Midnight in Paris
Encyclopedia
Midnight in Paris is a 2011 romantic comedy
-fantasy
film written and directed by Woody Allen
. The plot centers on a small group of Americans visiting the French capital for business and pleasure. The protagonist, a screenwriter
, is forced to confront the shortcomings of his relationship with his fiancée and their divergent goals due to his magical experiences in the city beginning each night at midnight. The movie explores themes of nostalgia
, modernism
and existentialism
.
Produced by Spanish group Mediapro
and Allen's Gravier Productions, the film stars Owen Wilson
, Rachel McAdams
, Marion Cotillard
, Kathy Bates
, Carla Bruni
, Adrien Brody
and Michael Sheen
. It premiered at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival
and was released in North America
in May 2011. The film opened to widespread critical acclaim and has commonly been cited as Woody Allen's best film since 1994's Bullets Over Broadway
. It has become a global box office success.
), a successful but distracted Hollywood screenwriter
, and his fiancée, Inez (Rachel McAdams
), are in Paris
, vacationing with Inez's wealthy, conservative parents (Mimi Kennedy
, Kurt Fuller
). Gil is struggling to finish his first novel, which is about a man who works in a nostalgia
shop, but Inez and her parents are critical and dismissive of Gil's desire to give up his lucrative Hollywood career to write it. While Gil is considering moving to the city, Inez is intent on living in Malibu. By chance, they are joined by Inez's friend Paul (Michael Sheen
), a pseudo-intellectual who speaks with great authority but little actual accuracy on the history and art of the city. Inez idolizes him, but Gil, who is an ardent admirer of the Lost Generation
, finds him insufferable.
Paul and his wife Carol (Nina Arianda
) invite Inez and Gil to go dancing. Inez accepts but Gil declines and chooses to return to the hotel through the streets of Paris, eventually becoming lost. As he stops, bells chime midnight and an antique car pulls up, and the passengers— dressed in 1920s clothing—urge Gil to join them. They go to a bar, where Gil comes to realize that he has been transported to the 1920s, an era he admires and idolizes in the novel he is writing. He encounters Cole Porter
(Yves Heck), Josephine Baker
(Sonia Rolland
), and Zelda
and F. Scott Fitzgerald
(Alison Pill
and Tom Hiddleston
), who take him to meet Ernest Hemingway
(Corey Stoll
). Hemingway agrees to show Gil's novel to Gertrude Stein
(Kathy Bates
), and Gil goes to fetch his manuscript from his hotel. However, as soon as he leaves the bar, he finds he has returned to 2010.
Gil attempts to bring Inez to the past with him the following night, but while they wait, she gets bored, and peevishly returns to the hotel. Just after she leaves, the clock strikes midnight and the car pulls up again, this time with Hemingway inside it. He takes Gil to meet Gertrude Stein, who agrees to read his novel and introduces him to Pablo Picasso
(Marcial Di Fonzo Bo) and Picasso's mistress Adriana (Marion Cotillard
), a beautiful student of couture
to whom Gil is instantly attracted. The next day, back in 2010, Gil encounters Picasso's painting of Adriana at a museum, and recites much information about its creation, which annoys Paul (because it contradicts much of what he had been saying) and Inez becomes embarrassed, because she cannot appreciate what he is saying and believes Paul.
Over the next few days, Gil spends each night in the past. His late-night wanderings frustrate Inez, who cannot understand his interest in Paris or his desire to write a novel, and arouse the suspicion of her father, who hires a detective (Gad Elmaleh
) to follow Gil. This proves unsuccessful, as the detective attempts to follow the car and winds up lost in Versailles
during the era of Louis XIV
.
Gil spends increasing amounts of time with Adriana, who leaves Picasso and has a brief dalliance with Hemingway. Gil realizes that he is falling in love with her, leaving him conflicted and confused. He confides his predicament to Salvador Dalí
(Adrien Brody
), Man Ray
(Tom Cordier) and Luis Buñuel
(Adrien de Van), but being surrealists
they consider his position to be totally normal and see nothing strange about his coming from the future.
While Inez shops for furniture in the Marché aux puces (flea market) on the outskirts of Paris
, Gil meets Gabrielle (Léa Seydoux
), an antiques dealer who shares his fondness for the twenties and the music of Cole Porter
. Gil later discovers Adriana's diary from the 1920s in a book stall on the Seine and finds out that she was in love with him. Reading that she dreamt of receiving a gift of earrings from him and then making love to him, Gil attempts to steal a pair of earrings from Inez to give to Adriana but is thwarted by Inez's early return from a trip.
Gil purchases earrings for Adriana and, returning to the past, confesses his love for her. As they kiss, a horse and carriage appears. They are invited inside by a richly-dressed couple and are transported back to the Belle Époque
, an era Adriana considers Paris's Golden Age
. They are taken to the famous Maxim's Paris
restaurant, and meet Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
(Vincent Menjou Cortes), Paul Gauguin
(Olivier Rabourdin) and Edgar Degas
(François Rostain). When Gil asks what they thought the best era was, the three determine that the greatest era was the Renaissance
. The enthralled Adriana is offered a job designing ballet costumes, and proposes to Gil that they stay, but Gil realizes that despite the allure of nostalgia, it is better to accept the present for what it is. Adriana elects to stay in the past, and they sadly part ways.
Gil retrieves his novel from Gertrude Stein, who praises his progress as a writer but questions why the main character has not realized that his fiancée (based on Inez) is having an affair with a pedantic character based on Paul. Gil returns to the present and confronts Inez. She admits to sleeping with Paul but claims that it can be forgotten when they return to California. Gil breaks up with Inez and decides to remain in Paris. Taking a walk at midnight, he unexpectedly meets Gabrielle, and offers to walk her home.
Allen originally wrote the character, Gill, as an east coast intellectual, but he rethought it when he and casting director Juliet Taylor began considering Owen Wilson for the role. “I thought Owen would be charming and funny but my fear was that he was not so eastern at all in his persona,” says Allen. Allen realized that making Gill a Californian would actually make the character richer, so he rewrote the part and submitted it to Wilson, who readily agreed to do it. Allen describes him as, “a natural actor”.
This is the second time Rachel McAdams and Owen Wilson costarred as a couple; they did so before in 2005's Wedding Crashers
. In comparing the two roles, McAdams describes the one in Midnight in Paris as being far more antagonistic than the role in Wedding Crashers. Allen had high praises for her performance and that of co-star Marion Cotillard. Cotillard was cast as Wilson’s other love interest, the charismatic Adrianna.
Carla Bruni
was recruited by Allen for a role as a museum guide. There were false reports that Allen re-filmed Bruni's scenes with Léa Seydoux
, but Seydoux rebuffed these rumours revealing she had an entirely separate role in the film. Allen also shot down reports that a scene with Bruni required over 30 takes: "I am appalled. I read these things and I could not believe my eyes...These are not exaggerations, but inventions from scratch. There is absolutely no truth." He continued to describe Bruni as "very professional" and insisted he was pleased with her scenes, stating that "every frame will appear in the film."
