On the theme of:  TRAVELS & TRAVAILS

Midnight in Paris

2011, 94 minutes

Where to start with Woody Allen? The list of reprehensible filmmakers is a very long one, with the names Roman Polanski, John Huston, Elia Kazan, and Charlie Chaplin only beginning to scratch the surface. Yet each one has created work that is cherished in spite of their repugnant behavior. In Allen’s case, it has been said that if he had died in 1989 before the damning allegations came out, he would be remembered as the one of the great New York comedians to follow in the neurotic tradition. But he lives on, and at age 89 he has averaged almost a film a year since the mid-1960s. Having largely relocated to Europe, many of his recent projects have been unremarkable, but Midnight in Paris stands out as a confectionary gem.

Owen Wilson stands in as an unlikely Woody surrogate, a WASPish California screenwriter who is visiting Paris with his fiancé Rachel McAdams and her parents. It is not an ideal relationship, Wilson wants to write novels and McAdams wants him to stick with his lucrative career. Enchanted with the city but annoyed with his fiancé’s friends, Wilson goes on a midnight stroll and encounters an ancient car that takes him back to 1920’s Paris. Suddenly Wilson is caught up in the parties of the Lost Generation, schmoozing with the likes of Hemingway, Picasso, Cocteau, Gertrude Stein, as well as Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald. Amidst the heady swirl, a restless costume designer played by Marion Cotillard catches Wilson’s eye, and as romance beckons, they both learn what makes for a golden age.

PLEASE NOTE --This film is RATED PG-13, with smoking, drinking, profanity, sexuality, time travel, surrealists and no trace of any New Yorkers.