Midnight in Paris
(2011)
PG-13 | 94 mins | Romantic comedy | 2011
Cast:
Kathy Bates, Adrien Brody, Carla Bruni [ More ]Director:
Woody AllenWriter:
Woody AllenProducers:
Letty Aronson, Stephen Tenenbaum, Jaume RouresCinematographer:
Darius KhondjiEditor:
Alisa LepselterProduction Designer:
Anne SeibelProduction Companies:
Mediapro, Versátil Cinema, Gravier ProductionsAdditional companies and organizations are acknowledged in the end credits as follows: "With the collaboration of Telvisió de Catalunya" and "With the support of Gobierno de España, Ministerio de Cultura, ICAA, Geralitat de Catalunya Institut Català de les Indústries Culturals, and Catalan Films & TV." Also in the end credits, producers “gratefully acknowledge and wish to thank” the following organizations and individuals: 120% Lino, American Vintage, André, Anthony Peto, Aram, Avene, Badoit, Bellerose, Bensimon, Berwich, Burberry, Castañer, Celine, Cerruti, Chanel,
Additional companies and organizations are acknowledged in the end credits as follows: "With the collaboration of Telvisió de Catalunya" and "With the support of Gobierno de España, Ministerio de Cultura, ICAA, Geralitat de Catalunya Institut Català de les Indústries Culturals, and Catalan Films & TV." Also in the end credits, producers “gratefully acknowledge and wish to thank” the following organizations and individuals: 120% Lino, American Vintage, André, Anthony Peto, Aram, Avene, Badoit, Bellerose, Bensimon, Berwich, Burberry, Castañer, Celine, Cerruti, Chanel,
According to production notes, director Woody Allen’s love for Paris began when he travelled there for the filming of WHAT’S NEW PUSSYCAT? (1965, see entry), which he’d written. Allen expressed that he was “rueful about not staying [in Paris] after the filming.” The character “Gil” in Midnight in Paris, who expatriated to the French capital at some point in his twenties, shares Allen’s “romantic attachment” to the city.
An 18 Apr 2006 DV article announced that Allen had “scrapped plans” to film a project in Paris, with actors David Krumholtz and Michelle Williams playing the lead roles, due to a costly budget. In a 9 Dec 2011 DV article, Letty Aronson, Allen’s sister and longtime producer, stated that they “tried to [shoot the Midnight in Paris script] about two or three years prior to our [summer 2010] shoot, but it was just too expensive.” In 2010, Allen was able to re-launch the project in Paris, with a new cast, due to a French tax rebate which had been passed in 2009, as noted in a May 2011 Screen International article.
A 23 Apr 2010 HR news item stated that Allen, who normally would not divulge details about upcoming producitons, had revealed the plot of the film, saying it was “a romantic comedy about a family traveling to the French capital on business.” The film was being made as “part of a three-picture financing deal between Allen’s Gravier Prods. and Mediapro,” with a budget of $30 million, according to a 30 Nov 2009 DV news item.
Owen Wilson was the first actor to join the cast, according to the 9 Dec 2011 DV article. Production notes stated that, although Allen had first written Gil as “an east coast intellectual,” casting director Juliet Taylor urged him to consider Owen Wilson, a Texan with blonde hair. Allen later changed Gil’s hometown to California to better match Wilson to the role.
According to the May 2011 Screen International, shooting began in Paris in late Jul 2010 with a seven-week schedule. Aronson commented in the 9 Dec 2011 DV article that, despite Allen’s preference for daytime shooting hours, half the film takes place at night, so late hours were mandatory. Because the sun sets late in Europe during summer, the crew “had to work until 2 or 3 in the morning.” In a 4 Apr 2011 Var article, Olivier-Rene Veillon of the Ile-de-France Film Commission stated that scenes in the film “move through the whole of Paris, from Montmartre to the banks of the Seine.” Parisian locations used include: the Rodin Museum, the Musee de l’Orangerie, Saint-Ouen flea market, Versailles Palace, the Bristol Hotel, Le Meurice Hotel, Maxim’s restaurant and Claude Monet’s garden at Giverny. The May 2011 Screen International article noted that “Allen is well-liked in the city which made it easier” to accommodate the “fairly complex” shoot. Many shooting days included last minute changes to the schedule and moves to multiple locations, with the 60-70-person crew.
A 12 Dec 2011 DV article explained director of photography Darius Khondji’s use of different lenses and lighting schemes to distinguish the present-day scenes from the 1920s world into which Gil ventures: “for the period sections, [Khondji] used old Taylor-Hobson Cooke lenses from the 1960s and ‘70s, and sharp, modern Cooke S5 lenses for contemporary pieces.” Khondji stated, “The modern period…has a wider lens and more camera moves to be sharper with more depth of field, while we used longer lenses for period work.” For the 1920s period, Allen insisted the exteriors look dim, to reflect a “darker and grittier [Paris]…as it surely was before modern illumination took hold.”
