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Saw Woody Allen's latest this past weekend. The theatre was quite full. The average age of the theatre-goers had to be about sixty. Myself and my three friends were the only people that appeared to be below fourty.
As a disclaimer to the following, I have never seen a Woody Allen movie that I didn't enjoy. Anyway...
It rocked! It was really, really good. Tight, no-nonsense filmmaking, great cinematography, a great premise, a feel-good tone, thought-provoking ideas, and overall, very inspiring!
The performances are exactly what you'd expect them to be if you've seen any other Woody Allen movie. Actor's don't usually get "big" scenes; they're just expected to turn in strong, accurate performances, and fall in and out of the movie whenever it suits the story...no "stars" here. Adrien Brody only has one scene, but it is great. Michael Sheen is brilliant, but simply disappears from the second half of the film. On the whole, the performances are zany and fun and have that perfect balance of real and movie magic. Allen has directed more actors to Oscar-nominated performances than any other director in history, and this movie makes it easy to see why. (He's also been nominated more times for Acting, Writing, and Directing -- 21 Oscar noms total -- than any other person in history. Alright, I'll stop)
The cinematography is a particular delight, glowing and vivacious and gleeful. Paris in the day is clear and real, but gorgeous; Paris at night is the ultimate fantasy. While the coverage follows more in the line of Vicky Cristina Barcelona than Allen's older work in that it's not quite as tight and sparse, it's still a very welcome improvement over the thoughtless garbage that most finished films display.
The development of character and theme is very strong in the film, and all the ideas are expressed along the way in a fast-moving, belly-laugh-filled storyline. Midnight in Paris serves to remind us how quick and to the point films should be, while leaving us wishing for more. The scenes in night-time Paris are ones which I wanted to go on forever...and this, of course, is part of the great trickery of the film.
See this film before any other film. It's so wonderful to go to the theatre and see a movie that's actually a movie, the way a movie should be.
I agree this is a somewhat return to form for Allen. I'm glad he's found his stride again. Most of his foreign funded films over the past decade haven't worked for me.
It's a pleasant film I found myself smiling through most of. I might've laughed more, but I found Owen Wilson miscast. His "schtick" has never found an audience with me. My favorite Owen Wilson film is, "The Haunting". He looses his head in that one.
It certainly evocative of Allen's earlier stuff, which enhances the nostalgia. I thought giving Zelda Fitzgerald a Valium pill was hilarious. I wish it had more of that kind of humor.
I hope his new picture shot in Rome is more comedy, less date movie. Still, "Paris" is a sumptuous production, it's good to see Woody pull off a hit.
E.D.
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