Midnight in Paris

Hard to believe, but true: at the age of 75, Woody Allen presents his 42nd directorial effort, Midnight in Paris - and one of his best. Directorial effort Midnight in Paris, the most successful film of his career - and one of his best.

A vacation in Paris should be the most romantic thing a couple in love can experience together. But for Gil (Owen Wilson) and his fiancée Inez (Rachel McAdams), the math doesn't really seem to add up. While Inez only wants to hang out with her extremely shallow friends Paul (Michael Sheen), a know-it-all of the very worst kind), and his wife Carol (Nina Arianda), author Gil looks to the rich cultural history of Paris for inspiration for his work. What he wouldn't give to have witnessed the artistic scene of the twenties and to have known greats like Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, Dalí, and F. Scott Fitzgerald. As Gil wanders the streets of Paris alone one evening, the unbelievable happens: At the stroke of midnight, a limousine picks him up and transports him directly to the place/time of his dreams. Night after night, Gil now spends time with his great idols - but when he meets Picasso's muse Adriana (Marion Cotillard), the word magic takes on a whole new meaning for him.

With Midnight in Paris, Woody Allen has staged a truly magical declaration of love for Paris and for the Roaring Twenties. In wonderfully indulgent images and with dialogue that once again hits the audience's humour centre with its cleverness, Allen tells a modern fairy tale of the desire for a different life and of the fact that it is not absolutely necessary to travel to another time in order to find great happiness.

Owen Wilson proves to be an absolute stroke of luck in the role of the hapless screenwriter, which Allen would certainly have played himself a few years ago. True, his character is only nuancedly different from the type of role Wilson is locked into thanks to his involvement in comedies like The Wedding Crashers and Marley & Me. But it's these little nuances that make his character so endearing, and that make his love for Paris and its artistic history understandable to the audience.

Surrounding Wilson is a great ensemble of actors. Whether it's the delightfully smarmy Michael Sheen, a well-dressed Adrien Brody as a rhino-obsessed Dalí, a romantically dreamy Marion Cotillard or the resolute Kathy Bates, they all make Midnight in Paris acting cinema at its best. An enchanting story, beautiful images and great actors - so the new Woody Allen should actually offer the perfect cinema entertainment. However, this is only true with reservations.

Because to really enjoy the film and especially to understand the humor, some prior knowledge of literature, music and art history is necessary. If you have little or no knowledge of personalities such as F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife, Picasso, Salvador Dalí, Hemingway or Gertrude Stein, the cleverness and playfulness of the story will hardly be apparent to you. But it's by playing with the work of these artists and with the conventions of their time that much of the wit emerges that makes Midnight in Paris so amusing and worth watching.

However, even if you don't get every allusion and can't laugh at every dialogue joke, it's simply fun to immerse yourself in Allen's dream world. His second Paris film (after Everyone Says I Love You, which was set in parts in Paris) is a charming fairy tale, a playful comedy, and just a damn good movie. And that's why the conclusion is: absolutely worth seeing!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp