Midnight in Paris is a great film about a man named Gil (Owen Wilson) and his personal struggles with his writing and his desire to have lived in Paris in the 1920's. He is engaged to a woman named Inez (Rachel McAdams) who is very controlling of him and cares more about material things then his happiness. When the couple visit Paris, Gil's urge to live in Paris becomes greater than ever and this is only bolstered by the fact that every night at midnight he gets in a car that transports him back to Paris in the 1920's. When he gets to the 20's, he spends time with all of the authors and artists of that era and also falls in love with a girl named Adriana (Marion Cotillard).
While speaking to the authors, Gil reveals a lot about himself and where he is in his life at that moment. One of the best scenes that displays this is when Gil first meets Ernest Hemmingway (Corey Stoll). In this scene Gil admits that he is "having a hard time trusting someone to evaluate" his novel. This is at the start of the movie when Gil has just arrived in Paris and he is going through many insecurities about both his writing and his relationship. Every thing that Gil says, his fiancé Inez shoots down and her parents are very skeptical of him. This constant judgement that he receives is reflected in his insecurities about having someone else evaluate his novel.
The second scene in which Gil reveals a little more about himself through his writing is when he meets with Gertrude Stein (Kathy Bates). He has already met her a couple of times before and Gil gave her his novel to read and evaluate. When she first reads it, she says that he needs to stop being such a defeatist. When he returns the novel after making some changes, Stein exclaims that Gil had done what she had asked him to do and started writing more positively. This happens after Gil had been seeing Adriana for a while and starts falling in love with her. He had also been going back to the 20's every night and had fallen in love with that era. The positivity in his writing can be explained by the positivity that he had currently been experiencing after midnight. This screenplay shows in many ways how Gil's writing portrays how he is feeling.
Otto, Comment on Innella, Midnight in Paris
ReplyDeleteGil was always in love with the 1920s. He was incredibly nostalgic and through his nights his appreciation for this time period grew but he realized that his time was the present and it was where he belonged. The scene where Gil and Adriana go back further in time emphasizes the idea the no one thinks they are living in the Golden Age, that they would fit better in a previous time, and for each time without realizing it, they create the Golden Age for generations to come. Through this realization Gil’s writing drastically improves as he discovers that to write like his favorite writers, he doesn’t have to live in the same time as they did, but rather have the confidence that they had to show their work. he learns these things through the conversation and helpful critiques of Ernest Hemingway and Gertrude Stein. Gil comes to his writing with passion after his experience and once he realizes he needs to live in the present, he can then move forward to what makes him happy as a person, as well as a successful author.
When Gil admits that he is "having a hard time trusting someone to evaluate" his novel, this parallels his insecurities in his writing and his relationship with Inez. He gains self-confidence in both his writing and his personal life throughout the film. His nostalgia with the 1920's and his self-confidence with the person that he is becoming weigh heavily on the audience. His writing and personal life have a direct effect on each other.
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