This weekend, I went to see Woody Allen’s newest movie, Midnight in Paris. While it is not at all the usual complex plot and complex characters (not even all that funny) that I generally associate with his movies, I loved it!  It was romantic.  Not romantic if the “falling in love” sense, rather romantic in the way it captured the protagonist’s longing for and then actually experiencing the life that he dreamed of living, life in the “roaring ’20′s”.  The movie opens with glorious footage of belle Paris. As you can all probably tell by now, “j’aime cette cité”.  I was enchanted by the movie before it even began.

It is the story of a disenchanted young man who ultimately follows his dream.  Gil, Owen Wilson, is a successful screen writer who yearns to write a novel.  He is engaged to the lovely Inez, Rachel McAdams, but it is obvious that they are not well suited.  Going out to wander the Parisian streets on his own, at the stroke of midnight he is picked up in a vintage car, given champagne and magically wisked back into the vibrant night life of the 1920′s. Now here is where the movie really began to grab me!  Gil drinks with Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald.  Gertrude Stein critiques his novel.  But even more amazingly, he danced with Josephine Baker and hung out with artists Salvador Dali, Pablo Picasso and Man Ray! Can you even imagine how incredible it would have been have actually spoken to these major artists?!  Gertrude Stein speaks of buying a painting from Henri Matisse!

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