Actor Michael Sheen commented on Allen’s notoriously hands-off directing style in a 20 May 2011 WSJ, saying, “My experience was that he was very hands-on. There were bits of direction that were very specific. ‘Leave a slightly longer pause before you say that word and it will be funnier.’” Sheen further noted that Allen shot many scenes in long takes which gave the actors freedom to establish their own rhythm, and that Allen preferred the actors “to play the surface” of a scene instead of trying to convey subtext.
A 12 Jan 2011 HR article announced that Sony Pictures Classics had “acquired all North American rights” to the film. In a 9 Jul 2011 LAT article, Sony Classics Co-Chairman Tom Bernard described the “total guerrilla marketing campaign” they were forced to conduct given a budget of only $10 million, pointing out the creativity used to draw in adult audiences which are hard to pin down. Bernard noted that they used the TV Guide to target programs during which they would buy advertising, saying “We bought time on the Weather Channel and the Cooking Channel…[and] a lot of local baseball games…because baseball broadcasts definitely deliver an older audience.” Both Allen and Wilson were mostly unavailable for publicity, but Sony successfully encouraged reporters to speak to Wilson about the film while he was on a press junket for Cars 2 (2011, see entry).
Midnight in Paris premiered 11 May 2011, at the opening of the Cannes Film Festival. A 13 May 2011 NYT article reported that, at the film’s Cannes press conference, Allen was asked whether the “cliché” views of Paris in the film reflected “his vision” of the city, or the main character’s. Allen responded that it was “the same New York City that I’ve shown to people around in the world in a picture like Manhattan. It’s the Manhattan that I don’t see around me but the one I recognize from the movies. And this is the same thing in Paris. I wanted to show the city emotionally, the way I felt about it. It didn’t matter to me how real it was or what it reflected.”
According to a 9 Jun 2011 HR article, the film opened on 20 May 2011 in only six theaters. A 23 May 2011 LAT article reported that the film’s opening weekend “per-theater average of $96,468 is not only the best ever for Allen but also the best of 2011 and the 15th highest of all time.” Sony expanded the film early due to the success, screening in a total of 147 theaters by early Jun 2011.
The film opened to generally positive reviews. Var noted the “undeniably populist appeal, light as meringue and twice as sweet, in the pic’s arm’s-reach sophistication,” and lauded Wilson’s “unassuming charm.” Kenneth Turan of LAT, who admitted to reviewing Allen’s last dozen films poorly, called the film Allen’s “warmest, mellowest and funniest venture in far too long.” In a mixed review, HR feared Allen’s latest was “unlikely to connect with those with no knowledge of or feel for the Paris of the Fitzgeralds, Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, and Picasso.” However, the film drew record audiences for Allen, and an 18 Aug 2011 HR article reported that Sony Pictures Classics was set to “re-expand” the film to an “additional 500 to 600 theaters” on 26 Aug 2011 in order to capitalize on a “late-summer rush.”
Midnight in Paris eventually became Allen’s biggest box-office success to date, grossing over $84 million worldwide, and $55 million domestically, according to a 28 Nov 2011 Var article. The film was named by AFI as one of the Top 10 Movies of the Year. In Jan 2012, Allen won a Golden Globe Award for “Best Screenplay,” and the film was later nominated for the following Academy Awards: “Best Picture,” “Best Art Direction,” “Best Directing,” and “Best Writing (Original Screenplay).”
While wandering through a French park on vacation, Gil, a frustrated American screenwriter, tells his fiancé, Inez, his fantasy of living the romantic life of a novelist in Paris, just like real writers did in the 1920s. Inez, however, cannot picture herself living outside the U.S. Meeting Inez's parents for dinner, Gil continues to wax poetic about the French city. But, dinner is interrupted with the surprise appearance by Inez's old friend, Paul, and his girlfriend, Carol. Paul invites the couple to hang out at Versailles the next day and even though Gil tries to weasel their way out of it, Inez insists they go. Back in their hotel room, the couple bickers over the next day's trip. Inez confesses she used to have a crush on Paul back in college, while Gil belittles him as being a phony intellectual. The trip to Versailles turns into a lecture as Paul acts as a know-it-all tour guide. Inez embarrasses Gil by trying to get him to open up about his novel, which is about a man who works in a “nostalgia shop.” Paul thinks that anyone who is nostalgic for the past is just in denial about the present. Later, while visiting a museum, Paul gets into an argument with their tour guide over the names of the artist Rodin's wife and mistress. After a wine tasting, a semi-drunk Gil talks his way out of going to a nightclub with Inez, Paul and Carol. Walking back to the hotel, Gil gets lost and, as a clock rings its midnight chimes, he sees an old-fashioned car filled with partygoers who beckon Gil to join them. He is taken to a party ...
