PJ is Still Thinking About Midnight in Paris

Midnight in Paris is still on PJ‘s mind.

How about that opening montage? Each frame captures a scene which strikes a familiar chord. Woody Allen must have told the cinematographer, Darius Khondji, to research great Parisian paintings hanging in museums, and then go photograph them live. Great job.

A word about Alice B. Toklas: she was the love of Gertrude Stein’s life. PJ did a bit of research of his own and learned that the word “toke” is most likely derived from Alice’s last name. As most of us know, the “girls” engaged in quite a bit of marijuana use.

A learned patron informed PJ that Ernest Hemingway once famously stated that Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn was the root of all American literature. Well, in the movie, it is Owen Wilson who suggests this thought to Hemingway when the latter asks him how he feels about Twain. Woody Allen would have us believe that it was the time traveler who coalesced Ernest’s high regard for Twain‘s work.

Similarly, Owen Wilson suggests to Luis Buñuel the plot for a surrealist movie that this French movie maker would one day create, a movie about dinner guests who are unable to leave the room. Ironically, Buñuel tells Wilson that he doesn’t understand why they cannot leave. He appears puzzled. Intrigued and puzzled. Apparently, though, he‘ll figure it out. PJ is embarrassed to admit he had never heard of Buñuel, but is appreciative that Woody Allen motivated him to do some additional digging on this subject.

Woody Allen, while in Paris filming the movie, was having dinner with the French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, and his wife, Carla Bruni. When she expressed an interest to be in the movie, Allen wrote her a part. She is the museum guide. And a good looking one too, the super model that she is. It seems that French officials and Woody Allen movies are always surrounded by and populated with beautiful women.

PJ is thinking that there is an entire semester’s worth of material for a college level class to be found in Midnight in Paris. Midnight in Paris 101, if you will.

And now, a box office ecxchange about the movie

The lady walks up to , plops down her five dollar bill, and says to your proprietor, “Midnight in Paris.”

To which he replies, “Oui.”

To which she responds, “No, just one.”

You had to be there.