Woody Allen’s “Midnight in Paris”

French, English, Spanish
Directed by Woody Allen
2011

Starring Lea Seydoux, Rachel McAdams, Kathy Bates, Michael Sheen

The question Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris (2011) poses is whether or not it is detrimental to the nostalgic folks of society to be “living in the past”. Anyone attempting to answer that question of course is going to be biased primarily by if they are a nostalgic person or not. You may say placing an affable actor like Owen Wilson as the lead, enamored with 1920s Paris, was a biased move. But I believe Woody balances this out by tastefully casting the classically beautiful Rachel McAdams as his fiancée; who exhibits the antithesis of fondness for his nostalgia. As the film develops it gets easier to see the gaping lack of logic in that first question. Despite where Midnight in Paris takes us through the magic of the movies, no one literally goes and lives in the past.

People get labeled with this condition for not moving along with their lives, they physically are not where their hearts and minds are. This is why Gil (Owen Wilson) is thought to “have a part missing” when he is around his fiancée and in-laws-to-be, because his heart and mind are somewhere else. This is where the most universal question in the film comes about. Does Gil’s removal from where his lady expects him to be leave him in a non-reality? It’s simply arrogant for anyone to go along preaching that the frame of mind that perpetuates them through life is the real or more favorable one. Lack of action taken is a problem in life, what difference does it make how one gets to a sense of stability and happiness? Without passion, life is mundane, why opt for mundane? This ability we have to pursue certain passions gets mistaken for delusional living; and I’m just saying what a pompous notion these people have that only focusing on the present day is a real way to live.

To me, Gil engaging in the act of time travel is not meant to belittle positivity in nostalgia, but only to comically exaggerate what his life could be with someone who would at least humor him and his nostalgic tendencies, his passion for a different time. This is quite easy with Gil’s time machine, but far from impossible without one. The film stresses honesty above all other things in life. Reflecting on his adoration for Paris night to night, he realizes this importance and (short of slipping into a life of denial) has no choice but to confront his fiancée. Has she been true to him?

When the truth that she’s been banging the pseudo-intellectual comes out the vitality of their life together is clearly non-existent. And would his life have been better off had he not pressed the issue, gotten married and never known the sour truth? I do not think so. This drives the point home that we should not be so dramatically concerned with the state of mind someone is in, be it nostalgic or otherwise, but above all else our concern should be with honing in on the most honest life personally for any given person. This respect for one’s self is not selfish but provides guiding light for cultivating open, honest and direct relationships. One of the all-time Woody greats. – Davey C. Silagi

www.sonyclassics.com/midnightinparis