Midnight in Paris (2011) / Paper and chic.

This weekend I had a little mom-daughter date time and we went to go watch Woody Allen's film Midnight in Paris because everyone was recommending it to me. I, however, was not much of a fan of Owen Wilson. Sorry, I just never really liked him as an actor. In this movie, I also didn't like him. But, I did enjoy the plot of the film. It reminded me of T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land. Seeing as there were a lot of literary geniuses in this film, Allen probably had The Waste Land in his head while he thought of this movie. He portrayed the concept of the present to be full of pain; for Eliot, a pain brought by the war. For Gil, I'm not exactly sure where the source of his pain lies...maybe the lack of success in his career?

My mom absolutely hated this movie, saying it was pretty boring and she told me she thinks I'm a little like Gil (...I don't think that was much of a compliment). However, we both agreed on how beautiful the scenery was in the film. I have never been to Paris, or Europe in general, and this movie just makes me want to go there! Now!

Gil said, in the movie, that he didn't know what was better, Paris during the day or Paris during the night. Due to my lack of experience, I can't give my own answer to his question but, from watching this film, I think Paris during the day would be more beautiful. The restaurants, parks, museums...all have such beautiful architecture. And everything about Paris just seems to have such history. I mean, I lived in Philadelphia, which has a lot of history as well, but it can't compare with Paris.

"Nostalgia is denial -- denial of the painful present...the name for this denial is golden age thinking -- the erroneous notion that a different times period is better than the one one's living in -- it's a flaw in the romantic imagination of those people who find it difficult to cope with the present."

- Paul

The artist's job is not to succumb to despair but to find an antidote for the emptiness of existence.

- Gertrude Stein

Adriana: I can never decided whether Paris is more beautiful by day or by night.

Gil: No, you can't, you couldn't pick one. I mean I can give you a checkmate argument for each side. You know, I sometimes think, how is anyone ever gonna come up with a book, or a painting, or a symphony, or a sculpture that can compete with a great city. You can't. Because you look around and every street, every boulevard, is its own special art form and when you think that in the cold, violent, meaningless universe that Paris exists, these lights, I mean come on, there's nothing happening on Jupiter or Neptune, but from way out in space you can see these lights, the cafés, people drinking and singing. For all we know, Paris is the hottest spot in the universe.