Movie: Midnight in Paris

For our final instalment of the month, we decided to go with something slightly different. Continuing to stick to the theme of literature, we watched, and in Deeksha’s case, re-watched for the 3752079th time, Midnight in Paris (2011).

Amulya:  So, you recommended this movie. Why?

Deeksha:  I chose the movie because it’s such a feel-good movie and though it’s a surreal movie, it does not feel like a cooked-up story in the end and feels closer to home somehow. I watched it a bunch of times and wanted you and everyone else to watch it. It’s such a good movie and you don’t have to be interested in literature or art or even in the 1920s to understand it. There are a bunch of storylines and they all sit well together nicely. And Paris. When they open with that montage, I wanted to go to Paris the first time and every time I watch it. I felt like it was a good choice for our first movie.

Deeksha:  Okay. So, tell me now if you liked the movie.

Amulya:  I loved the movie. I think it went straight into my top five. I’m like why haven’t I watched it before?

Deeksha:  Right? As soon as you’re done watching it, you’re like this movie is so my type.

Amulya:  Exactly, I’m like this is my type. I mean, come on, Tom Hiddleston as Fitzgerald.

Deeksha:  He looks beautiful. I just want to keep watching him and he has so little screen time.  Even Dali and Belmonte.

Amulya:  Dali was so cute. The way he repeats his name. Definitely one of my favourites in the movie. Hemingway was so in character too.

Deeksha:  Hemingway — the thing that makes the character is his hair and the actor who plays it is bald and that’s a wig.

Amulya:  Wow. The casting was done so well.

Deeksha:  Everything from casting to music to cinematography is perfect. To think that way, I feel like the writer and director who is the same person — Woody Allen — is Gil. We art-loving people, when we are amongst people who don’t love it the way we do, we feel like we don’t belong there. I feel like that feeling was very well captured.

Amulya:  Yeah, it was contrasted with the characters of Gil and his fiancé.

Amulya:  Do you want to talk about your experience watching it for the first time?

Deeksha:  So, the first time I watched it, it was on my laptop for a long time and one night, after like two years, I just watched it randomly. I then sat up the entire night Googling who was who – I didn’t know who Monet or Belmonte was. I just knew Scott F. Fitzgerald and Zelda but I didn’t know their story. But later, I heard those names in literature classes and all that, so I started connecting. The next time I watched it, I was more aware and got to know there was something beyond the main storyline. Every time I watch it, I notice something new and I think that’s one good sign of a good movie.

Amulya:  Yeah. A movie has to be so layered for you to notice something you hadn’t before, every time you watch it.

Deeksha: It’s so well thought out and researched too. So, what did you feel about the first fifteen minutes of the movie?

Amulya:  First fifteen minutes, what you said about the opening montage showing Paris earlier. That was so unique. Like films usually show a glimpse of the city for the sake of the setting and move on, but this montage went on for a good one or two minutes of just Paris and nothing else.

Deeksha: It’s such a risky thing to do because people might lose interest. But the shots are so well done and you don’t lose interest even if it is for two minutes straight.

Amulya:  Yeah, such a great note to start a movie on, like it was perfect from the get-go.

Deeksha:  Yes, and the very Parisian music that accompanies it. Fits so well.

[Side Note: We’ve added the Movie’s Soundtrack playlist at the end of the post for your listening pleasure :) ]

Amulya:  Right, so it actually started like any other rom-com for me. I think that also goes for the ending. Starts and ends in their present and everything’s pretty normal. Going by the opening I felt he was just another normal, typical American dude, like nothing extraordinary about him

Deeksha:  I think I’ll have to disagree here. I felt like his character popped the most because everybody around him did not get him at all. And another thing I liked about him was his character did not change from the beginning till the end, he did not lose confidence in who he was as a person — except for the one second where he felt like maybe I should get my brain checked — but apart from that he really did not like stop believing in this fantasy of his which felt so real. So, I actually felt like he wasn’t ordinary.

