Midnight in Paris

Le Chef and I went to see this last night at the UGC Opéra. The movie let out at midnight. In Paris. Unfortunately we were not whisked away by Lost Generation writers with bathtub gin splashing out of martini glasses in a 1920's taxi, but it was still pretty cool.

Did anyone else who saw this think that it resembled You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger perhaps a little too closely? You've got the struggling American novelist in a major European city; his unsupportive, blonde significant other who spends too much time with her mother; the mysterious, utterly sexy darker girl. At first he's just drawn to the mystery girl, they're both already taken, but then she leaves her lover and he leaves the blonde shrew, but then it doesn't really work out between them either. Oh Woody, I'm reading all kinds of Mia/Soon Yi symbolism into this.

Instead of someone reading the future in this one, the protagonist travels back to a past full of cameos from Salvador Dalì (Adrien Brody in top form) to Djuna Barnes to Picasso. I giggled at Corey Stoll's deadpan speeches as Hemingway. The Sun Also Rises sounds slightly out of place at a flapper party. Kathy Bates' interpretation of Gertrude Stein made her seem a lot more down to earth and less self-important than she does in some of her writing (but I just think it's rude to write someone else's autobiography).

It's a fun romp with the feel-good message that every era has its value, an it sure makes the 1920's social circuit in Paris look like a heck of a lot of fun.

P.S. Le Chef and I had a lot of fun picking out some of our favorite spots during the opening shots of the city. Also, keep an eye out for Carla Bruni!