), “intensely red, intensely warm, because if you go to a restaurant and you’re there with your wife or your girlfriend, and it’s got red-flecked wallpaper and turn-of-the-century lights, you both look beautiful. Whereas if you’re in a seafood restaurant and the lights are up, everybody looks terrible. So it looks nice. It’s very flattering and very lovely.” To achieve this he and his cinematographer, Darius Khondji, used primarily warm colors in the film’s photography, filmed in flatter weather and employed limited camera movements, in attempts to draw little attention to itself. This is the first Woody Allen film to go through a digital intermediate
, instead of being color timed in the traditional photochemical way. According to Allen, its use here is a test to see if he likes it enough to use on his future films.
Allen’s directorial style placed more emphasis on the romantic and realistic elements of the film, than the fantasy elements. He states that he “was interested only in this romantic tale, and anything that contributed to it that was fairy tale was right for me. I didn’t want to get into it. I only wanted to get into what bore down on his (Owen Wilson’s) relationship with Marion.”
describes the montage as a stylistic approach that lasts longer than necessary to simply establish location
. According to Turan, “Allen is saying: Pay attention — this is a special place, a place where magic can happen.” Midnight in Paris is the first Woody Allen film shot entirely on location in Paris, though both Love and Death
(1975) and Everyone Says I Love You
(1996) were partially filmed there.
Filming location
s include John XXIII Square (near Notre Dame
), Montmartre
, The Palace of Versailles, Opera
, Sacré-Cœur, on the Île de la Cité
itself, and near the Panthéon
.
and was picked up by Sony Pictures Classics
for distribution. It is the third film the two companies have co-produced, the others being Vicky Cristina Barcelona
and You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger
.
In promoting the film, Allen was willing to do only a limited amount of publicity at the film's Cannes Film Festival, during its debut in May. Owen Wilson was already committed to promoting Pixar animation's blockbuster, Cars 2, which opened in late June, several weeks after Allen's film arrived in theaters.
Due to these mishaps and the small budget for promotion, Sony Classics Co-Presidents Tom Bernard and Michael Barker used guerrilla marketing campaign to promote the film. His company has spent $10 million marketing the film, which is a fraction of what a studio shells out for a summer tentpole film. Bernard describes that when buying advertisements, he and his team went through the TV Guide, not the ratings book, because they were trying to find their niche audience and not just the broad public, through the shows with the biggest ratings.
The film's poster is a reference to Vincent van Gogh
's 1889 painting The Starry Night
.
on May 11, where it opened the festival as a first-ever screening for both professionals and the public. Opening in limited release
at six theaters on May 20, Midnight in Paris grossed $599,003 in its first weekend. It expanded to 944 theaters on June 10.
Midnight in Paris is Allen's highest grossing film before adjusting for inflation in North America. As of September 10th, 2011, the film has grossed $53,115,883 domestically, overtaking his previous best, Hannah and Her Sisters
, which grossed $40 million.
reports that 93% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 149 reviews, with an average score of 7.9/10. Among Top Critics it received 95% positive reviews with an average rating of 8.2. The critical consensus is: "It may not boast the depth of his classic films, but the sweetly sentimental Midnight in Paris is funny and charming enough to satisfy Woody Allen fans." The film has received Allen's best reviews and score on the site since 1994's Bullets Over Broadway
. The website Metacritic
, which assigns normalized scores to film reviews, gave the film 81 out of 100, based on 40 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".
The film received some generally positive reviews after its premiere at the 64th Cannes Film Festival
. Todd McCarthy
from The Hollywood Reporter
praised Darius Khondji
's cinematography and claimed the film "has the concision and snappy pace of Allen's best work".
Many critics including A. O. Scott
of The New York Times
have commented Owen Wilson's success at channeling the Woody Allen persona in this film. He states that the film is marvelously romantic and credibly blends "whimsy and wisdom". He praised Khondji's cinematography, the supporting cast and remarked that it's a memorable film stating that "Mr. Allen has often said that he does not want or expect his own work to survive, but as modest and lighthearted as Midnight in Paris is, it suggests otherwise: Not an ambition toward immortality so much as a willingness to leave something behind – a bit of memorabilia, or art, if you like that word better – that catches the attention and solicits the admiration of lonely wanderers in some future time."
Roger Ebert
gave the film 3½ stars out of four. He ended his review with this quote:
Ebert's quote is incorrect, however, in stating that Paris is Allen's 41st film; it is actually his 42nd (when including the television film Don't Drink the Water).
American film critic Richard Roeper
gave it an A; referring to it as a wonderful film and calls it one of the best romantic comedies in recent years, Stating that it's a love letter to Paris and the romance it inspires. He commented that the actors are uniformly brilliant and praised the film's use of witty one liners.
On The Huffington Post
, Rob Kirkpatrick
said the film represented a return to form for the director ("it's as if Woody has rediscovered Woody") and called Midnight in Paris "a surprising film that casts a spell over us and reminds us of the magical properties of cinema, and especially of Woody Allen's cinema."
Midnight in Paris is commonly compared to one of Woody Allen's earlier works, The Purple Rose of Cairo
, particularly due to its fantasy elements and lack of explanation for the means by which Gil Pender (Owen Wilson) travels back in time. David Edelstein
, New York magazine
, have commended that approach, stating that it eliminates, "the sci-fi wheels and pulleys that tend to suck up so much screen time in time-travel movies." He goes on to applaud the film stating that, "this supernatural comedy isn't just Allen's best film in more than a decade; it's the only one that manages to rise above its tidy parable structure and be easy, graceful, and glancingly funny, as if buoyed by its befuddled hero's enchantment."
Joe Morgenstern of The Wall Street Journal
acknowledged the cast and the look of the film and, despite some familiarities with the film's conflict, praised Allen's work on the film. He wrote, "For the filmmaker who brought these intertwined universes into being, the film represents new energy in a remarkable career."
However, Peter Bradshaw
of The Guardian
, giving the film 3 out of 5 stars, described it as "an amiable amuse-bouche" and "sporadically entertaining, light, shallow, self-plagiarising." He goes on to add that it's "a romantic fantasy adventure to be compared with the vastly superior ideas of his comparative youth, such as the 1985 movie The Purple Rose of Cairo." More scathing is Richard Corliss
of Time
, who describes the film as "pure Woody Allen. Which is not to say great or even good Woody, but a distillation of the filmmaker's passions and crotchets, and of his tendency to pass draconian judgment on characters the audience is not supposed to like... his Midnight strikes not sublime chimes but the clangor of snap judgments and frayed fantasy."
Romantic Comedy
Romantic Comedy can refer to* Romantic Comedy , a 1979 play written by Bernard Slade* Romantic Comedy , a 1983 film adapted from the play and starring Dudley Moore and Mary Steenburgen...
