Midnight in Paris - Review

A writer's wet dream come true, in Midnight in Paris, Gil (Owen Wilson), a screenwriter and hopeful novelist is holidaying in Paris with his fiancé and her family. When, on a stroll around the midnight streets of the city, he is invited into a car full of people and taken to a party, he quickly realises he has travelled back in time to his image of the 'Golden Age', 1920s Paris. Partying with Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, meeting Ernest Hemingway, Luis Buñuel, Salvador Dali and Man Ray in a bar and having Gertrude Stein critique his writing whilst arguing with Pablo Picasso, Gil is having the time of his life, which continues when he meets, and is attracted to, Adriana, a French girl living in the 20s. When the confusion of living in two moments in time becomes too much and they start interfering with each other, Gil is forced to choose between the time of his life or his real life.

The originality and playfulness of the script is one of the main factors which makes this film as enjoyable as it is. I'm sure Woody Allen had the most fun of his career re-writing historical figures to be just like any other characters in his film, and the relationships between the fictional characters, that is, those made completely from Allen's imagination, and the characters based on important artists and author's, is humbling, showing a humanisation of these names that are drilled into all of us during our time at school. Our knowledge of the figures presented prior to the film is a pulling factor in regards to us wanting to know more about them as minor characters on Gil's journey, and the addition of them to the plot allows Allen to make a point regarding our illusions of these figures as perfect examples of artists and novelists, our idealised visions of their lives are smashed instantly with suicide attempts and affairs, history is well and truly being rewritten.

The Fitzgeralds.

The film opens with a series of shots of Paris, and it seems that throughout the film there is always a constant infatuation with the beauty of the city. Be it the architecture and the cafes, or the creatively minded type of people which Paris attracts, the film never tires of the location, presenting itself, as well as Gil, as a love-stricken tourist. The cinematography is beautiful also, the lavish parties are presented as whimsical and dream-like, making the viewers second-guess the validity of the things we are seeing, therefore by default we appreciate Gil's lack of understanding of his new environment. 

Rachel McAdams plays Inez, Gil's fiancé who is very in touch with reality, her performance is not entirely breathtaking but believable, and the lack of any real interest in her character brings the audience to feel sympathetic towards Gil, a creatively minded person who's not taken seriously by the people closest to him. The most memorable performances are those of the actors playing historical figures. Tom Hiddleston plays a kind F. Scott Fitzgerald, Corey Stoll a witty and drunk Ernest Hemingway and Adrien Brody the eccentric Salvador Dali.

The film breaks down the modern person's created image of past eras and bluntly discourages ideological thinking, emphasising that history continually repeats itself, people, in years to come, will look at our generation as the perfect one to live in, however what Allen states with this film is that each era faces the same problems, we are all human and will always have our flaws, cheating on partners, alcoholism and suicide are eternal traits of our characters. The film is a really interesting watch, exploring both the troubles of creating art in the modern world and also that of the world in which a lot of our inspiration comes from, it is humbling to think about the wider themes the film presents, set in a romantic comedy following a troubled couple holiday in Paris.

The Darjeeling Limited Review

Wes Anderson is one of the most exciting auteurs of our generation. It seems that each of his films have a certain life given to them that some directors will try their whole life to achieve, The Darjeeling Limited is an example of a film effortlessly thriving with just that excitement and life. 
This 2007 feature tells of three brothers (played by: Adrien Brody, Jason Schwartzman & Owen Wilson) who are travelling around India in order to regain the bond that they lost the previous year when their father died. After numerous failed spiritual trips and a disruption to their travel plans, the three men find themselves in rural India, and after a fatal accident involving a small child, regrow their bond in places they never thought they would.

The cinematography in this film is stunning, with Robert Yeoman, a long time collaborator with Anderson, responsible. The creative placement of the camera in some shots makes a change from the thousands upon thousands of soulless manufactured films that are released each year and neglect the creative possibilities of the art form. Films directed by Wes Anderson are instantly recognisable as being created by someone who is in love with cinema, Anderson has found actors and crew that get his style of production, and it works for him, allowing him to try interesting camera techniques and the likes with a crew of people who have faith in him. The cinematography is complemented by the breathtaking landscape of both urban and rural India. The shots of the built up areas of India show us bustling towns filled with market stalls and eccentric characters, with quick and snappy camera work, while the exceptional natural beauty of rural India is shown through slow motion editing and less dramatic pans and tilts.

The casting of this film was also a positive, with the three lead actors brilliantly conveying emotions of pent-up frustration through as much as a glance. Owen Wilson's performance sticks out as prime of the three, however whether this is due to his character seemingly being more developed in the writing process than the others or whether his acting abilities add the development to the character, I don't know, but he gave a brilliant performance as the surrogate parent to his brothers and the hilariously deluded figure of reason. The lack of a shining star performance by Brody and Schwartzman coincides with their character's emotional troubles back home, their slightly reserved personalities in comparison to their brother's adds almost a divide to the group, creating tension at even the slightest disagreement on the train, all of this is intentional and brilliant.

The film combines really dark themes such as death and grief with some of the most laugh out loud comedy. With many quotable moments, the film perfectly balances having a substantially moving plot with breaks for laughs and cries, which I feel a lot of films struggle to do, with a lot of recent films focusing too much on the ability to make the audience laugh than to engage with them through narrative. I think it may even be my favourite thing about Wes Anderson, his ability to perfectly balance his films, the moments with music are just enough for the audience to listen to the lyrics and take a message from it, the moments of slow motion are just enough for viewers to admire the framing, the actions of the characters of even just the technical ability of the modern camera.

Wes Anderson's films have just enough of everything you could want, and The Darjeeling Limited is a perfect example in support of this statement.