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Last Wednesday evening, I went to see ‘Midnight in Paris’. I like Woody Allen films, although I haven’t seen them all (only ‘Annie Hall‘, ‘Manhattan‘, ‘Small Time Crooks‘ and ‘Match Point‘), but I knew I would love this one.
It’s set in Paris, which is the most beautiful place I’ve ever been. I went to Paris in 2005 and I fell in love with the city. Woody Allen films generally make cities look amazing, so I was confident that Paris would look fabulous.
The film is about Gil Pender, a Hollywood script writer, who dreams of writing a novel and living in Paris. He is visiting the city with his fiancee and her brash American parents. A series of events leads to him getting in a car at midnight and being taken back in time to Paris in the 1920s. He meets members of the expat ‘Lost Generation’, such as Hemingway, Scott Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein, T.S. Eliot, Picasso, Dali, Bunuel and so on. He finds himself drawn to Adriana, a French couturier who is having an affair with Picasso.
In 1996-7 I did a masters in modern literature (modern meaning the first few decades of the twentieth century) during which I studied the writers mentioned above. When I was younger, I was obsessed with the 1920s and 1930s – the literature, the music and the politics – and that’s why I went on to do the masters. In fact, I considered doing a PhD on 30s writers, but I knew I would struggle to get funding, so I became a librarian instead.
I was a strange teenager, obsessed with the past. This was pre-Internet, so I used to get my books by mail order and seek out original 1930s recordings on vinyl in record shops. How much my teenage self would have loved the ease of getting books and music now through online shopping!
The main theme of ‘Midnight in Paris’ is that everyone longs for a time in the past which they believe was better, and that people who are obsessively nostalgic (the protagonist in Gil’s novel runs a nostalgia shop) are using it to avoid dealing with issues in the present. I had (and still have) a genuine passion for the 30s, but looking back it was a way to escape the difficult situation which I was living in then.
If you like Woody Allen films, I think you’ll enjoy this film. Here’s a review from The Guardian (which is much more erudite than mine!).
Image credit: Sony Pictures Classics via IMBD.
This week has been difficult. I’ve been unwell and I had a visit to the hospital (only 3 months later than my original appointment, which was cancelled and re-arranged four times). It wasn’t much fun. I hate going to hospitals anyway, but the consultant was patronising – he told me I couldn’t have experienced a particular side effect from a drug he’d prescribed as it “wasn’t in the book” – and I felt thoroughly dehumanised by the time I got home.
I settled on the sofa with a blanky and chanced upon a black and white film being shown on Channel 4, “The Ghost and Mrs Muir”. I’d never heard of it, but I do love my old films. It turned out to be absolutely charming and I’ll remember the afternoon spent watching that film for a long time.
Lucy Muir (Gene Tierney) is an independent young widow desperate to escape her controlling in-laws. She rents a cottage by the sea, despite dark warnings from the agent that it’s not ‘suitable’. The cottage turns out to be haunted by the ghost of its former owner, Captain Daniel Gregg (Rex Harrison, sporting an impressive beard and a less impressive ‘seafaring’ accent). However, Lucy refuses to be frightened by the Captain’s attempts to scare her away.
In time, their wary mutual respect develops into friendship and eventually into an impossible love. When Lucy loses her source of income, the Captain dictates his memoirs to her which are published as a novel, the proceeds of which allow her to buy the cottage. In the meantime, she is courted by smarmy children’s author, Miles Fairley (George Sanders).
The film is enhanced by a haunting score and beautiful shots of the coast. In particular, the sea is used to mark the passage of time – Lucy’s daughter Anna has her name carved into a breakwater, which gradually decays as time passes. “The Ghost and Mrs Muir” explores the nature of love and friendship, independence and loneliness. Clearly I’m very fond of stories of impossible love, as my favourite film ever is “Brief Encounter”.
I was delighted to see George Sanders (above) in this film, as I have an affection for him. He’s in two other films I like, Rebecca and (as the voice of Shere Khan the Tiger) The Jungle Book. I have diverse tastes, as you can see! If you haven’t come across George Sanders, he had a voice like honey and was invariably cast as an urbane cad. He committed suicide in 1972 and his suicide note is very ‘George Sanders’: “Dear World, I am leaving because I am bored. I feel I have lived long enough. I am leaving you with your worries in this sweet cesspool. Good luck.”.
If you’re looking for a film to occupy an rainy afternoon, which can be accompanied by tea and knitting, I recommend “The Ghost and Mrs Muir” highly.