While wandering through a French park on vacation, Gil, a frustrated American screenwriter, tells his fiancé, Inez, his fantasy of living the romantic life of a novelist in Paris, just like real writers did in the 1920s. Inez, however, cannot picture herself living outside the U.S. Meeting Inez's parents for dinner, Gil continues to wax poetic about the French city. But, dinner is interrupted with the surprise appearance by Inez's old friend, Paul, and his girlfriend, Carol. Paul invites the couple to hang out at Versailles the next day and even though Gil tries to weasel their way out of it, Inez insists they go. Back in their hotel room, the couple bickers over the next day's trip. Inez confesses she used to have a crush on Paul back in college, while Gil belittles him as being a phony intellectual. The trip to Versailles turns into a lecture as Paul acts as a know-it-all tour guide. Inez embarrasses Gil by trying to get him to open up about his novel, which is about a man who works in a “nostalgia shop.” Paul thinks that anyone who is nostalgic for the past is just in denial about the present. Later, while visiting a museum, Paul gets into an argument with their tour guide over the names of the artist Rodin's wife and mistress. After a wine tasting, a semi-drunk Gil talks his way out of going to a nightclub with Inez, Paul and Carol. Walking back to the hotel, Gil gets lost and, as a clock rings its midnight chimes, he sees an old-fashioned car filled with partygoers who beckon Gil to join them. He is taken to a party where he meets a man and woman claiming to be F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald. When he's told he's at Jean Cocteau's home, Gil can't figure out why everybody is named after somebody famous. It isn't until he's taken to a restaurant where he meets Ernest Hemingway that Gil realizes he's actually visiting the past. He works up the courage to ask Hemingway to critique his troubled novel. Hemingway refuses, but agrees to give it to Gertrude Stein. Once Gil leaves the restaurant, he finds himself back in the present and unable to return. The next night, Gil brings his fiancé to the spot where he made his time travel jaunt, but the mystery car never appears. Fed up, Inez finally takes a taxi back to the hotel alone. However, Gil has simply miscalculated. When the clock strikes midnight again, the time traveling car reappears, this time with Hemingway in it. The two eventually make their way to Gertrude Stein's house where she is having a fiery debate with Pablo Picasso over what she contends is an ineffectual portrait of his lover Adriana, who sits in the next room. Gertrude reads the first paragraph of Gil's novel out loud and Adriana is immediately entranced by it. The past has always held a tremendous grip on Adriana's imagination and she particularly romanticizes the Belle Époque period of the late 1800s. Back in the present, Gil visits a row of shops with Inez where he's distracted by a female antiques dealer, Gabrielle. Later, Gil and Inez visit another museum with Paul, who continues to pontificate about art. However, when they spot Picasso's controversial portrait of Adriana, it's Gil's turn to give everybody a lesson on the painting and Adriana's origin. Back at another party in the past, a boorish Hemingway does his best to woo Adriana, but she clearly prefers the more sensitive Gil. During a romantic stroll, they stop a suicidal Zelda Fitzerald from jumping into the Seine. In the process, Gil inadvertently drops the bombshell that he's engaged to be married to Inez. As soon as Adriana hears the news, she grows cold and bids Gil adieu. Feeling heartbroken, Gil runs into Salvador Dali, Luis Buñuel and Man Ray. Being surrealists, the artists can relate to Gil's time traveling, even as they lack any sound advice to give him. On Gil's next trip to the past, Picasso is distraught that Adriana has traveled to Africa with Hemingway while Gertrude encourages Gil not to be such a defeatist in his writing. When Inez and her parents go to the countryside for the weekend, Gil bonds with Gabrielle. Then, at a used bookstand, he buys a well-read copy of Adriana's memoir, which the museum tour guide translates for him. In the book, Adriana has written about how much she is in love with Gil and has had a dream in which he brings her earrings and they make love. Gil hastily returns to his hotel to package up a pair of Inez's pearl earrings to bring into the past. However, as he attempts to leave, Inez and her parents unexpectedly show up. John is complaining of chest pains, so the two women order a doctor to see him. During an argument over Gil's cheap taste in jewelry, Inez discovers that her earrings are missing and calls for the house detective. Luckily, when the doctor arrives and everyone is distracted, Gil is able to pretend that he found the earrings in the bathroom. Going out and buying a new pair of earrings, Gil then jumps back into the time traveling car. He takes a rewritten version of his book to Gertrude, from whom he learns that Adriana is attending a surrealist wedding reception. Hooking back up with the woman of his dreams, Gil passionately kisses Adriana on the street. He gives her the earrings, which she adores and immediately places in her ears. Just then, partygoers in a passing horse and carriage urge the romantic couple to get in. They do and are whisked away to the time of the Belle Époque. They dance romantically together before going to the Moulin Rouge where they watch Can-Can dancers and chat with Toulouse-Lautrec, Paul Gauguin and Edgar Degas. Degas says he believes life must have been better during the Renaissance. At last, Gil comes to the realization that every generation unfairly romanticizes a previous generation as being a “Golden Era.” Despite Gil's pleading, Adriana decides to remain behind in the Belle Époque. He returns to the ‘20s where Gertrude, through discussing Gil's book, makes him realize that Inez is most likely having an affair with Paul. In the present, Gil confronts Inez, who voraciously denies the affair – until she finally confesses to sleeping with Paul on a few occasions. Inez implores Gil to get over it. He won't and says he feels that Inez will be better off without him. She opens their hotel room door and ushers him out to go live in his fantasy world. Wandering present-day Paris alone, Gil eventually runs into Gabrielle along the Seine as the midnight chimes peal. It begins to rain, and they walk into the distance together.