-fantasy
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...
film written and directed by Woody Allen
Woody Allen
Woody Allen is an American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, jazz musician, author, and playwright. Allen's films draw heavily on literature, sexuality, philosophy, psychology, Jewish identity, and the history of cinema...
. The plot centers on a small group of Americans visiting the French capital for business and pleasure. The protagonist, a screenwriter
Screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...
, is forced to confront the shortcomings of his relationship with his fiancée and their divergent goals due to his magical experiences in the city beginning each night at midnight. The movie explores themes of nostalgia
Nostalgia
The term nostalgia describes a yearning for the past, often in idealized form.The word is a learned formation of a Greek compound, consisting of , meaning "returning home", a Homeric word, and , meaning "pain, ache"...
, modernism
Modernism
Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...
and existentialism
Existentialism
Existentialism is a term applied to a school of 19th- and 20th-century philosophers who, despite profound doctrinal differences, shared the belief that philosophical thinking begins with the human subject—not merely the thinking subject, but the acting, feeling, living human individual...
.
Produced by Spanish group Mediapro
Mediapro
Mediapro is a multimedia communications group in Spain. Founded in 1994 in Barcelona, the company is involved in movie and television production, as well as media ....
and Allen's Gravier Productions, the film stars Owen Wilson
Owen Wilson
Owen Cunningham Wilson is an American actor and writer, known for his roles in the films The Haunting, The Royal Tenenbaums, Zoolander, Meet the Parents, Wedding Crashers, You, Me and Dupree, Bottle Rocket, the Cars series, The Darjeeling Limited, Marley & Me, Midnight in Paris, Shanghai Noon,...
, Rachel McAdams
Rachel McAdams
Rachel Anne McAdams is a Canadian actress. After graduating from a theatre program at York University, Toronto in 2001, she worked steadily as an actress until finding fame in 2004 with starring roles in teen comedy Mean Girls and romantic drama The Notebook...
, Marion Cotillard
Marion Cotillard
Marion Cotillard is a French actress and singer. She garnered critical acclaim for her roles in films such as La Vie en Rose, My Sex Life... or How I Got Into an Argument, Taxi, Furia and Jeux d'enfants...
, Kathy Bates
Kathy Bates
Kathleen Doyle "Kathy" Bates is an American actress and director.After several small roles in film and television, Bates rose to prominence with her performance in Misery , for which she won both the Academy Award for Best Actress and a Golden Globe...
, Carla Bruni
Carla Bruni
Carla Bruni-Sarkozy is an Italian-French songwriter, singer, actress, and former model...
, Adrien Brody
Adrien Brody
Adrien Brody is an American actor and film producer. He received widespread recognition and acclaim after starring in Roman Polanski's The Pianist . Winning the Academy Award for Best Actor in 2003 at age 29, he is the youngest actor to do so...
and Michael Sheen
Michael Sheen
Michael Christopher Sheen, OBE , is a Welsh stage and screen actor. He trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, England and made his professional debut opposite Vanessa Redgrave in When She Danced at the Globe Theatre in 1991...
. It premiered at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival
2011 Cannes Film Festival
The 64th annual Cannes Film Festival was held from May 11 to May 22, 2011. American actor Robert De Niro served as the president of the jury for the main competition and French filmmaker Michel Gondry headed the jury for the short film competition...
and was released in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
in May 2011. The film opened to widespread critical acclaim and has commonly been cited as Woody Allen's best film since 1994's Bullets Over Broadway
Bullets Over Broadway
Bullets Over Broadway is a 1994 crime-comedy film written by Woody Allen and Douglas McGrath and directed by Woody Allen. It stars an ensemble cast including John Cusack, Dianne Wiest, Chazz Palminteri, and Jennifer Tilly....
. It has become a global box office success.
Plot
Gil (Owen WilsonOwen Wilson
Owen Cunningham Wilson is an American actor and writer, known for his roles in the films The Haunting, The Royal Tenenbaums, Zoolander, Meet the Parents, Wedding Crashers, You, Me and Dupree, Bottle Rocket, the Cars series, The Darjeeling Limited, Marley & Me, Midnight in Paris, Shanghai Noon,...
), a successful but distracted Hollywood screenwriter
Screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...
, and his fiancée, Inez (Rachel McAdams
Rachel McAdams
Rachel Anne McAdams is a Canadian actress. After graduating from a theatre program at York University, Toronto in 2001, she worked steadily as an actress until finding fame in 2004 with starring roles in teen comedy Mean Girls and romantic drama The Notebook...
), are in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, vacationing with Inez's wealthy, conservative parents (Mimi Kennedy
Mimi Kennedy
Mimi Kennedy is an American actress, author and activist.-Early life:Kennedy was born Mary Claire Kennedy in Rochester, New York, the daughter of Nancy Helen and Daniel Gerald Kennedy. She got her start in theater with the Rochester Community Players, appearing in Agatha Christie's "Spider Web"...
, Kurt Fuller
Kurt Fuller
Kurt Fuller is an American character actor. He has appeared in a number of television, film, and stage projects. He graduated from Lincoln High School in Stockton, California in 1971.-Career:...
). Gil is struggling to finish his first novel, which is about a man who works in a nostalgia
Nostalgia
The term nostalgia describes a yearning for the past, often in idealized form.The word is a learned formation of a Greek compound, consisting of , meaning "returning home", a Homeric word, and , meaning "pain, ache"...
shop, but Inez and her parents are critical and dismissive of Gil's desire to give up his lucrative Hollywood career to write it. While Gil is considering moving to the city, Inez is intent on living in Malibu. By chance, they are joined by Inez's friend Paul (Michael Sheen
Michael Sheen
Michael Christopher Sheen, OBE , is a Welsh stage and screen actor. He trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, England and made his professional debut opposite Vanessa Redgrave in When She Danced at the Globe Theatre in 1991...
), a pseudo-intellectual who speaks with great authority but little actual accuracy on the history and art of the city. Inez idolizes him, but Gil, who is an ardent admirer of the Lost Generation
Lost Generation
The "Lost Generation" is a term used to refer to the generation, actually a cohort, that came of age during World War I. The term was popularized by Ernest Hemingway who used it as one of two contrasting epigraphs for his novel, The Sun Also Rises. In that volume Hemingway credits the phrase to...
, finds him insufferable.
Paul and his wife Carol (Nina Arianda
Nina Arianda
Nina Arianda is an American theatre and film actress.-Early life and education:Arianda grew up in Clifton, New Jersey and Heidelberg, Germany...
) invite Inez and Gil to go dancing. Inez accepts but Gil declines and chooses to return to the hotel through the streets of Paris, eventually becoming lost. As he stops, bells chime midnight and an antique car pulls up, and the passengers— dressed in 1920s clothing—urge Gil to join them. They go to a bar, where Gil comes to realize that he has been transported to the 1920s, an era he admires and idolizes in the novel he is writing. He encounters Cole Porter
Cole Porter
Cole Albert Porter was an American composer and songwriter. Born to a wealthy family in Indiana, he defied the wishes of his domineering grandfather and took up music as a profession. Classically trained, he was drawn towards musical theatre...
