# Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 25, 2011, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woody-allens-midnight-in-paris/583204 "2011-05-25T21:18:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2012, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woody-allens-midnight-in-paris/583204/21 "2012-02-26T19:49:46Z")
The Wilson & McAdams characters weren’t married, so there’s no “extramarital” affair there. Another loved it here, saw it twice in the theater. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2012, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woody-allens-midnight-in-paris/583204/22 "2012-02-26T20:13:52Z")
I think McAdams’s character was portrayed as evil in every characteristic except her affair with Michael Sheen. The revelation of her affair merely confirmed that (1) McAdams and Wilson didn’t really love each other and (2) McAdams has really bad taste in men. ---
**Author:** ![theR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/977dab/32.png) [@theR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/theR)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2012, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woody-allens-midnight-in-paris/583204/23 "2012-02-26T20:24:24Z")
> [@Krokodil](#): > > From **Husbands and Wives** on–you know, ever since the _incident_–a running theme in nearly every one of Woody’s movies is that infidelity is justified, not pursuing an extramarital affair is dishonest. Here he portrays Rachel McAdams’ character as evil for doing what we cheer Owen Wilson’s character on for doing, so Woody gets to have his cake and whine about it too. > > Visually stunning, though. In addition to Equipoise’s point, I don’t believe Wilson’s character ever explicitly does anything other than kiss Adriana. Certainly he may be planning on more but decides against staying with her and instead accepts the present. They aren’t doing at all the same thing, whether or not you think one was worse than the other. One seems a cheap fling while another seems to be falling in love with someone else. I don’t know about you, but I think the point is to cheer Wilson’s character for both accepting the present and breaking it off with McAdams when he realizes they don’t belong together. There seems very little judgement implied for McAdams sleeping with her friend’s husband other than confirming she wants someone quite different than Wilson. The cheating doesn’t seem at all the reason for the breakup. ---
**Author:** ![Raygun99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Raygun99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raygun99)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2012, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woody-allens-midnight-in-paris/583204/24 "2012-02-26T20:50:52Z")
Wilson’s not even really mad about the affair, you’ll notice. He just wants her to be honest about it. ---
**Author:** ![Kasper1014](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c89c15/32.png) [@Kasper1014](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kasper1014)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2012, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woody-allens-midnight-in-paris/583204/25 "2012-02-26T21:12:33Z")
I saw this movie three times. Loved it! It was fun and refreshing. One of Woody Allen’s better films. ---
**Author:** ![Cliffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/59ef9b/32.png) [@Cliffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cliffy)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2012, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woody-allens-midnight-in-paris/583204/26 "2012-02-29T03:13:29Z")
Like **Exapno** , I thought it a pleasant trifle. I’m gobsmacked that it’s gotten so much praise and attention compared to the superior You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger. But it’s certainly a less confrontational film. But mostly I’m posting to make this observation: whenever I see the title of this film in print, I can’t help but set off on the chorus of Jem & The Holograms’ Twilight in Paris. –Cliffy ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2012, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woody-allens-midnight-in-paris/583204/27 "2012-02-29T03:17:00Z")
A wondeful film. Allen’s best in years, and we like all of them, even his “bad” ones. Definitely getting the DVD. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2012, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woody-allens-midnight-in-paris/583204/28 "2012-03-01T15:54:33Z")
> [@Equipoise](#): > > The Wilson & McAdams characters weren’t married, so there’s no “extramarital” affair there. > > Another loved it here, saw it twice in the theater. So you don’t consider it cheating? It’s just an ongoing motif in his post-1991 work, even if this couple isn’t married yet. > [@Raygun99](#): > > Wilson’s not even really mad about the affair, you’ll notice. He just wants her to be honest about it. And then uses it as an excuse to break up with her, even though it’s not the real reason he wants to leave her. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2012, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woody-allens-midnight-in-paris/583204/29 "2012-03-01T16:03:23Z")
> [@Krokodil](#): > > And then uses it as an excuse to break up with her, even though it’s not the real reason he wants to leave her. It’s a logical and convenient point to bring matters to a head. It proves that the two of them aren’t compatible and don’t really love each other. But you said that Wilson and McAdams both engage in infidelity but Wilson is celebrated for it and McAdams is sneered at for it. McAdams is not sneered at for her infidelity; she’s sneered at for her personality. In fact, that revelation is presented as a kind of relief to the audience – Finally, there’s a good opportunity to end this unsuitable relationship. ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2012, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woody-allens-midnight-in-paris/583204/30 "2012-03-01T16:21:17Z")
> [@Krokodil](#): > > So you don’t consider it cheating? It’s just an ongoing motif in his post-1991 work, even if this couple isn’t married yet. It’s been a motif through his entire career, not just since 1991. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2012, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woody-allens-midnight-in-paris/583204/31 "2012-03-01T16:40:00Z")
