In the context of film authorship, Woody Allen is one of the few American directors who can be named a "film author" today. "Midnight Paris" is still the continuation of Woody Allen's creative context. The cameraman of this film is the Iranian photographer Derrys Conj, whose visual style continues the warm tone of "Midnight Barcelona", while still maintaining the simple performance-oriented mirroring style of Woody Allen's movies. The structure of the play is similar to that of the French film master Eric Rohmer, who uses a lot of dialogue to divert the audience's attention (it is the "Mugffin" technique from Hitchcock commonly used in Rohmer's plays). In the discussion of literature, art, love, and life, the conflict of the story is hidden, and it is clear to the end of the film. In "Midnight Paris", Jill realized that his fiancée Inez had derailed only through Hemingway's call. At this time, thinking about it carefully, it was unexpectedly but reasonable.
From the perspective of the composition of the plot block, "Far to Paris" has appeared in "Hollywood Ending" and "Everyone Says I Love You", and the latter even has the scene of walking on the streets at midnight; for the middle class in the United States Interesting criticism has appeared in "Amateur Thief" and "Midnight Barcelona"; although "crossing" has not been used before, but films such as "Alice", "New York Story", and "Exclusive News" are all There are fantasy elements. Even the editing of a set of Paris landscapes that the audience talked about at the beginning of the film was also presented in the four seasons of New York in "Everyone Says I Love You". Not to mention the vivid imitation of Woody Allen's performance style by the lead actor Owen Wilson.
Placing the film in the sequence of Woody Allen’s works, it is obvious that the story can be regarded as a gender-inverted "Midnight Barcelona", Jill can be seen as a combination of Vicki and Christana, and Inez played the role of Vicky's fiancé Doug: the boring American middle class. Jill is strongly attracted by Adriana, just as Vicki and Christana are deeply involved in emotional entanglements with Juan. At the same time, the auxiliary line of the film, such as the relationship between Fitzgerald and Gilda, is just like the relationship between Juan and Maria in "Midnight Barcelona". There are many such loop variations, and the most novel and interesting one is to travel to Paris in the 1920s, mixing with the cultural and artistic celebrities of the time, you can hear the live performance of Cole Porter (owned by Woody Allen) The film has always been jazz), you can sit in Elliott’s car, talk about literature with Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, talk about art with Picasso and Dali, and even talk with Man Ray, Buñuel and others discussed the movie—Gill suggested that he make a movie before they parted with Buñuel, and that was one of Buñuel’s masterpieces "Annihilation Angel". There are many such details in the film, and the more knowledgeable the audience, the more knowledgeable it will be. Of course, it should be noted that most of these people are "Americans in Paris", while others can speak English, and they are also familiar figures in American popular culture.
From this perspective, this is obviously Woody Allen's pilgrimage to Paris as the cultural capital of the 20th century, revisiting his "golden age". Because in Jill's view, today's era is too mediocre, and only Paris of that era is the most creative. If in "Midnight Barcelona" everything is restored to the old order after the passion, as if this order is unbreakable, then in "Midnight Paris", even Jill finally realizes that his desire to return to the golden age is only The escape from reality, and the truth of life is "a series of dissatisfaction", but he did not choose to return to the old order (marriage, the United States), but stay in Paris. This is precisely the end of "Midnight Barcelona", the reason why Vicky's helplessness and Kristana's at a loss-there, they can't see the possibility, or the so-called alternative; and here, Jill's posture It is already quite clear: recognize the real problems, and look for possible solutions from the changes. To make a little ideological interpretation, this is obviously a certain impulse to evade reality after the financial tsunami. At the same time, it is also a gesture of rejection of American-style global capitalism: realize the various problems of reality, face it calmly, and then be different. Find an alternative way out in American culture and society. Because reality is not a movie, we cannot return to the golden age.
But Woody Allen still has to face the audience in the North American market, so he can only tell a story about "Americans in Paris". That Paris is also embedded in American popular culture. It is Hemingway and Fitzgerald. The Paris of Germany is not the Paris of Dadaism and Surrealism; it is the Paris of prosperous times rather than the Paris of undercurrents between the two world wars. As a result, "Midnight Paris" is also part of a global wave of nostalgia. The interesting thing is that the French film "The Artist", which won the Cannes actor in 2011 and became the most popular Oscar in 2012, imitated the silent film technique and told a classic Hollywood star story. It seems that the French people never forget the charming classic Hollywood. Movie and movie stars. The story of "The Artist" happened during the Great Depression in the United States, which more clearly corresponds to the impact of the financial tsunami. The subtle difference between these two popular films suggests a certain current cultural reality. In "The Artist", the power of love saves a frustrated man, as if following the trend of the times, everything will be fine; in "Midnight Paris", a new life and a new era have just begun, and the future is still unknown. The characters in Woody Allen's films rarely act resolutely after repeated speeches. This is precisely a critical expression.
View more about Midnight in Paris reviews
