McIntyre, Writing in Midnight in Paris

Woody Allen's movie Midnight in Paris is a quirky tale with a protagonist named Gil, a writer traveling Paris with his fiancee Inez and both her parents. Gil and Inez both have very different views on the world. While Gil idealizes Paris as a romantic place (he believes he was born in the wrong era and should have lived in the 1920's) and wants to experience the city naturally, Inez is very high maintenance and wants to experience societal high life. At midnight, Gil finds that a car arrives to take him back to 1920's Paris, which he spends with famous writers and artists such as Ernest Hemmingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein, T.S. Eliot, and Pablo Picasso. As Gil increasingly becomes immersed in the world of 1920's Paris, Gil begins to fall for Adriana, an adventure-seeking woman who's in a love polygon with the other artists. Though Gil is a writer, he has trouble letting other people read his stories. Over the course of the film, he reevaluates his love life and his life as a writer--both are very much linked--with the help of his time-traveling experience and the crazy characters he meets along the way.

When Gil meets Hemmingway, he expresses a desire for Hemmingway to read his book and critique it. Hemmingway explains that he'll hate the work if it's bad or if it's good, either because of the lack of quality or because he'll be jealous. He offers to have Gertrude Stein read it, and Gil, beside himself, agrees. The first scene I picked is of Gertrude Stein critiquing Gil's novel for the first time. There's a bit of humor as she calls the book a "science fiction" piece (Gil's from the future) and tells Gil that, as a writer, he must not succumb to the despair of existence but must instead find a way to escape it--he must not be such a Defeatist! Though this moment happens about two-thirds of the way through the movie, Gil's manuscript hasn't changed yet and is therefore very reminiscent of where he stands in his life for most of the beginning of the movie. He finds himself slightly unhappy with the differences between him and Inez and also feels self-conscious about his work. Gil's work defines him as a man who has succumbed to the way things are. Stein's commentary helps to influence him to not only write about what's happening to him but also to try and fix what's wrong or to try to find a way to deal with it.

I think that Gil's scene with Stein is very interesting, as they're from completely different times--and the screenplay reflects this, as both of them talk in the jargon respective to their time periods--but can still relate on a timeless issue. People over the centuries have struggled with the problem of existence and how to make their lives into something better than what they're given. Stein encourages Gil to not only recognize the problem but to fight for something he believes in.

In one of Gil's last scenes with Adriana, right before he gives her the earrings, he admits that he hasn't done anything crazy or risky in his life. He hasn't broken rules or even really tried at being a writer. He admits that he wasn't true to himself or what he wanted and that he wrote hoping to do work in Hollywood and have people define his work for him. Gil uses his knowledge from the future to show Adriana that he cares about her. Though their relationship doesn't totally work out, Gil takes a step in the right direction by going after what he wants (Adriana), learning (she doesn't necessarily want to live in the time she's in either), and modifying what he wants (to remain in his time period but to continue going after the things he wants). Gil finally admits that he wants meaningful love, even if that's hard to get, and meaningful writing, even if that means taking a pay cut. In this scene, Gil and Adriana are satisfying their interests in each other by finally getting it out into the open. Again, the difference in time period doesn't necessarily reflect difference of perception of universal life issues; Gil takes Stein's advice and goes after the things he wants, though he communicates in a much more ramble-y kind of way.