Midnight in Paris, Woody Allen

Woody Allen�s new movie, Midnight in Paris, what do you get when you mix Carla Bruni, Woody Allen and the Cannes Film Fest? The news has just broken that Woody Allen will indeed open the Cannes Film Fest with Midnight in Paris, starring Rachel McAdams, Marion Cotillard, Michael Sheen, Owen Wilson and Kathy Bates. Daring, visionary films shown many times a day, every day. I�m grateful to our cinephile intern Bingham Bryant, who called my attention to the posting of a trailer for the new Woody Allen film, �Midnight in Paris.� Under the circumstances, Woody Allen�s Midnight in Paris fits right in as the opening-night selection: Like Allen�s London in Match Point, his Barcelona in Vicky Cristina Barcelona, and, for that matter, his Manhattan in any of his New York movies, the filmmaker�s Paris is a romantic (and romanticized) attitude in his head rather than an identifiable way of living in an actual city. Gil is a man so besotted with the romance of artsy Paris from vanished days that he slips backwards in time at the stroke of midnight. Well, it�s great, of course: Allen is definitely an aural guy.


Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris opened the Cannes Film Festival in France, providing a mix of romance, fantasy, laughs and a whole lot of stars, both on screen and strutting the red carpet. Fresh from their showing at the Cannes Film Festival, a few of the stars of Woody Allen's "Midnight in Paris" walked the red carpet in Beverly Hills for the film's Los Angeles premiere.

Robert De Niro, fresh from his own Tribeca Film Festival in New York and heading the Cannes Film Festival awards jury, marched the carpet before Allen's movie, along with fellow jurors including Uma Thurman and Jude Law.

Allen was joined by Midnight in Paris cast members Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Adrien Brody and Michael Sheen. The film is the first Allen has shot in France.

"Paris is one of my favorite places in the world," Allen said as he headed into his premiere.

De Niro heads the jury that will award prizes among the 20 films in the Cannes main competition. Allen film about showing Paris 'emotionally'

Story

Midnight in Paris stars Wilson as a Hollywood screenwriter and wannabe novelist who pines nostalgically for the 1920s Paris of Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein and F. Scott Fitzgerald. "I wanted to show the city emotionally, the way I felt about it," Allen said. Paris through my eyes."

The film�s beginning is a bit slow and its happy ending suggests that Allen�s uncomfortable idealization of girlish females is still alive and unwell.

Midnight in Paris
Directed by Woody Allen.

Cast:
Owen Wilson as Gil
Rachel McAdams as Inez
Marion Cotillard as Adriana
Michael Sheen as Paul
Corey Stoll as Ernest Hemingway
Adrien Brody as Salvador Dali
Tom Hiddleston as F. Scott Fitzgerald
Alison Pill as Zelda Fitzgerald
Kathy Bates as Gertrude Stein
L�a Seydoux as Gabrielle
Carla Bruni as Museum Guide
Kurt Fuller as John
Mimi Kennedy as Wendy
Gad Elmaleh as Detective Tisserant
Nina Arianda as Carol

"There was the experience of shooting the movie in Paris, which was great," Wilson told CBSNews.com's Scott Edward of making the movie. You have to kind of quiet the voice that's in the back of your head going, 'I'm in a Woody Allen film! We're making a scene with Woody Allen!'"

The film also stars Rachel McAdams, Marion Contillard, Adrien Brody and Alison Pill. French first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy has a cameo in the film as well, as a museum guide.

Review
As beguiling as a stroll around Paris on a warm spring evening � something that Owen Wilson�s character here becomes very fond of himself � Midnight in Paris represents Woody Allen�s companion piece to his The Purple Rose of Cairo, a fanciful time machine that allows him to indulge playfully in the artistic Paris of his, and many other people�s, dreams. Playing Allen�s alter ego this time around is Owen Wilson as Gil, a highly successful hack Hollywood screenwriter still young enough to feel pangs over not having seriously tested himself as a novelist.

For anyone whose historical and cultural fantasies run anywhere near those that Allen toys with here, Midnight in Paris will be a pretty constant delight. Darius Khondji�s cinematography evokes to the hilt the gorgeously inviting Paris of so many people�s imaginations (while conveniently ignoring the rest), and the film has the concision and snappy pace of Allen�s best work.

At first, it seems like "Midnight in Paris" is going to be another "foreigners abroad" movie with the unnatural dialogue and wooden delivery we've seen in too many of Allen's recent movies, but once Owen Wilson's Gil finds himself transported back to the Paris of the '20s, that's where the movie really finds its footing, and Allen's brilliance comes to the fore. Allen gets Wilson's best performance outside his movies with Wes Anderson. While many of Allen's recent films have had solid ensemble casts, this cast thrives on one of his strongest scripts with Paris bringing out some of Allen's best writing in years with much of the dialogue being as good as Richard Linklater's "Before Sunrise/Sunset."

Plot: While in Paris, blocked writer Gil (Owen Wilson) retreats from his fianc�e (Rachel McAdams) and her parents and is drawn into a mysterious adventure rooted in the City of Lights' artistic history.

Midnight in Paris is a romantic comedy about a family traveling to the French capital for business. The party includes a young engaged couple forced to confront the illusion that a life different from their own is better.

Trailer