(Yves Heck), Josephine Baker
Josephine Baker
Josephine Baker was an American dancer, singer, and actress who found fame in her adopted homeland of France. She was given such nicknames as the "Bronze Venus", the "Black Pearl", and the "Créole Goddess"....
(Sonia Rolland
Sonia Rolland
Sonia Rolland is a French actress and former Miss France she has also competed at Miss Universe. She is the first African-born Miss France pagant winner....
), and Zelda
Zelda Fitzgerald
Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald , born Zelda Sayre in Montgomery, Alabama, was an American novelist and the wife of writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. She was an icon of the 1920s—dubbed by her husband "the first American Flapper"...
and F. Scott Fitzgerald
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was an American author of novels and short stories, whose works are the paradigm writings of the Jazz Age, a term he coined himself. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century. Fitzgerald is considered a member of the "Lost...
(Alison Pill
Alison Pill
Alison Courtney Pill is a Canadian actress best known from her roles in Milk, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and Midnight in Paris.-Life and career:...
and Tom Hiddleston
Tom Hiddleston
Thomas William "Tom" Hiddleston is an English actor. He is perhaps best known for playing Loki in the 2011 Marvel Studios film Thor.-Early life and education:...
), who take him to meet Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American author and journalist. His economic and understated style had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the...
(Corey Stoll
Corey Stoll
Corey Daniel Stoll is an American stage and screen actor. He received a Drama Desk Award nomination as Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play for Intimate Apparel, opposite Tony winner and Oscar nominee Viola Davis. He graduated from Oberlin College in 1998...
). Hemingway agrees to show Gil's novel to Gertrude Stein
Gertrude Stein
Gertrude Stein was an American writer, poet and art collector who spent most of her life in France.-Early life:...
(Kathy Bates
Kathy Bates
Kathleen Doyle "Kathy" Bates is an American actress and director.After several small roles in film and television, Bates rose to prominence with her performance in Misery , for which she won both the Academy Award for Best Actress and a Golden Globe...
), and Gil goes to fetch his manuscript from his hotel. However, as soon as he leaves the bar, he finds he has returned to 2010.
Gil attempts to bring Inez to the past with him the following night, but while they wait, she gets bored, and peevishly returns to the hotel. Just after she leaves, the clock strikes midnight and the car pulls up again, this time with Hemingway inside it. He takes Gil to meet Gertrude Stein, who agrees to read his novel and introduces him to Pablo Picasso
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso known as Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the...
(Marcial Di Fonzo Bo) and Picasso's mistress Adriana (Marion Cotillard
Marion Cotillard
Marion Cotillard is a French actress and singer. She garnered critical acclaim for her roles in films such as La Vie en Rose, My Sex Life... or How I Got Into an Argument, Taxi, Furia and Jeux d'enfants...
), a beautiful student of couture
Haute couture
Haute couture refers to the creation of exclusive custom-fitted clothing. Haute couture is made to order for a specific customer, and it is usually made from high-quality, expensive fabric and sewn with extreme attention to detail and finished by the most experienced and capable seamstresses,...
to whom Gil is instantly attracted. The next day, back in 2010, Gil encounters Picasso's painting of Adriana at a museum, and recites much information about its creation, which annoys Paul (because it contradicts much of what he had been saying) and Inez becomes embarrassed, because she cannot appreciate what he is saying and believes Paul.
Over the next few days, Gil spends each night in the past. His late-night wanderings frustrate Inez, who cannot understand his interest in Paris or his desire to write a novel, and arouse the suspicion of her father, who hires a detective (Gad Elmaleh
Gad Elmaleh
Gad Elmaleh is a French-Moroccan stand-up comedian and actor. His latest show is called Papa est en haut . He has starred in several feature films, including Coco, Hors de prix, La Doublure and Midnight in Paris.- Early years :Elmaleh was born in Casablanca, Morocco...
) to follow Gil. This proves unsuccessful, as the detective attempts to follow the car and winds up lost in Versailles
Versailles
Versailles , a city renowned for its château, the Palace of Versailles, was the de facto capital of the kingdom of France for over a century, from 1682 to 1789. It is now a wealthy suburb of Paris and remains an important administrative and judicial centre...
during the era of Louis XIV
Louis XIV of France
Louis XIV , known as Louis the Great or the Sun King , was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre. His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, began at the age of four and lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days...
.
Gil spends increasing amounts of time with Adriana, who leaves Picasso and has a brief dalliance with Hemingway. Gil realizes that he is falling in love with her, leaving him conflicted and confused. He confides his predicament to Salvador Dalí
Salvador Dalí
Salvador Domènec Felip Jacint Dalí i Domènech, Marquis de Púbol , commonly known as Salvador Dalí , was a prominent Spanish Catalan surrealist painter born in Figueres,Spain....
(Adrien Brody
Adrien Brody
Adrien Brody is an American actor and film producer. He received widespread recognition and acclaim after starring in Roman Polanski's The Pianist . Winning the Academy Award for Best Actor in 2003 at age 29, he is the youngest actor to do so...
), Man Ray
Man Ray
Man Ray , born Emmanuel Radnitzky, was an American artist who spent most of his career in Paris, France. Perhaps best described simply as a modernist, he was a significant contributor to both the Dada and Surrealist movements, although his ties to each were informal...
(Tom Cordier) and Luis Buñuel
Luis Buñuel
Luis Buñuel Portolés was a Spanish-born filmmaker — later a naturalized citizen of Mexico — who worked in Spain, Mexico, France and the US..-Early years:...
(Adrien de Van), but being surrealists
Surrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
they consider his position to be totally normal and see nothing strange about his coming from the future.
While Inez shops for furniture in the Marché aux puces (flea market) on the outskirts of Paris
Saint-Ouen, Seine-Saint-Denis
Saint-Ouen is a commune in the Seine-Saint-Denis department. It is located in the northern suburbs of Paris, France 6.6 km from the centre of Paris....
, Gil meets Gabrielle (Léa Seydoux
Léa Seydoux
Léa Seydoux is a French actress and model. She is the granddaughter of Jérôme Seydoux, Chairman of Pathé, and grandniece of Nicolas Seydoux, Chairman and CEO of Gaumont....
), an antiques dealer who shares his fondness for the twenties and the music of Cole Porter
Cole Porter
Cole Albert Porter was an American composer and songwriter. Born to a wealthy family in Indiana, he defied the wishes of his domineering grandfather and took up music as a profession. Classically trained, he was drawn towards musical theatre...
