Midnight in Paris

As you have already discovered, I am a travel junkie. I am also a movie junkie and will see almost any film. I especially will see any thing romantic comedy-esque. A few other tidbits to help you capitalize on this post include the fact that as children  adults, my siblings and I relish in pretending to be someone new while on vacation. Pulling off the illusion of twins gets you points. Doting a French or Australian accent equals double points. And I almost always get lost in the magic of the atmosphere and culture of cities visited. Particularly Paris.

So when Jules suggested we see Midnight in Paris, I was game. I had no real premise of the plot, but the opportunity to see the sites of Paris (even from a screen) appeased me. And just as I suspected, I immersed myself in the film feeling the same sense of nostalgia Gil experiences. As he is taken aback to a time that he considers the "Golden Age", I too recall my on ideals of my "Golden Age". Parallel in some ways, he favors the Parisian 1920's decorated with flapper attire, long cigarettes, swing dancing, and the literature talent of the likes of Hemingway, Twain, & Fitzgerald. I, on the other hand, fancy the 1950's complete with poodle skirts, quirky glasses, jiving dance moves, and the thrill of car races. Seriously how rad would it have been to wear a pink skirt, white t-shirt, and black patent shoes every day as you be-bopped around to School House Rock? (I also consider any moment of European travel to be a modern day Golden Age).  


Gil, played by Owen Wilson, finds himself relishing in the Paris way of life while visiting with his fiance Inez and her stuffy parents. He is currently writing a novel about a nostalgic man who longs for the past, portraying a glimpse of Gil's own life when he gave up Paris & writing novels years ago. Unfulfilled in his Hollywood screenplay writing gig, he falls to his original passion. At midnight while roaming the rues of Paris, he becomes lost in his Golden Age meeting his idols: Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Cole Porter, Picasso, & Gertrude Stein. Meanwhile, his fiance takes a liking to her former professor Paul. The story becomes complicated when Gil falls for Adriana, a lovely woman from the 1920's, who's own "Golden Age" is that of the Belle Epoque era. With an ending perfectly matched to the lessons learned of longing for the past, Midnight in Paris is an intriguing film.

There is a definite difference in admiring the past and wallowing in the reality of never having it. Once we realize that the present, while not always pleasant, is exactly where we are supposed to be. And it too will become someone else's Golden Age.