I’m not, in general, a fan of Woody Allen movies. I don’t dislike them, but I haven’t seen very many of them. It’s a shortcoming I recognize in myself. Anyway, I only decided to see this one after it was nominated for the actor, and my wife and I both loved it. It’s very rare that we both like the same movie, so that’s quite a feat. The only other movie we both liked this year was _Moneyball_. I can’t really add to the other praises in this thread, except to say that the Hemingway portrayal was brilliant and I also thought that Sheen was quite good, despite playing a characture of a blowhard. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2012, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woody-allens-midnight-in-paris/583204/32 "2012-03-01T16:44:00Z")
And remember that even though Sheen’s character was portrayed as an egotistical blowhard, in the end _he was right_. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2012, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woody-allens-midnight-in-paris/583204/33 "2012-03-01T20:59:54Z")
We watched it about a month ago. The whole time I kept thinking “This would be a much better movie without Owen Wilson.” He’s good at certain things. Not this. Not nearly as good as _Vicky Cristina Barcelona_. Stoll was perfect as Hemingway … in some sense. Not like the real Hemingway, but as the ideal Hemingway a modern hack writer would hallucinate (?). As to Woody’s movies and his morals, nothing compares to _Manhattan_ for showing him justifying what he would later do. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2012, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woody-allens-midnight-in-paris/583204/34 "2012-03-01T22:06:35Z")
My wife and I saw it and liked it, having not seen any other Woody Allen movies since, I think it was, _Crimes and Misdemeanors_. Can’t say I absolutely loved it, but it was a nice way to pass a few hours. Hemingway was the best part of the movie! I also liked the underlying message that it’s easy to be nostalgic for some earlier time, but the here-and-now has a lot going for it, too. The comical contrast of nostalgia for the Twenties/nostalgia for the Gilded Age/nostalgia for the Renaissance was very well-handled. > [@Acsenray](#): > > And remember that even though Sheen’s character was portrayed as an egotistical blowhard, in the end _he was right_. Remind me - about what? ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2012, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woody-allens-midnight-in-paris/583204/35 "2012-03-01T22:16:16Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Remind me - about what? The major theme of the story was about the false romanticization of the past. That’s what Sheen pooh-poohed early in the movie, and what Wilson eventually accepted as the truth in the end. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2012, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woody-allens-midnight-in-paris/583204/36 "2012-03-01T22:32:57Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > Stoll was perfect as Hemingway … in some sense. Not like the real Hemingway, but as the ideal Hemingway a modern hack writer would hallucinate (?). Hack? The joke is that Hemingway’s dialog is an exact representation of the style most associated with him. I’d say it’s taken mostly from The Sun Also Rises, but you could find equivalent passages any time earlier. > [@](#): > > There was a crowd of kids watching the car, and the square was hot, and the trees were green, and the flags hung on their staffs, and it was good to get out of the sun and under the shade of the arcade that runs all the way around the square. Now imagine that in Stoll’s voice. It’s a masterpiece of parody that only the most accomplished writer could pull off. That’s probably what won him the Oscar. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2012, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woody-allens-midnight-in-paris/583204/37 "2012-03-02T00:00:30Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > And remember that even though Sheen’s character was portrayed as an egotistical blowhard, in the end _he was right_. Yes. It wasn’t until my wife and I were driving home after the movie that we realized that the most annoying character (even more than Rachel McAdam) had the most accurate insight. ---
**Author:** ![Slade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5ac83/32.png) [@Slade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slade)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2012, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woody-allens-midnight-in-paris/583204/38 "2012-03-02T00:16:25Z")
I liked it too, but has it really only just occurred to Woody Allen that every generation thinks the past was better than the present and that there was no true golden age? His stand-in character acknowledges this as “only a minor insight”, but it’s one which occurs to most people in their teens. Thoroughly enjoyable movie though, and it’s made me decide to seek out some of the recent Woody films that I’ve missed. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2012, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woody-allens-midnight-in-paris/583204/39 "2012-03-02T01:13:34Z")
> [@Slade](#): > > I liked it too, but has it really only just occurred to Woody Allen that every generation thinks the past was better than the present and that there was no true golden age? His stand-in character acknowledges this as “only a minor insight”, but it’s one which occurs to most people in their teens. Really? My experience is that the idea of a better earlier time is almost universal. It’s the people who think now is best who are in the tiny minority. ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2012, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woody-allens-midnight-in-paris/583204/40 "2012-03-02T02:21:41Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Hack? The joke is that Hemingway’s dialog is an exact representation of the style most associated with him. I’d say it’s taken mostly from The Sun Also Rises, but you could find equivalent passages any time earlier. > … > It’s a masterpiece of parody that only the most accomplished writer could pull off. That’s probably what won him the Oscar. I believe **ftg** meant was speaking of the Owen Wilson character when he said “hack” rather than Woody Allen. Wilson’s character was a hack-for-hire. He knew it himself. If he was hallucinating Hemingway, he would hallucinate Hemingway in exactly that way. Stoll should have been nominated for an Oscar. Seriously. Btw **Skammer** , no actor from Midnight In Paris was nominated for an Oscar. You must have meant Best Picture or Best Original Screenplay. **Krokodil** , of course it’s cheating. But it’s not extramarital. And anyway, there was no affair there. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woody-allens-midnight-in-paris/583204.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woody-allens-midnight-in-paris/583204.md?page=3)