. Gil later discovers Adriana's diary from the 1920s in a book stall on the Seine and finds out that she was in love with him. Reading that she dreamt of receiving a gift of earrings from him and then making love to him, Gil attempts to steal a pair of earrings from Inez to give to Adriana but is thwarted by Inez's early return from a trip.
Gil purchases earrings for Adriana and, returning to the past, confesses his love for her. As they kiss, a horse and carriage appears. They are invited inside by a richly-dressed couple and are transported back to the Belle Époque
Belle Époque
The Belle Époque or La Belle Époque was a period in European social history that began during the late 19th century and lasted until World War I. Occurring during the era of the French Third Republic and the German Empire, it was a period characterised by optimism and new technological and medical...
, an era Adriana considers Paris's Golden Age
Golden Age
The term Golden Age comes from Greek mythology and legend and refers to the first in a sequence of four or five Ages of Man, in which the Golden Age is first, followed in sequence, by the Silver, Bronze, and Iron Ages, and then the present, a period of decline...
. They are taken to the famous Maxim's Paris
Maxim's Paris
Maxim's is the name of a restaurant in Paris, France, located at No. 3 of the rue Royale. It is known for its art nouveau interior decor.-History:...
restaurant, and meet Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa or simply Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec was a French painter, printmaker, draughtsman, and illustrator, whose immersion in the colourful and theatrical life of fin de siècle Paris yielded an œuvre of exciting, elegant and provocative images of the modern...
(Vincent Menjou Cortes), Paul Gauguin
Paul Gauguin
Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin was a leading French Post-Impressionist artist. He was an important figure in the Symbolist movement as a painter, sculptor, print-maker, ceramist, and writer...
(Olivier Rabourdin) and Edgar Degas
Edgar Degas
Edgar Degas[p] , born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, was a French artist famous for his work in painting, sculpture, printmaking and drawing. He is regarded as one of the founders of Impressionism although he rejected the term, and preferred to be called a realist...
(François Rostain). When Gil asks what they thought the best era was, the three determine that the greatest era was the Renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
. The enthralled Adriana is offered a job designing ballet costumes, and proposes to Gil that they stay, but Gil realizes that despite the allure of nostalgia, it is better to accept the present for what it is. Adriana elects to stay in the past, and they sadly part ways.
Gil retrieves his novel from Gertrude Stein, who praises his progress as a writer but questions why the main character has not realized that his fiancée (based on Inez) is having an affair with a pedantic character based on Paul. Gil returns to the present and confronts Inez. She admits to sleeping with Paul but claims that it can be forgotten when they return to California. Gil breaks up with Inez and decides to remain in Paris. Taking a walk at midnight, he unexpectedly meets Gabrielle, and offers to walk her home.
Cast
The cast includes (in credits order):- Owen WilsonOwen WilsonOwen Cunningham Wilson is an American actor and writer, known for his roles in the films The Haunting, The Royal Tenenbaums, Zoolander, Meet the Parents, Wedding Crashers, You, Me and Dupree, Bottle Rocket, the Cars series, The Darjeeling Limited, Marley & Me, Midnight in Paris, Shanghai Noon,...
as Gil Pender - Rachel McAdamsRachel McAdamsRachel Anne McAdams is a Canadian actress. After graduating from a theatre program at York University, Toronto in 2001, she worked steadily as an actress until finding fame in 2004 with starring roles in teen comedy Mean Girls and romantic drama The Notebook...
as Inez - Kurt FullerKurt FullerKurt Fuller is an American character actor. He has appeared in a number of television, film, and stage projects. He graduated from Lincoln High School in Stockton, California in 1971.-Career:...
as John, Inez's father - Mimi KennedyMimi KennedyMimi Kennedy is an American actress, author and activist.-Early life:Kennedy was born Mary Claire Kennedy in Rochester, New York, the daughter of Nancy Helen and Daniel Gerald Kennedy. She got her start in theater with the Rochester Community Players, appearing in Agatha Christie's "Spider Web"...
as Helen, Inez's mother - Michael SheenMichael SheenMichael Christopher Sheen, OBE , is a Welsh stage and screen actor. He trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, England and made his professional debut opposite Vanessa Redgrave in When She Danced at the Globe Theatre in 1991...
as Paul Bates - Nina AriandaNina AriandaNina Arianda is an American theatre and film actress.-Early life and education:Arianda grew up in Clifton, New Jersey and Heidelberg, Germany...
as Carol Bates - Carla BruniCarla BruniCarla Bruni-Sarkozy is an Italian-French songwriter, singer, actress, and former model...
as Museum Guide - Yves Heck as Cole PorterCole PorterCole Albert Porter was an American composer and songwriter. Born to a wealthy family in Indiana, he defied the wishes of his domineering grandfather and took up music as a profession. Classically trained, he was drawn towards musical theatre...
- Alison PillAlison PillAlison Courtney Pill is a Canadian actress best known from her roles in Milk, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and Midnight in Paris.-Life and career:...
as Zelda FitzgeraldZelda FitzgeraldZelda Sayre Fitzgerald , born Zelda Sayre in Montgomery, Alabama, was an American novelist and the wife of writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. She was an icon of the 1920s—dubbed by her husband "the first American Flapper"... - Corey StollCorey StollCorey Daniel Stoll is an American stage and screen actor. He received a Drama Desk Award nomination as Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play for Intimate Apparel, opposite Tony winner and Oscar nominee Viola Davis. He graduated from Oberlin College in 1998...
as Ernest HemingwayErnest HemingwayErnest Miller Hemingway was an American author and journalist. His economic and understated style had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the... - Tom HiddlestonTom HiddlestonThomas William "Tom" Hiddleston is an English actor. He is perhaps best known for playing Loki in the 2011 Marvel Studios film Thor.-Early life and education:...
as F. Scott FitzgeraldF. Scott FitzgeraldFrancis Scott Key Fitzgerald was an American author of novels and short stories, whose works are the paradigm writings of the Jazz Age, a term he coined himself. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century. Fitzgerald is considered a member of the "Lost... - Sonia RollandSonia RollandSonia Rolland is a French actress and former Miss France she has also competed at Miss Universe. She is the first African-born Miss France pagant winner....
as Josephine BakerJosephine BakerJosephine Baker was an American dancer, singer, and actress who found fame in her adopted homeland of France. She was given such nicknames as the "Bronze Venus", the "Black Pearl", and the "Créole Goddess".... - Daniel Lundh as Juan BelmonteJuan BelmonteJuan Belmonte García was a Spanish bullfighter, considered by many to have been the greatest matador of all time.-Life:...
- Kathy BatesKathy BatesKathleen Doyle "Kathy" Bates is an American actress and director.After several small roles in film and television, Bates rose to prominence with her performance in Misery , for which she won both the Academy Award for Best Actress and a Golden Globe...
as Gertrude SteinGertrude SteinGertrude Stein was an American writer, poet and art collector who spent most of her life in France.-Early life:... - Marcial Di Fonzo Bo as Pablo PicassoPablo PicassoPablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso known as Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the...