Amulya:  Okay, yeah all that is true but my point was leaning more towards his looks. Like when it opens, nothing about him is out of place. Even when he spoke about his writing, I felt like he was just another Hollywood person overconfident about his writing until we actually heard an excerpt and it was actually pretty good.

Deeksha:  Yeah, I think that happens to anyone who is surrounded by people who don’t believe in him and I think that was very well shown.

Amulya:  Shall we talk about the storyline?

Deeksha:  So, the story is about this guy who is not happy in the present era and is not happy to be alive in the time he is actually in. He feels like he belongs to a different time – 1920s Paris and he likes walking around in the rain.

Amulya:  The story was well constructed with smooth transitions which all made sense. Only the ending, I felt was a little bit abrupt. I think it’s because I felt there were too many characters and not enough screen time for each. They all sort of rushed in towards the end. But I understand because it was Gil’s story mainly, and they were just side characters, and he meets his realisation and the end falls in place. I felt the ending was interesting, I actually did not expect it.

Deeksha:  I think the storyline was beautiful and I have to disagree with you when you say the side characters were not as important because I feel like they were put in there for a reason and they played their role. Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald were great as entries to the fantasy world because most of us have heard their names.

Amulya:  Yeah, opening with them was very clever.

Deeksha:  And their relationship was also shown very well. I felt like they acted really well and it showed how different their individual character is but they still get along so well. But what is sad is they didn’t work in the end in real life. Like, towards the end they didn’t meet at all and just occasionally wrote letters to each other. She was in an asylum and worked on her novel which never saw publication. 

Amulya:  Yeah, they actually had a sad ending.

Deeksha:  I also liked this scene where Gil is watching Josephine Baker is dancing and he cannot believe he is there but he’s like meh let me enjoy and then the camera pans out. You can see that he is one with them. Even when Dali and the others come in, and Gil was telling them his problem, they don’t see it as such because they were surrealists and that scene was funny as hell.

Amulya:  I laughed so much. Definitely one of the best parts.

Deeksha:  It just shows how much they believed in their thoughts and were like yeah, totally relate to you about travelling through time and going back home.

Amulya:  Hahaha. Yeah.

Deeksha:  I also like the end very much. Most of the time, we might be around people who do not think like us and we might feel odd or like we don’t belong. This whole emotion was captured well and towards the end, this girl he meets loves walking in the rain in Paris and he’s like wow I was looking for you my whole life. And it was also stopped at the right time. We don’t really want to know what happens next.

Amulya:  And the fact that he does not time travel in the end and he meets her in the end in his present.

Deeksha: Adriana loves some other era and she feels like the 1920s are the worst. Gil realises that everyone has their own golden era and there is no point in missing the present. I don’t think goes back again, I kind of think that he liked Adriana and the bond they shared but he walked out on her. I feel like he puts his relationship after himself. Even with Inez, he is like I don’t care what you think, which I think is okay. Even Adriana I think she also put herself first.

Amulya:  Yeah. I mean like when your ideas don’t align, there is no point.

Deeksha:  Exactly. I loved the fact that Gertrude Stein tells him what is happening and he figures out it is autobiographical. That was a closure he was denying himself because he has come so far. I would like to see this time travelling as a part of his own inner-self. Like going on a trip where he lives in this world he wants to and kind of figures in the dream, to not be tripping. Most of the time, you are so delusional about so many things and this is one of those things where I think he needed to be there and experience it with those people.

Amulya:  Yeah, and I think it makes sense because he knows the answers to his own problems. He just wanted someone to tell it to him.

Deeksha:  Yeah, and no one around him would.

Amulya:  I also like to think Adriana is an extension of his own mind — a contrasting version of Gil in himself. I think she shows his duality of him wanting to stay in an era that is bygone, while also enjoying the present and later realising its importance. I think Adriana depicts the part of him that loves a different era and stays back.

