Four figures on the exterior of Notre-Dame Cathedral, Paris
Is it that time of the year already? I guess it must be because shopping centre's everywhere are trying to outdo each other by filling their stores with the usual dreadful Christmas trinkets one finds in the lead up to the Christmas season.
But this is no time to be churlish.
Life is good - but life is also short, so in the spirit of Christmas, my wish is that your celebrations be shared with good friends, a loving family, and tables filled with healthy home cooking.
My recent viewing of
Woody Allen’s latest film, Midnight in Paris, made me nostalgic for that wonderful city, and had me reminiscing about my
visit there last December (2010). So today, I am featuring a bunch of images
from that trip, and links to relevant posts about my visit.
The Statue of Apollo in
the Grand Canal at Versailles, breaking through the encroaching ice on a cold
December day in 2010. My trip to Versailles on a frosty winter's day was one of many highlights of my stay in the French capital.
Above: Notre-Dame Cathedral. You don't have to be Catholic or even religious to appreciate the grandeur of Notre-Dame Cathedral, but it probably helps. Even so, I am neither, but that didn't stop me from visiting Notre-Dame
several times during my 10 night stay in Paris (see Notre-Dame Cathedral).
To my delight, my visit coincided with an evening choral performance that I
wrote about here: The Sound of Angels Singing. Given my previous comment about being neither Catholic nor religious, I may be coming across as confused and contradictory, but such was the power of the setting and the music, that I am happy to plead "Guilty as charged, you honor."
Above and below: No trip to Paris would be complete without at
least one stroll through parts of the magnificent Jardin des Tuileries (or
Tuileries Garden), which I wrote about here Jardin des Tuileries, Paris.
As you can see from the ice covered table below, there was plenty of snow about, and despite the cold and the snow, I loved Paris in December.
Come to think of it - it was because of the snow and the cold that I loved Paris so much. The heat and the crowds of summer were long gone, making the queues shorter, the Metro less crowded, and the weather perfect for extended walks around the city.
Well that will do for now. If you haven’t done so, I can
highly recommend Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris, if for nothing else
than the stunning scenery of the City of Lights. But as I indicated in my
review, the film is thoroughly enjoyable in its own right, and I’m sure you
won’t leave disappointed.
Until I saw Woody Allen’s latest flick, Midnight in Paris
last night, I can’t remember going to see a Woody Allen movie in over 20
years. Twenty years! Why? What happened? Even I don’t rightly know.
I always enjoyed his early career as a writer, actor and
film director, but for some reason I can no longer remember, I lost interest.
Or maybe I just became more interested in the work of directors like
Martin Scorcese, Francis Ford Coppola, the Coen Brothers, David Lynch, and one
or two others.
I’m kicking myself now. Kicking myself, because I thoroughly
enjoyed Midnight in Paris right from the opening montage of images that
showed the ‘city of lights’ in all its stunning beauty. And kicking myself
because I am sure I have missed any number of other excellent Woody Allen films
over the past 20 years or so.
Still, there’s no point berating myself too much. Looking on
the bright side, I’ve got at least two decades of catching up to do, as I program
my personal Woody Allen retrospective in the coming months, and uncover more
‘lost’ gems from his film making oeuvre. But enough of the self abuse – on to
Allen’s latest offering.
Part romantic comedy, and part fantasy, Midnight in Paris
tells the story of Gil (Owen Wilson), a successful Hollywood screenwriter
who is having problems finishing off his first novel. With his fiancée, Inez
(Rachel McAdams), he travels to Paris with Inez’s rich, conservative parents,
and understandably falls in love with the city. Unfortunately, Inez and her
parents are less than enthusiastic, especially when Gil declares that he would
love to live and work in Paris. Inez on the other hand, is apparently looking
forward to married life in Malibu!
Gil believes that Paris’s golden age was the 1920s. An era
that saw some of the greatest writers and painters of the twentieth century
(both American and European), make Paris their home. At the end of a drunken
night out with Inez, her ex-boyfriend Paul (Michael Sheen), and his wife Carol
(Nina Arianda), Gil decides to walk the streets of Paris to clear his head. As
a clock chimes the midnight hour, Gil is literally transported back in time to
a party set in 1920s Paris, at which a host of famous writers and artists from
that period are present.
Over a period of four or five nights, Gil meets Cole Porter,
Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein, Picasso, Dali, Hemingway, and
many more writers, painters, dancers, artist’s models, as well as other
luminaries of the age.
- o0o -
I could write a lot more about the plot, but if you have yet
to see the film, I don’t want to spoil the enjoyment I am sure you will get from
it, by giving away too many plot points or quoting directly from the script.
As you might expect, Woody Allen has great eye for settings,
and it has been years since I have seen Paris shown off to such great advantage
in a movie. I was in Paris myself just over a year ago, and it was a delight to
see scenes set in many of the places I myself visited during my stay. Places
like the Louvre, the Palace of Versailles, the Musée de l’Orangerie (for a
lovely scene involving Monet’s Water Lilies), Notre-Dame Cathedral, the
famed Shakespeare and Company bookshop, the River Seine, and many others.
I thought every performance in Midnight in Paris, was
spot on. Even from those actors with not much more than walk on parts. The
dialog was sharp, witty, insightful, and the transitions between the present
and the 1920s seamless. I spent the whole 90 minutes with a big smile on my
face, and I left the cinema wishing that Woody Allen could have added another
30 minutes to the overall length of the film.
If you are into classic literature, art and cinema, there is
much to delight and entertain you in Midnight in Paris. Apart from the
great settings, and the excellent acting, you should have fun picking up the
numerous artistic and cultural references Woody Allen sneaks in to his film.
My highest accolade? I enjoyed Midnight in Paris so
much I intend to go back and see it again, before it disappears from the big
screen. Not only that, but this is one movie I will definitely buy when it is
released here on DVD – and for me that is always my biggest stamp of approval.