- Marion CotillardMarion CotillardMarion Cotillard is a French actress and singer. She garnered critical acclaim for her roles in films such as La Vie en Rose, My Sex Life... or How I Got Into an Argument, Taxi, Furia and Jeux d'enfants...
as Adriana - Léa SeydouxLéa SeydouxLéa Seydoux is a French actress and model. She is the granddaughter of Jérôme Seydoux, Chairman of Pathé, and grandniece of Nicolas Seydoux, Chairman and CEO of Gaumont....
as Gabrielle - Emmanuelle Uzan as Djuna BarnesDjuna BarnesDjuna Barnes was an American writer who played an important part in the development of 20th century English language modernist writing and was one of the key figures in 1920s and '30s bohemian Paris after filling a similar role in the Greenwich Village of the teens...
- Adrien BrodyAdrien BrodyAdrien Brody is an American actor and film producer. He received widespread recognition and acclaim after starring in Roman Polanski's The Pianist . Winning the Academy Award for Best Actor in 2003 at age 29, he is the youngest actor to do so...
as Salvador DalíSalvador DalíSalvador Domènec Felip Jacint Dalí i Domènech, Marquis de Púbol , commonly known as Salvador Dalí , was a prominent Spanish Catalan surrealist painter born in Figueres,Spain.... - Tom Cordier as Man RayMan RayMan Ray , born Emmanuel Radnitzky, was an American artist who spent most of his career in Paris, France. Perhaps best described simply as a modernist, he was a significant contributor to both the Dada and Surrealist movements, although his ties to each were informal...
- Adrien de Van as Luis BuñuelLuis BuñuelLuis Buñuel Portolés was a Spanish-born filmmaker — later a naturalized citizen of Mexico — who worked in Spain, Mexico, France and the US..-Early years:...
- Gad ElmalehGad ElmalehGad Elmaleh is a French-Moroccan stand-up comedian and actor. His latest show is called Papa est en haut . He has starred in several feature films, including Coco, Hors de prix, La Doublure and Midnight in Paris.- Early years :Elmaleh was born in Casablanca, Morocco...
as Detective Tisserant - David Lowe as T. S. EliotT. S. EliotThomas Stearns "T. S." Eliot OM was a playwright, literary critic, and arguably the most important English-language poet of the 20th century. Although he was born an American he moved to the United Kingdom in 1914 and was naturalised as a British subject in 1927 at age 39.The poem that made his...
- Yves-Antoine Spoto as Henri MatisseHenri MatisseHenri Matisse was a French artist, known for his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known primarily as a painter...
- Laurent Claret as Leo SteinLeo SteinLeo Stein was an American art collector and critic. He was born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, the older brother of Gertrude Stein. He became an influential promoter of 20th-century paintings. Beginning in 1892, he studied at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, for two years. The...
- Vincent Menjou Cortes as Henri de Toulouse-LautrecHenri de Toulouse-LautrecHenri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa or simply Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec was a French painter, printmaker, draughtsman, and illustrator, whose immersion in the colourful and theatrical life of fin de siècle Paris yielded an œuvre of exciting, elegant and provocative images of the modern...
- Olivier Rabourdin as Paul GauguinPaul GauguinEugène Henri Paul Gauguin was a leading French Post-Impressionist artist. He was an important figure in the Symbolist movement as a painter, sculptor, print-maker, ceramist, and writer...
- François Rostain as Edgar DegasEdgar DegasEdgar Degas[p] , born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, was a French artist famous for his work in painting, sculpture, printmaking and drawing. He is regarded as one of the founders of Impressionism although he rejected the term, and preferred to be called a realist...
Writing and Casting
Allen employed a reverse approach in writing the screenplay for this film, by building the film’s plot around a conceived movie title, ‘Midnight in Paris’.Allen originally wrote the character, Gill, as an east coast intellectual, but he rethought it when he and casting director Juliet Taylor began considering Owen Wilson for the role. “I thought Owen would be charming and funny but my fear was that he was not so eastern at all in his persona,” says Allen. Allen realized that making Gill a Californian would actually make the character richer, so he rewrote the part and submitted it to Wilson, who readily agreed to do it. Allen describes him as, “a natural actor”.
This is the second time Rachel McAdams and Owen Wilson costarred as a couple; they did so before in 2005's Wedding Crashers
Wedding Crashers
Wedding Crashers is a 2005 American comedy film directed by David Dobkin. It stars Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn, with Christopher Walken, Rachel McAdams, Isla Fisher, Bradley Cooper, Diora Baird, Jane Seymour, and an uncredited Will Ferrell....
. In comparing the two roles, McAdams describes the one in Midnight in Paris as being far more antagonistic than the role in Wedding Crashers. Allen had high praises for her performance and that of co-star Marion Cotillard. Cotillard was cast as Wilson’s other love interest, the charismatic Adrianna.
Carla Bruni
Carla Bruni
Carla Bruni-Sarkozy is an Italian-French songwriter, singer, actress, and former model...
was recruited by Allen for a role as a museum guide. There were false reports that Allen re-filmed Bruni's scenes with Léa Seydoux
Léa Seydoux
Léa Seydoux is a French actress and model. She is the granddaughter of Jérôme Seydoux, Chairman of Pathé, and grandniece of Nicolas Seydoux, Chairman and CEO of Gaumont....
, but Seydoux rebuffed these rumours revealing she had an entirely separate role in the film. Allen also shot down reports that a scene with Bruni required over 30 takes: "I am appalled. I read these things and I could not believe my eyes...These are not exaggerations, but inventions from scratch. There is absolutely no truth." He continued to describe Bruni as "very professional" and insisted he was pleased with her scenes, stating that "every frame will appear in the film."
Filming
Principal Photography began July 2010, in Paris. Allen states that the fundamental aesthetic for the camera work gave the film a warm ambience. He describes that he likes it (the cinematographyCinematography
Cinematography is the making of lighting and camera choices when recording photographic images for cinema. It is closely related to the art of still photography...
), “intensely red, intensely warm, because if you go to a restaurant and you’re there with your wife or your girlfriend, and it’s got red-flecked wallpaper and turn-of-the-century lights, you both look beautiful. Whereas if you’re in a seafood restaurant and the lights are up, everybody looks terrible. So it looks nice. It’s very flattering and very lovely.” To achieve this he and his cinematographer, Darius Khondji, used primarily warm colors in the film’s photography, filmed in flatter weather and employed limited camera movements, in attempts to draw little attention to itself. This is the first Woody Allen film to go through a digital intermediate
Digital intermediate
Digital intermediate is a motion picture finishing process which classically involves digitizing a motion picture and manipulating the color and other image characteristics. It often replaces or augments the photochemical timing process and is usually the final creative adjustment to a movie...
, instead of being color timed in the traditional photochemical way. According to Allen, its use here is a test to see if he likes it enough to use on his future films.
