Midnight in Paris (2011)

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During one of my classes in Alliance Française de Manille, the lessons veered towards movies set in France. One of these was Midnight in Paris, which stars Owen Wilson and Rachel McAdams. I barely understood the discussion on the film because my French listening skills are still shot but my curiosity was piqued because the movie was directed by Woody Allen and it scored 7.7/10 in IMDb.

So when the movie popped up among the Netflix suggestions, I decided to watch it with Anna... after all, I've been avoiding the great outdoors because I've been recovering from bronchitis. 

It turned out to be a story about a writer who was vacationing in Paris with his fiancée. He particularly enjoyed walking the Parisian streets at night by himself. Unlike Cinderella, whose curfew is at midnight, this writer's Parisian party with the art icons of the 1920's started at midnight. Naturally, he was excited because he was in the company of Pablo Picasso, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Ernest Hemingway. He would travel back to the present in the wee hours the next day and attempt to tell his adventures with his fiancée who wasn't interested at all. In the end, he left his fiancée and found someone who was as enamoured with the romanticism of Paris.

The movie wasn't a laugh-out-loud comedy like the other Owen Wilson films I've seen before. And it has the sweet, nostalgic signature of Woody Allen; it was evident with the long musical introduction with the sweeping scenery of the Parisian cityscape. 

I wish that there are more movies like this. I just might start looking at the Woody Allen library and watch more of his films.

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