Midnight in Paris

 My first impression of Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris is that it is, indeed, VERY beautiful. The beginning was just... captivating - the colours, the music, the whole atmosphere literally left me speechless. Breathless, even. The film has a very classic vibe to it, even though it was released in 2011. It tells the story of of Gil Pender, who is about to marry his beautiful fianceé... um, Rachel McAdams. Inez, I think her character's name is. Rachel is flawless, as usual, by the way. So, Gil is an aspiring writer, who has to settle for writing scripts for Hollywood movies, even though what he REALLY TRULY wants is to move to Paris. He loves the city (Inez, however, wants to live in Malibu. MALIBU. Honestly?!). Actor Owen Wilson is quite believable, as I actually felt Gil's love for Paris, and I completely agreed with him when he claimed to having been born in the wrong time. Inez's wealthy, somewhat snobbish parents do not like Gil one bit. I am not even sure Inez likes him that much, to be honest... So she hangs out with her friends - knowledgable, but pedantic Paul and his somewhat one-dimensional girlfriend Carol. Meanwhile, Gil takes a midnight stroll around Paris, gets drunk and ends up being whisked away to the twenties, as he always wished. There (or then?) he meets Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein and so on - people he idolizes. He takes it all in, and it is really beautiful - the atmosphere, the music, all of it is just wonderful. The time-travel can only happen at a certain spot in Paris, and always at midnight - hence the title of the film. Inez, understandably, doesn't believe Gil. The next night he meets Picasso and his beautiful lover, Adrianna (played by that girl from Jeux d'enfants) and after they walk around Paris for a bit, Adrianna and Gil fall in love. Or something. I mean, he is very confused, because he obviously loves Inez (for some reason) but he realises they have nothing in common (except they both like pita bread OMG IT'S MEANT TO BE), and Adrianna "subtle beauty" just... enchants him. And she gets him. After a little bit, though, Adrianna runs away with Hemingway (the girl is not kidding) and Gil tells Salvador Dali and his surrealist mates that he is from the future. And they are all like, "Well, why not?" and just go with it. I would love to have a surrealist friend!
 Back in his own time, Gil meets this antique dealer girl named Gabrielle and they talk about how wonderful the past is, and he finds Adrianna's diary and finds out she was in love with him and had a dream about him giving her earrings. Romantic, I know. So then he proceeds to steal his girlfriend's pearl earrings and there's a little funny scene where he tries to hide from her what's happening. It's actually really funny. However, he buys some other earrings for Adrianna and goes back to the twenties. They declare their love for each other, kiss, blah blah, and then - it's really weird - they are sent to the 1890s, which Adrianna thinks is the best time to live in Paris. She is offered a job (I think? It was really weird.) and stays in the 1890s, while Gil has a sudden realisation that the past is the past and goes back to 2010, stopping briefly in the 20s (this sounds so weird) to retrieve his novel from Stein. I'm pretty sure his novel is autobiographical, because Stein is the one who finds out Inez is having an affair with Paul. Back in his own time, Gil confronts her about it and she confesses, but she's all like "whatever, I only did him because you were taking a walk" or something of the sort. He breaks up with her, moves to Paris, meets Gabrielle the antique girl again, and they walk in the rain and fall in love (oh, yeah, he has a passion for Paris in the rain, which, I agree, is truly beautiful).
 Oh, and by the way, at some point, Inez's father hires a private investigator to follow Gil around, but he ends up in the 17th century. Somehow. Paris is weird like that, apparently.

 So, my overall impression of the film is the following: it's a nice story, the cinematography is absolutely amazing, the characters are interesting (even though they are not as fully fleshed out as I would like them to be, but they are not completely one-dimensional either), it's not some old and exhausted plot, but sometimes the whole thing doesn't really make sense. Like, how come all those super-famous people were casually hanging around in Paris? The Fitzgeralds and Hemingway are Americans. And OF COURSE Gil winds up meeting them all, duh. But, oh, I couldn't not love it, because I love Paris, I love the early 20th century and I absolutely love time travel. It is a beautiful mixture of modern and classic. And I loved Adrianna's hairstyle. So. Pretty. I wish I could casually go to the twenties :(

 And the music. The music adds up to the story so much. It's amazing. Seriously.

 I think the film is... not exactly a must-see, but a wonderful experience, to say the least. It's romantic (even though it didn't end the way I wanted it to... well, I guess this was more realistic than my idea, but why couldn't have Gil ended up with Adrianna? :( ), it's REALLY pretty, the music is beautiful, and it has some really good actors. And I guess it has a nice moral, if you're into that kind of stuff - the past is the past, and it might be amazing, but you have to learn to live in the present. And art and literature matter.

 7/10.