Allen’s directorial style placed more emphasis on the romantic and realistic elements of the film, than the fantasy elements. He states that he “was interested only in this romantic tale, and anything that contributed to it that was fairy tale was right for me. I didn’t want to get into it. I only wanted to get into what bore down on his (Owen Wilson’s) relationship with Marion.”
Locations
The film opens with an extensive, 3 ½ minute postcard-view montage of Paris, showing the usual and iconic tourist sites. Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles TimesLos Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
describes the montage as a stylistic approach that lasts longer than necessary to simply establish location
Establishing shot
An establishing shot in filmmaking and television production sets up, or establishes the context for a scene by showing the relationship between its important figures and objects...
. According to Turan, “Allen is saying: Pay attention — this is a special place, a place where magic can happen.” Midnight in Paris is the first Woody Allen film shot entirely on location in Paris, though both Love and Death
Love and Death
Love and Death is a 1975 comedy film by Woody Allen. Starring Woody Allen and Diane Keaton, Love and Death is a satirical take on Russian epic novels. Coming in between Sleeper and Annie Hall, Love and Death is in many respects an artistic transition between the two...
(1975) and Everyone Says I Love You
Everyone Says I Love You
Everyone Says I Love You is a 1996 American musical film that was written and directed by Woody Allen. The film features many stars, including Julia Roberts, Alan Alda, Edward Norton, Drew Barrymore, Gaby Hoffmann, Tim Roth, Goldie Hawn, and Natalie Portman.Set in New York, Venice, and Paris, the...
(1996) were partially filmed there.
Filming location
Filming location
A filming location is a place where some or all of a film or television series is produced, in addition to or instead of using sets constructed on a movie studio backlot or soundstage...
s include John XXIII Square (near Notre Dame
Notre Dame de Paris
Notre Dame de Paris , also known as Notre Dame Cathedral, is a Gothic, Roman Catholic cathedral on the eastern half of the Île de la Cité in the fourth arrondissement of Paris, France. It is the cathedral of the Catholic Archdiocese of Paris: that is, it is the church that contains the cathedra of...
), Montmartre
Montmartre
Montmartre is a hill which is 130 metres high, giving its name to the surrounding district, in the north of Paris in the 18th arrondissement, a part of the Right Bank. Montmartre is primarily known for the white-domed Basilica of the Sacré Cœur on its summit and as a nightclub district...
, The Palace of Versailles, Opera
Paris Opera
The Paris Opera is the primary opera company of Paris, France. It was founded in 1669 by Louis XIV as the Académie d'Opéra and shortly thereafter was placed under the leadership of Jean-Baptiste Lully and renamed the Académie Royale de Musique...
, Sacré-Cœur, on the Île de la Cité
Île de la Cité
The Île de la Cité is one of two remaining natural islands in the Seine within the city of Paris . It is the centre of Paris and the location where the medieval city was refounded....
itself, and near the Panthéon
Panthéon, Paris
The Panthéon is a building in the Latin Quarter in Paris. It was originally built as a church dedicated to St. Genevieve and to house the reliquary châsse containing her relics but, after many changes, now functions as a secular mausoleum containing the remains of distinguished French citizens...
.
Marketing
The film is co-produced by Allen's Gravier Productions and the Catalan company MediaproMediapro
Mediapro is a multimedia communications group in Spain. Founded in 1994 in Barcelona, the company is involved in movie and television production, as well as media ....
and was picked up by Sony Pictures Classics
Sony Pictures Classics
Sony Pictures Classics is an art-house film division of Sony Pictures Entertainment founded in December 1991 that distributes, produces and acquires specialty films from the United States and around the world. Its co-presidents are Michael Barker and Tom Bernard...
for distribution. It is the third film the two companies have co-produced, the others being Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Vicky Cristina Barcelona is a 2008 romance comedy-drama film written and directed by Woody Allen, and starring Javier Bardem, Penélope Cruz, Scarlett Johansson and Rebecca Hall...
and You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger
You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger
You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger is a 2010 English-language Spanish-American co-production comedy-drama film written and directed by Woody Allen. It features Antonio Banderas, Josh Brolin, Anthony Hopkins, Gemma Jones, Freida Pinto, Lucy Punch, Naomi Watts, Roger Ashton-Griffiths and Pauline...
.
In promoting the film, Allen was willing to do only a limited amount of publicity at the film's Cannes Film Festival, during its debut in May. Owen Wilson was already committed to promoting Pixar animation's blockbuster, Cars 2, which opened in late June, several weeks after Allen's film arrived in theaters.
Due to these mishaps and the small budget for promotion, Sony Classics Co-Presidents Tom Bernard and Michael Barker used guerrilla marketing campaign to promote the film. His company has spent $10 million marketing the film, which is a fraction of what a studio shells out for a summer tentpole film. Bernard describes that when buying advertisements, he and his team went through the TV Guide, not the ratings book, because they were trying to find their niche audience and not just the broad public, through the shows with the biggest ratings.
The film's poster is a reference to Vincent van Gogh
Vincent van Gogh
Vincent Willem van Gogh , and used Brabant dialect in his writing; it is therefore likely that he himself pronounced his name with a Brabant accent: , with a voiced V and palatalized G and gh. In France, where much of his work was produced, it is...
's 1889 painting The Starry Night
The Starry Night
The Starry Night is a painting by Dutch post-impressionist artist Vincent van Gogh. The painting depicts the view outside his sanitarium room window at night, although it was painted from memory during the day. Since 1941 it has been in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New...
.
Release
Box office
The film made its debut at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival2011 Cannes Film Festival
The 64th annual Cannes Film Festival was held from May 11 to May 22, 2011. American actor Robert De Niro served as the president of the jury for the main competition and French filmmaker Michel Gondry headed the jury for the short film competition...
on May 11, where it opened the festival as a first-ever screening for both professionals and the public. Opening in limited release
Limited release
Limited release is a term in the American motion picture industry for a motion picture that is playing in a select few theaters across the country ....
at six theaters on May 20, Midnight in Paris grossed $599,003 in its first weekend. It expanded to 944 theaters on June 10.
Midnight in Paris is Allen's highest grossing film before adjusting for inflation in North America. As of September 10th, 2011, the film has grossed $53,115,883 domestically, overtaking his previous best, Hannah and Her Sisters
Hannah and Her Sisters
Hannah and Her Sisters is a 1986 American comedy-drama film which tells the intertwined stories of an extended family over two years that begin and end with a family Thanksgiving dinner...
, which grossed $40 million.
Critical reception
Midnight in Paris has received critical acclaim. Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
reports that 93% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 149 reviews, with an average score of 7.9/10. Among Top Critics it received 95% positive reviews with an average rating of 8.2. The critical consensus is: "It may not boast the depth of his classic films, but the sweetly sentimental Midnight in Paris is funny and charming enough to satisfy Woody Allen fans." The film has received Allen's best reviews and score on the site since 1994's Bullets Over Broadway
Bullets Over Broadway
Bullets Over Broadway is a 1994 crime-comedy film written by Woody Allen and Douglas McGrath and directed by Woody Allen. It stars an ensemble cast including John Cusack, Dianne Wiest, Chazz Palminteri, and Jennifer Tilly....