Deeksha:  I can kind of agree with you because there is nothing other than this to her. There is nothing else about her other than her wanting to live in a different era and she has the same problems Gil has.

Amulya:  And she helps him see the difference between going back and his present. That’s when he realises the importance of his present, though he yearns to be in the 1920s, and comes back. I think that’s his own mind showing him. And he leaves a part of him behind in the form of Adriana when he comes back.

Deeksha:  Yeah, and his dream of living in the past lives on, without affecting his present.

Deeksha: The only thing I didn’t like in the movie was him finding some diary of Adriana.

Amulya:  Same! I did not feel like that part was necessary at all. That was so out of place. Like you can’t pick up a random book and have it tell you your story.

Deeksha:  Yeah, like he does not even know how to read to French! He’s like what is this, oh it’s from Adriana. It was necessary for him to realise but the part where what she dreams is written was not required.

Amulya:  Yeah, exactly. Also, I wanted more of T.S. Eliot. Because of how obsessed we are with him in literature. I don’t think a day of classes goes by without a mention of him in some form.

Deeksha:  He is around us so much.

Amulya:  Exactly. I wanted him there to know what he thought of it all because he is someone with an opinion on everything. Also, where was James Joyce? Because I read this story that could be an incident where apparently Ernest Hemingway and his wife, who were broke at that time, were roaming the streets of Paris and found Joyce sitting in a posh café holding a literary court while these two looked hungrily in.

Deeksha:  That is so cute. I really liked Hemingway’s character in the movie. He and Scott Fitzgerald are two of my favourite characters.

Amulya:  I did not think I would like Dali so much but the way he repeated his name was just too cute.

I am also so glad I didn’t know this was by Woody Allen when I watched it. This is a whole other conversation, but I think it would’ve spoilt the experience for me.

Deeksha: I had the same thought! Whenever I watch something or read something, I do proper research into who wrote it or made it and everything. When I found out it was Woody Allen, I was like, man! I just don’t like what he puts into the world, and not just as art.

Amulya: Yeah, he is problematic and it’s hard to separate.

Okay, so what was your takeaway from the movie?

Deeksha:  The first thing I learnt was, you are not mad, you are just around the wrong people. Secondly, I realised to be in the present and make it the best you can. The third takeaway was you just have to follow what you truly believe and it will take you to someplace where you feel safe. It is very necessary to know that you have to continuously believe in yourself.

Amulya:  I think one of the major things for me was the power of the mind, here. Like you can conjure up anything and live that life in your mind.

Deeksha:  Yeah, for someone to think about it and write a story like this,

Amulya:  Yeah, writing a story about conjuring up stories is just amazing. I am always in awe of the mind’s capacity to create these fantasy worlds and have all these scenarios. I think it’s definitely one of our most amazing features as human beings.

Deeksha:  I think that’s why we start to write, to be able to build something of our own, just in our mind. If you want to get it published, that’s a different story but you don’t have to tell a single soul about it. The first time I thought of this was when I read Harry Potter, like how did this person think of all this and these many characters.

Amulya:  My god, yeah. And down to the tiniest detail.

Deeksha:  Yeah, there is no one thing that is not linked to each other. I feel this way about Mahabharatha too. You will find that each character can have their own book.

Amulya:  Yeah, amazing. Another scene that really stood out to me was when Gil is in Gertrude Stein’s living room, the first night he meets her and sees Picasso drawing Adriana and the subsequent conversation. The next day, he goes to the museum with Paul and others and sees the exact painting but Paul gives them a wrong version of history and Gil does his power move and shuts him up with the actual events. That made me think of how so much of history is lost because it is not properly recorded.

[Side Note: The painting that is shown is La Baigneuse (The Bather) by Picasso but it is in no way related to Adriana because Adriana herself is a fictional character created for the convenience of this movie]

Deeksha:  Yeah, I think that’s a brilliant point. And that is what is happening in the world when it comes to history like some ruler somewhere wanted this version to be written. This coincides with what we were discussing in class the other day when we talked about chapters on the Delhi Sultanate being removed. We should be adding more chapters, in fact. I think we are who we are because of the experiences we have lived through, and taking that away from a country is just erasing identity. It was beautifully shown because no one knows with Picasso and that painting will never tell you if it’s a boy or a girl or a potato.

