For over a decade, Midnight in Paris has remained the gold standard of “comfort cinema.” It is a film that doesn’t just ask you to watch a story; it invites you to abandon the anxiety of the present and walk, drenched in rain, into the most romanticized era in history. But is the film merely a pretty postcard of France, or is it a profound philosophical inquiry into the human condition? Let’s walk the cobblestone streets of Montmartre and find out. The film introduces us to Gil Pender (Owen Wilson), a successful but soul-weary Hollywood screenwriter. Gil is on vacation in Paris with his fiancée, Inez (Rachel McAdams), and her wealthy, conservative parents. While Inez is obsessed with material comforts, tea dances, and the opinions of her pseudo-intellectual friend Paul (Michael Sheen), Gil is obsessed with something else entirely: The 1920s .
The Magic of a Single Hour
That is the thesis of the film. As Gil famously says: “That’s the problem with the present. People look at it with such dissatisfaction, they imagine the past was better. That’s what the present is. It’s a little unsatisfying.” Darius Khondji’s cinematography in Midnight in Paris is often described as "impressionistic." The film opens with a three-and-a-half-minute montage of Parisian life—from the rainy quays to the bustling markets to the Eiffel Tower sparkling at night. There are no people in this opening shot; it is just the city breathing. midnight in. paris