. The website Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
, which assigns normalized scores to film reviews, gave the film 81 out of 100, based on 40 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".
The film received some generally positive reviews after its premiere at the 64th Cannes Film Festival
2011 Cannes Film Festival
The 64th annual Cannes Film Festival was held from May 11 to May 22, 2011. American actor Robert De Niro served as the president of the jury for the main competition and French filmmaker Michel Gondry headed the jury for the short film competition...
. Todd McCarthy
Todd McCarthy
Todd McCarthy is an American film critic. He wrote for Variety for 31 years as its chief film critic before being fired in 2010. He is currently a critic for The Hollywood Reporter....
from The Hollywood Reporter
The Hollywood Reporter
Formerly a daily trade magazine, The Hollywood Reporter re-launched in late 2010 as a unique hybrid publication serving the entertainment industry and a consumer audience...
praised Darius Khondji
Darius Khondji
Darius Khondji A.S.C. is an Iranian-French cinematographer. He has worked with such well-known directors as Jean-Pierre Jeunet, David Fincher, Bernardo Bertolucci, Alan Parker, Roman Polanski, Sydney Pollack, Woody Allen, and Wong Kar-wai.-Biography:...
's cinematography and claimed the film "has the concision and snappy pace of Allen's best work".
Many critics including A. O. Scott
A. O. Scott
Anthony Oliver Scott, known as A. O. Scott , is an American journalist and critic. He is a chief film critic for The New York Times, along with Manohla Dargis.-Background and education:...
of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
have commented Owen Wilson's success at channeling the Woody Allen persona in this film. He states that the film is marvelously romantic and credibly blends "whimsy and wisdom". He praised Khondji's cinematography, the supporting cast and remarked that it's a memorable film stating that "Mr. Allen has often said that he does not want or expect his own work to survive, but as modest and lighthearted as Midnight in Paris is, it suggests otherwise: Not an ambition toward immortality so much as a willingness to leave something behind – a bit of memorabilia, or art, if you like that word better – that catches the attention and solicits the admiration of lonely wanderers in some future time."
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
gave the film 3½ stars out of four. He ended his review with this quote:
This is Woody Allen's 41st film. He writes his films himself, and directs them with wit and grace. I consider him a treasure of the cinema. Some people take him for granted, although Midnight in Paris reportedly charmed even the jaded veterans of the Cannes press screenings. There is nothing to dislike about it. Either you connect with it or not. I'm wearying of movies that are for "everybody" – which means, nobody in particular. Midnight in Paris is for me, in particular, and that's just fine with moi."
Ebert's quote is incorrect, however, in stating that Paris is Allen's 41st film; it is actually his 42nd (when including the television film Don't Drink the Water).
American film critic Richard Roeper
Richard Roeper
Richard E. Roeper is an American columnist and film critic for The Chicago Sun-Times and now a co-host on The Roe Conn Show on WLS-AM...
gave it an A; referring to it as a wonderful film and calls it one of the best romantic comedies in recent years, Stating that it's a love letter to Paris and the romance it inspires. He commented that the actors are uniformly brilliant and praised the film's use of witty one liners.
On The Huffington Post
The Huffington Post
The Huffington Post is an American news website and content-aggregating blog founded by Arianna Huffington, Kenneth Lerer, and Jonah Peretti, featuring liberal minded columnists and various news sources. The site offers coverage of politics, theology, media, business, entertainment, living, style,...
, Rob Kirkpatrick
Rob Kirkpatrick
-Biography:Rob Kirkpatrick was born and raised in upstate New York. He received his Bachelor’s from Rutgers University, his Master’s degree from the State University of New York at New Paltz, and his Doctorate from Binghamton University. After graduate school, he began a career as an acquisitions...
said the film represented a return to form for the director ("it's as if Woody has rediscovered Woody") and called Midnight in Paris "a surprising film that casts a spell over us and reminds us of the magical properties of cinema, and especially of Woody Allen's cinema."
Midnight in Paris is commonly compared to one of Woody Allen's earlier works, The Purple Rose of Cairo
The Purple Rose of Cairo
The Purple Rose of Cairo is a 1985 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Woody Allen. Inspired by Sherlock, Jr., Hellzapoppin, and Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of an Author, it is the tale of a film character who leaves a fictional film of the same name and enters the real...
, particularly due to its fantasy elements and lack of explanation for the means by which Gil Pender (Owen Wilson) travels back in time. David Edelstein
David Edelstein
David Edelstein is the chief film critic for New York Magazine, as well as the film critic for NPR's Fresh Air and CBS Sunday Morning. He lives in Brooklyn, New York....
, New York magazine
New York (magazine)
New York is a weekly magazine principally concerned with the life, culture, politics, and style of New York City. Founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968 as a competitor to The New Yorker, it was brasher and less polite than that magazine, and established itself as a cradle of New...
, have commended that approach, stating that it eliminates, "the sci-fi wheels and pulleys that tend to suck up so much screen time in time-travel movies." He goes on to applaud the film stating that, "this supernatural comedy isn't just Allen's best film in more than a decade; it's the only one that manages to rise above its tidy parable structure and be easy, graceful, and glancingly funny, as if buoyed by its befuddled hero's enchantment."
Joe Morgenstern of The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....
acknowledged the cast and the look of the film and, despite some familiarities with the film's conflict, praised Allen's work on the film. He wrote, "For the filmmaker who brought these intertwined universes into being, the film represents new energy in a remarkable career."
However, Peter Bradshaw
Peter Bradshaw
Peter Bradshaw is a British writer and film critic. He was educated at Cambridge University, where he was President of Footlights.Bradshaw is a film critic for The Guardian...
of The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, giving the film 3 out of 5 stars, described it as "an amiable amuse-bouche" and "sporadically entertaining, light, shallow, self-plagiarising." He goes on to add that it's "a romantic fantasy adventure to be compared with the vastly superior ideas of his comparative youth, such as the 1985 movie The Purple Rose of Cairo." More scathing is Richard Corliss
Richard Corliss
Richard Nelson Corliss is a writer for Time magazine who focuses on movies, with the occasional article on music or sports. Corliss is the former editor-in-chief of Film Comment...
of Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
, who describes the film as "pure Woody Allen. Which is not to say great or even good Woody, but a distillation of the filmmaker's passions and crotchets, and of his tendency to pass draconian judgment on characters the audience is not supposed to like... his Midnight strikes not sublime chimes but the clangor of snap judgments and frayed fantasy."
Commentary
- Johnathan Jones: "Midnight in Paris: a beginner's guide to modernism." The Guardian, October 11, 2011