Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: Midnight in Paris (2011) - Allen's zany (and a little depressing) crowdpleaser

6/09/2015

Midnight in Paris (2011) - Allen's zany (and a little depressing) crowdpleaser

♥♥♥♥

+ Best Paris Movie of the Year

Owen Wilson walks around in Vincent Van Gogh's classic Paris painting Starry Night on the poster for Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris

An American couple are in Paris, where the woman's father is finishing a business deal. Her husband is working on his first novel, although she wants him back at Hollywood screenwriting. But every night by midnight, he gets transported back to the bohemian Paris of the 1920s!

Owen Wilson (The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004)) is surprisingly reliable and efficient here, leading a strong ensemble cast with Marion Cotillard (La Vie en Rose (2007)) and Adrian Brody (The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)) as Salvador Dalí as other luminous stars here in master writer-director Woody Allen's (Anything Else (2003)) beloved fantasy romcom.
The philosophical point of the film; that life is fundamentally unsatisfying, and that other places in time and other physical locations than the ones that we inhabit are always idealized,- is classic Allen.
Midnight in Paris is an enthusiastic and beautiful Paris-set movie, (cinematography by Darius Khondji (Irrational Man (2015)).) It's a sweet, charming story, reminiscent of Allen's The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985), although that's less sweet, and I prefer that film slightly.
One reservation: Why does the present have to be so intensely awful and depressing?

Related posts:

Woody Allen: 2014 in films - according to Film Excess

Magic in the Moonlight (2014) - Allen's irresistible French Riviera romance
Fading Gigolo (2013) - Turturro's pleasant turn as a high-end NY prostitute (as actor)
Blue Jasmine (2013) - Allen presenets Blanchett, a woman under the influence
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
To Rome with Love (2012) - Woody Allen's slightest film to date
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2011 in films - according to Film Excess
Cassandra's Dream (2007) - Allen's well-laid but inconsequentiel English cul-de-sac
Anything Else (2003) - Perfect contemporary relationship comedy
The Curse of the Jade Scorpion (2001) - Allen's hypnotic, noirish shenanigans
Celebrity (1998) or, Stars in New York
Celebrity (1998) or, Beautiful Celebrities Talk About Sex (guest review)
Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989) - Sin and guilt up for laughs and rumination in unspectacular Allen work
Broadyway Danny Rose (1984) or, Keep Your Heart
Annie Hall (1977) or, My Relationship with Alvie Singer
Bananas (1971) - Woody Allen's South American misadventure is still a barrel of laughs
Casino Royale (1967) - The packed spy spoof frontrunner, a film very much of its time (as actor)

Woody Allen with Rachel McAdams and Owen Wilson during shooting of Midnight in Paris

Watch the trailer for the film here

Cost: 17 mil. $
Box office: 151.1
= Huge hit
[Allen scored one of his career's biggest commercial hits with Midnight in Paris, which critics and audiences alike welcomed eagerly: Allen won his 4th Oscar yet for his original screenplay, and the film was also nominated for Best Picture, Director and Art Direction. It made 56.8 mil. $ (38 % of the total gross) in the US, and was a particularly huge hit abroad in Italy (8.9 mil. €) and France (8.4 mil. €).]

What do you think of Midnight in Paris?

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Donald Sutherland has passed away

Born in Canada, Sutherland battled polio as a child. His first credit was in Suspense (1963, TV-series) and his first film was The Castle of the Living Dead (1964). Later credits in his remarkable career include The Saint (1965-66), The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), 1900 (1976), Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Ordinary People (1980), A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), Fallen (1998), Virus (1999), Fierce People (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lord of War (2005), The Hunger Games (2012), The Undoing (2020, miniseries) and many more. He passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Roger Corman has passed away

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Corman had a sprawling, intellectually hungry life as a youth and young man before arriving with his first film in 1955, Five Guns West. He would follow that with titles such as Apache Woman, It Conquered the World, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Teenage Cave Man, A Bucket of Blood, House of Usher, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Intruder, The Raven, The Terror, The Masque of Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia, The Wild Angels, The Trip, Bloody Mama and many more. As a producer he was behind almost 500 films. Arguably among the most important filmmakers of the 20th century, Corman passed away at age 98. R.I.P.

William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

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6/09/2015

Midnight in Paris (2011) - Allen's zany (and a little depressing) crowdpleaser

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