Weblog 317

March 11, 2012~ 1:00 am
The past week was pretty much gulag: work, sleep, more work..... and awful stuff in the news. So when Saturday rolled around, I was quite pleased to have chosen a completely escapist film. (Wayne and I had a copy of 'Cowboys and Aliens', but alas, it would not play in my DVD equipment. Every now and then I get a disc that just clicks, spins, says, 'Loading....Loading....Loading'- and doesn't. Ever. LOL!!)

LUCKILY, my choice from Netflix DID play, and we enjoyed the lovely atmosphere and the joy that watching a simply 'old-fashioned-type' film can bring. We watched



"Midnight In Paris" -which is honestly a Cinderella story if you substitute the word 'prince' with 'city'. A young writer falls in love with the City of Lights and in so doing- and especially in the beautiful scenes at the very beginning of the film -I did too. It's hard not to.



The plaza around the Louvre, the ornate lampposts, the cobblestone streets.....



with much of the filming seen through an umber filter, it captivates completely. It's lite fare: no drama awards here, but there's atmosphere aplenty. Indeed, the CITY is the star of this film with a magic Paris always manages to create within the romantic imagination. The story itself is one we've seen a thousand times before: boy meets wrong girl, boy falls in love with right girl while planning to marry the wrong one, and in this film, the 'boy' is a young Hollywood writer on a trip with his spoiled, rich fiancee and his insufferably snobbish inlaws-to-be. The main character longs to write a novel instead of script-writing for Hollywood where he's financially well-compensated, but wants nothing more than to be a serious novelist. While visiting Paris, the script-writer becomes enamored of a Parisian past where great artistic talents gathered in the earliest part of the twentieth century. Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald... Dali, Picasso, Cole Porter... on and on.

And he does meet them... when a magical rip in time ushers him back to a Paris nightlife of the 20's so that each night, exactly at midnight, a lovely yellow vintage car pulls up curbside, and inside are living icons of the past who ask him to hop in and join them for a night on the town.

The striking thing about this film is how believably similar in appearance the chosen actors are to the personages they play. I've put snapshots from the film alongside the real people, and it's remarkable. Here's Dali....



in the scene where the main character meets him for the first time. It features Dali comically raving on about rhinoceroses, and how he'd like to paint the young man as a 'rhinoceros with one tear slowly rolling down the cheek'. "I am DaLI! DaLI!" LOL!!! (The facial similarity of Dali and the actor is truly remarkable.) Then there's my FAVORITE character..... HEMINGWAY!



He's SO serious, always quoting directly from his novels about 'bravery and honor', facing death with courage-- and the majesty of war. The actor is completely charming in his stilted pomposity in the same way 'Puddy' was in Seinfeld. I LOVED him! "Who wants to FIGHT!" -he calls out in nearly every scene.

'F. Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda' were perfectly cast as the doomed partying pair....



The resemblance is uncanny when you compare these two young actors to the tragic and talented husband and wife they portray.



Other famous figures from that Parisian era also make appearances... there's Man Ray and Picasso, Getrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas... all members of a vibrant, avant-garde set who converged on the West Bank in the 1920's. It was a joy to see that rarified, creative circle and to savor the fashions and impeccable detail of the period, all of it bathed in a soft and buttery glow.

(And yes, the main character realizes his mistake in wanting to marry a vapid American rich girl.) And yes, he falls in love with a charming vamp from the past, who, ironically, is also in love with an even OLDER time in Paris- the Golden Age of the late 1800's. When they're both whisked back to the Moulin Rouge and meet up with Toulouse-Lautrec and HIS circle of artists, his time-traveling new love chooses to stay there.

Owen Wilson (never an acting heavyweight) plays the main character, but is nonetheless suited to the role chiefly by doing a Woody Allen-esque impersonation, complete with constant, out-loud ruminations and self-critique. By film's end he falls in love with a young French girl who clerks at a 'nostalgia shop', and the last scene shows them walking off together in the rain- as shown in the first picture above.

In typical Woody Allen fashion, the hero falls for a fresh-faced innocent, totally devoid of make-up or artiface of any kind. (Allen has done this in his own life by marrying his present and much, much younger Asian wife) and in his long relationship with Mia Farrow. With long hair unadorned and parted in the middle and a wide-open innocent face, they're both so similar to the girl Wilson finally chooses.

I see much of Woody Allen's own longings in this film: his love of the past, his constant return to depicting his own version of romance -and it makes me sort of sad seeing him as an old man still trying to live that dream -if only on film.

'Midnight In Paris' is an allegory- the story of how, if you look closely enough, each person is in one way or another dissatisified with his own life and with living in the present day. When we romanticize past eras as havens so much better than our own, a nostalgic longing besets many of us (I know it does me.) The truth is that all people of all times are in one way or another in love with the 'good old days', and it's a symptom of human unease. Do we ever ever truly get comfortable in our own skins while embracing our own times and lives? Many do, but many cling the notion of how great those former times were, and how happy we'd be -if only we could have been born sooner.

All in all, this was a highly enjoyable film, a visual DELIGHT certainly, and occasionally, mostly in the scenes with Hemingway ...it made me laugh.

I realize too, how often I've enjoyed films in a similar vein-- traveling back in time and finding love there. Joseph Cotton in 'Portrait Of Jenny', and Christopher Reeve's 'Somethere In Time' -( with its exquisite music)- I've always loved these films. I'm a sucker for them. Always have been.




March 14, 2012~ 5:45 pm
We've SET A DATE!!

It's OFFICIAL!



At last, the two strangest people I know (me and Wayne)....are going to tie the knot.

On a Monday morning. LOL!!!

Come 9:00a.m on May 14th at a district judge's office that Wayne was able to secure yesterday--then, with a couple of simple 'I do's', we'll hop in the car and head straight to Gettysburg for a week of honeymooning. No fuss, just us..... nothing whatsoever to make us nervous.

Yippiee!! Taking the day off on April 22nd to get the license and enjoy the rest of that Friday to ourselves. (I'm determined to keep this as simple and low-key as possible....that's KEY to my enjoying this because I HATE fuss.) Hate 'occasions' of ANY kind....they make me miserable and jittery.

We'll get Wayne moved into this old, ramshackle house bit by bit with no deadlines and no rushing about. (I'm hoping we can secure a 'liquidator company' to handle most of the years and years of 'things', and take only what we can use or that has sentimental value...the rest can be 'disappeared' in pixie dust by magical hired hands.)

What will I wear?



Miles and miles of netting. You can never have enough tulle. LOL!!!

(No, seriously, just slacks and a blouse. Maybe a new pair of jeans. No new shoes, though. I only have one pair that fits over these bunions.) Perhaps a bouquet of daisies- and a BIG, BIG GRIN!

Ah......matrimony. It must be the SCARIEST WORD IN THE WORLD.... so take the 'ENORMITY' out of it....say 'hitched'. Don't get dressed up -make sure you're sure, then simply OPEN your heart and that's all there is to it. Keeping it simple is simply lovely, and MUCH MORE FUN.





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