It's not that the previous literature and film and television works didn't have such a form of time travel, it's just that, like now, all the people watch time travel dramas, and some people expect themselves to travel through time and space and play a role in ancient history, thus forming a certain social trend. The phenomenon is probably the first time. No, even big directors like Woody Allen played time travel in the new drama "Midnight in Paris". At midnight, as long as the hero Gail gets on the time car, he can return to Paris in the early 20th century, and then he can see Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Stein, T·S· Eliot , Picasso and other celebrities when they were young, you can still drink and chat with them, and dance with the master's mistress in the sound of music, how exciting it is, looking at Paris in the 1920s and 1930s. For Gale in the Golden Age, it felt like a dream he didn't want to wake up from.
Woody Allen must have seen Hemingway's "The Flowing Feast," a fragment of "Midnight in Paris" dating back to the early 2000s that visualizes some of the book's details. In the book, Hemingway described Paris as a flowing feast, saying that if you were lucky enough to be in Paris when you were young, she would be with you wherever you were in your life, meaning the city of Paris. The spirit will flow in your blood for life. Different from Hemingway's other works, "The Feast of the Flow" is looking back at his youth after thirty years. At that time, Hemingway and his first wife lived in Paris, the art capital, surrounded by people with Young talents with artistic aspirations and wild and uninhibited, dancing in the salon, talking about art, eating cold meals in the morning, and Lantern Festival every night, even if they are shy, they are full of youthful joy and creative passion.
"Midnight in Paris" is actually based on Woody Allen's own feelings. It's just that he can no longer pretend to be tender, so he finds an actor to play himself, just like the role played by Woody Allen in other movies. The male protagonist is also rambling, with thoughts that others do not understand in his mind, and his hands and feet are not agile enough. In his father-in-law's words, his brain is lacking. Probably, only such a person can get lost in Paris at midnight and stumble into the mirage of history.
There is a particularly interesting detail in the movie. Gail said that he wanted to surprise his fiancée, and the woman shouted, "God, don't you surprise me, I can't stand surprises, I don't want surprises." Surprise is like a fright, making the beautiful fiancee Hua Rong pale. Gale's so-called surprise is taking his fiancée to the corner with him, waiting for the time train to take them back to the golden age he admires. As a result, the sleepy fiancée was really impatient and went home alone, and Gale who stayed behind was once again brought to the golden age he was looking forward to.
In making this film, Woody Allen is not only showing the charming scenery of Paris, as well as the humanities of Paris. In the film, he also wants to explore what the golden age is. For modern people, the golden age of Paris at the beginning of the twentieth century was the golden age of Paris, while for those of the early twentieth century, the nineteenth century was the golden age, and going back further, the Renaissance was the golden age. Hasn't the times been evolving and developing all the time, but from the perspective of civilization, human beings seem to be degenerating and declining from generation to generation. Take China's situation as an example, some people will think that after the May 4th New Culture Movement, China's emancipation of mind, the war of writing, and the contention of hundreds of flowers are the golden age; and many scholars who have experienced the Southwest Associated University will also deeply feel that they live and study in Kunming. The eight years of the past were extremely happy, and for those who had received the ideological trend of the 1980s, they would regard that decade as a golden age.
In Greek mythology, God created four generations of people, namely the golden age, the silver age, the bronze age, and the black iron age. From being happy and comfortable, to the pure indulgence of the mind in the Silver Age, to the brutality and violence of the Bronze Age, and then to the Black Iron Age of the dark night, human beings have completely fallen and have escaped into the Great Dark Age. Perhaps, this is a metaphor for the changing times of our time?
For people who love different cultures, the golden age may be different in everyone's mind. If you ask which era you want to travel to, some people will choose Qin and Han, who are both vertical and horizontal. , There are still people who are willing to walk into the prosperous Tang Dynasty, where the Northern Song Dynasty in the 11th century was rich and simple, and there were romantic poets like Su Shi. This is also a dynasty that many people want to see, such as me. As for the Ming Dynasty, there were numerous party clubs, and they were prone to killing people, so it would be better not to go. The reason why the film and television dramas were so popular during the Kang and Gan period was probably because its year was not far or near, and there was a group of elder brothers competing for the throne as a historical background, which made it easier to create conflicts and generate stories. But from a practical point of view, it is definitely not an ideal time to travel. In the world of the Manchus, the Han people are aliens after all, and at that time, the freedom of speech was very low in Daxing’s writing prison.
Judging from the changes in marriage customs, men today probably want to go back to the feudal era, when three wives and four concubines were fashionable, and the shackles of morality were removed. . But it's a good thing to do. If you travel to that time, you don't dress up as a son and a young master, and you end up as a servant and tenant. Maybe you can't even marry a daughter-in-law. If you transform into the eunuch father-in-law in the palace, then you can be a servant without worrying about being a woman. Calculated with probability, the hit rate of the latter types can be higher than the former two. It seems that crossing this kind of thing also depends on luck.
Many times, people's imagination and admiration for the past era are actually an escape from dissatisfaction with reality. I once asked some people who experienced the Cultural Revolution, they still yearned for that era, and the reason was absurd that social order was good at that time, people were simple, and everyone was poor anyway, so there was no psychological gap. If you really want to put them back in that era, it is estimated that they will be back in a hurry after staying for a while. If they are not well clothed, they will not have enough food, and only fools will think that it is the golden age.
Whether it is Qin, Han, Wei and Jin, or Tang, Song, Ming and Qing Dynasties, or the Renaissance, or the May Fourth Movement, these are all big times. Traveling through the past can only be a beautiful fantasy. A more practical approach is that we can be like Hemingway. , recalling his own life, passing through the smoke and dust of the years, and looking at his golden age in the distance. Like that old-fashioned question, how old are you willing to go back? Those who are willing to go back must be beautiful. At the age when they are willing to go back, they may have met someone they love, or they may have made great achievements, or their life is extraordinarily comfortable. Those are the most unforgettable years in my life. It is like a fire that illuminates the way of life, giving people hope and courage to live.
Then, the meaning of life is probably to create a golden age and give this life a glory worth looking back on. When you are old, you hope to be able to return there and stay there, because there is such a place of return, this life is worth it . And this is much easier than traveling to a certain era or a certain palace, at least it is possible, at least, you are free.
View more about Midnight in Paris reviews