Amulya:  Hahaha. Yeah, so true. I like that it is open to interpretation but has a story and history of its own. I think that duality is important for art.

Deeksha:   But while we talk about history, I think it’s important to keep in mind that a lot of perspectives make it a whole.

Amulya:  Absolutely. Also, I am someone who likes it when a place is used as a narrative device and the way Paris was used in the movie was incredible. I think that’s also one of the first things that lay the foundation for anything I read too — if the place is described properly, it’s so easy to build up from there. It goes back to the opening montage.

Deeksha:  Yeah, you just want to go to Paris when you watch it.

Amulya:  And I also think that it shows how Paris is a city where its many, many golden eras intersect and live on, and they are not necessarily far from each other.

Deeksha:  There is Shakespeare and Company in one road and Monet’s Garden in the other, even though they lived in completely different eras. You as a person choose which era you want to live in.

Amulya:  You’ve already mentioned this as one of your takeaways but yeah, the importance of our present passes us sometimes, especially when you read so much and have this whole legacy of literature from eras past, which we get to study and travel to, we somehow want to live in those times. Like, sure 1920s might be the greatest literary era ever but it’s easy to forget that we have our own era happening right now.

Deeksha:  And this could be someone else’s golden era in the future.

Amulya:  Exactly.

Deeksha:  But also, clearly not. This going to be those dark times with COVID. But who knows, this might be the time when people get to sit in their houses and write.

Amulya:  So many people actually started writing during COVID. But yeah, we forget that we might be in the making of a golden era and we won’t know its importance until we are dead and gone and someone else time travels.

Deeksha:  Yeah. I feel like we can go on and on but do you think we should wrap here so as to not repeat ourselves?

Amulya:  Right. So, to leave with a question — for you and the readers — what do you think is your golden era?

Deeksha:  Oh. I think, to be honest, the 1920s is my golden era. Adriana’s is too old for me and the present is too modern and new for me. I don’t like where it is headed. Like, I love that we are able to do this and put it up on the internet and people all over the world can read it, but I do not like where Elon Musk is going.

Amulya:  Ah. Yes.

Deeksha:  I really think that the more science and technology moves forward, art kind of becomes more technical and logical. I love digital art but I wouldn’t give it up for Van Gogh.

Amulya:  I like that we are having new technology to explore and is giving birth to more art forms and making them accessible.

Deeksha:  See me sitting here, I am not going to lie, I know what I know about Van Gogh only because of the internet but when it crosses the line and goes beyond is where I am not sure. So, I would’ve been very happy to live in the 1920s. This is probably why I love the movie so much.

Amulya:  1920s is perfect because I also think that would be my golden era and because this matches, I have a feeling we would’ve met each other back then too.

Deeksha:  Yeah, in fancy dresses, party hopping.

Before you go, enjoy some perfect Parisian music from the movie to complete the experience!

We would love to hear from you! Let us know your thoughts, interpretations and anything in between in the comments below!

ABOUT:

Deeksha Bhandarkar and I met in our MA English class. Both of us sharing Mysuru as our hometown, and Mysuru being the smallest place in the world, we grew up in the same literary backyard — attended the same story-telling sessions on Saturdays, watched the same plays, visited the same bookstores and had a bunch of mutual friends. But it was only in 2021 that our paths finally converged.

Sharing a passion for literature and a curiosity to explore more facets of it outside our postgraduate classrooms, we decided to pick a piece of literature each and swap our choices, having the other person interpret and discuss our pick, with a hope to gain new perspectives on writing we have loved individually. However, on the last weekend of every month, we discuss something a little different!

Bookmarked is an ongoing, weekly series, we hope you enjoy it! Happy reading!