Midnight in Paris

Woody Allen is fantastic at staging dialogue passages that demand a lot from the actors, but when it works out, it's beautiful. The actors for this project were brilliantly chosen and the film is flawless in its formal style. Owen Wilson's Gill is perfect as a torn artist who is smarter in his mind than in spoken words, the superficial characters are detailed and iconic, just like Hermes Birkin, playing a supporting role, and the "golden age characters" are timeless and warming, supported by excellently fitting sets and period music. The outcome is not as cathartic as most of the audience would probably want, but I think Woody is just playing and teasing with the viewer in this case, there was no deeper intention here, Paris is enchanting even in this rendition. Perhaps slightly self-indulgent and unnecessary, but a refined and formally grandiose film that is intelligent enough to be liked. (2013-01-27)

A very nice film. It's not perfect, and it can't match the atmosphere of The Purple Rose of Cairo, but I watched it for an hour and a half with a permanent smile, and that's to be appreciated. Woody Allen's screenplay seems to combine the magic of two of his short stories - “A Twenties Memory", in which he recounts his experiences with Hemingway, Stein, Picasso, Toklas and others, and the excellent “The Kugelmass Episode", whose protagonist starts cheating on his wife with Madame Bovary thanks to an illusionist. Midnight in Paris is an enjoyable watch that could have been more elaborate (especially when it comes to the book Gil buys and reads about himself in), but its idea about the desire to live in other times at the expense of the present and especially its ending are so beautiful that almost all the criticisms had to be put aside. (2014-08-10)

Like all Woody Allen films, Midnight in Paris has its own unmistakable charm. I became convinced of this with the initial montage of shots of Paris. Owen Wilson, whom I didn't find too convincing at first, pleasantly surprised me. The interweaving of today with the 1920s is fantastic and I think both eras were captured perfectly. I feel like I've returned from a lovely walk through Paris, which I hadn't experienced in this light before. Nice, 4 stars. (2012-02-20)

A commercial for Paris. The Paris of dreamers and incorrigible romantics; so the absolute opposite of the real Paris. But so what? Woody manages to intoxicate us with the almost melancholic atmosphere of the “city of love" so much that it gets you wanting to go there... And add to this the outstanding Owen Wilson (who gives a better performance of Woody than Woody himself), the again cute (and again in a completely different way) Marion Cotillard, all the scenes with the big names of surrealism “rhino-Buñuel-Dalí-Man Ray-rhino", the playfulness (that’s right, Allen steals from himself; and so what?) and the overall relaxed atmosphere showing that “we all had a great time" which comes across wonderfully to the viewer. Which doesn’t always necessarily happen. (2011-09-27)

The picture has a certain vibration about it and I (it seems I alone of the watching ensemble) enjoyed listening to it. Maybe it was the magic of Paris, pulling me back into the past... I often think that I was born at the wrong moment in time... maybe I have an understanding for the indecisiveness of the main protagonist and his search for (women?) himself. Very well-cast. Wlison’s slightly dumbfounded expression is well-placed, Rachel McAdams is absolutely modern, Marion Cotillard beautifully period and the familiar faces of famous people were fine. And the final “decision"? I think I know what I would have done, but it would be a hard choice. (2012-03-03)