What Time Is It In Paris?

It's "Midnight In Paris" - the charming witty new movie by the incomparable Woody Allen.

The movie opens with gorgeous camera work spotlighting all the beauty of Paris, accompanied by this melancholy tune:



Perfect...perfect...mood setter. I was totally primed to fall in love with the film...and fall I did.

Gil - screenwriter, aspiring novelist, avid Francophile - is visiting Paris with his fiancé, Inez, and her parents. Inez is an extremely unlikable character - shallow, materialistic, and condescending. (Irrelevant comment: And her wardrobe is dreadful and unflattering! Frumpy dresses that look like nightshirts, accesorized with hideous belts.) Inez's parents are not particularly pleasant, either.

And then one evening Gil goes out to stroll the streets of Paris, and as the clock strikes midnight, an antique roadster pulls to the kerb and invites him to go for a ride. Magically, he is transported to the 1920s, the Jazz Age, when the clubs and cafes of Paris overflowed with writers and artists and musicians who are all well-known in today's world.

Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald. Ernest Hemingway. Salvador Dali. Gertrude Stein.

For Gil, it's a dream come true. To share his novel with Gertrude Stein. To discuss art with Salvador Dali. To dance to the music of Cole Porter. And to fall in love with Pablo Picasso's mistress, Adriana.

Every night at the stroke of midnight, Gil returns to this Paris of yesterday, and more and more, he longs to stay there. But can he? Should he? It is these questions that become the riddle that Gil must solve, and the lesson he must learn.

Oh, it's just indescribably delightful. All the familiar names. The literary references. The quotes. The discussions. The costumes. The music. Whimsical and funny and vastly entertaining.

The ending felt a bit rushed, the theme a bit heavy-handed, but this didn't detract from all that was wonderful about the film.

Two thumbs up and definitely recommended.

We also enjoyed dinner at the ooh-la-la bistro, 56 West.  We dined on "A Night in Paris" (of course!) - French baguette and assorted fresh cheeses & olives, and "Bread & Spread 3 Way" - more French baguette with olive tapenade, oven-dried-tomato relish, and herbed goat cheese spread, and "French Kiss" salads - wild field greens, caramelized pears, goat cheese, and fresh berries.