost generation. Soon, through an easy, breezy unexplained fantasy turn, he is hobnobbing with those great literary and artistic giants he's idolized for so long
Cast is great with Alison Pill doing a mighty fine Zelda Fitzgerald
And sexy thang Adrien Brody turning up for a quick, delightful Salvador Dali
I wasn't mad for Rachel McAdams' nag of an ungrateful shrew, but I guess that was her role, so split hairs
(You know you're a frigid B when you can't find the romance in Paris)
Owen Wilson is pretty great as the protagonist and he manages to pull off sweet and naive without being a twit. His chemistry with Marion Cotillard as a 1920's French mistress of Pablo Picasso is not as heavy handed or obsessive as it can be in an Allen flick
As for the writing, there are a lot of great quips playing up public personas and the myths of these famous folks, but also on bougie white people, infidelity, where inspiration comes from and the plague of the proverbial "grass is greener".
Allen himself could be a victim of this "what he used to be" type of neglect for the now, the present works. In a funny twist, the flapper played by Marion Cotillard tires of the 20's instead longing for the Belle Epoque of Paris. She's exactly where Wilson thought was the perfect idealistic time, yet she's at unease and bored. A nice reminder that we must forget skewed daydreams about rose colored years gone by and live in the now.
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