Oscars 2012: "Midnight in Paris"
By CBSNews.com senior editor David Morgan
Perhaps it's because the Paris of today - from its cafes and boulevards to the monuments and bridges straddling a magnificent river - is not the preoccupation of this film's protagonist.
Instead, it is a Paris long passed.
If "Midnight in Paris" had been filmed 40 years ago, Woody Allen would easily have slipped into this role (though Allen has said he rewrote the script away from an East Coast neurotic character to one more suitable for Wilson's easy-going style).
Befuddled, Gil complies.
Here Gil meets the Fitzgeralds - F. Scott (Tom Hiddleston) and Zelda (Alison Pill). He begins to suspect something is amiss, but is too enamored with meeting his literary hero to question the impossibility. Instead, he accepts Zelda's invitation to split: "I'm bored, he's bored, we're all bored!" she says.
After humoring him for a while, Inez departs, leaving him alone . . .
"Out of the Past was the name of the store, and its products consisted of memories. What was prosaic and even vulgar for one generation had been transmuted by the mere passing of years to a status at once magical and also camp."
"I love it," says Adriana (Marion Cotillard), an artist's muse and lover of Picasso.
Filmmaker Luis Bunuel is less understanding of Gil's suggestion that he direct a tale of guests forever trapped at a dinner party. "But I don't get it. Why don't they just walk out of the room?" he asks.
But the film's greatest strength is its examination of the power and allure of nostalgia - how a vision of times past can cloud our ability to fully see and appreciate our present (and future).
One thing is proven: It is easy for people in every time to mistake the past as being better or more interesting - or, as Yogi Berra might say, "Nostalgia ain't what it used to be."
For "Midnight in Paris" Allen received Academy Award nominations for his direction and original screenplay, in addition to citations from the Directors Guild and Writers Guild.
Allen has directed nearly 50 films, including "Sleeper," "Annie Hall," "Hannah and Her Sisters," "The Purple Rose of Cairo," "Zelig," and "Crimes and Misdemeanors." In recent years he has set his films in London ("Match Point," "You Will Meet a Talk Dark Stranger"), Barcelona ("Vicky Cristina Barcelona") and, in his next film, Rome.
Stoll's other film credits include "Lucky Number Slevin," "Brief Interviews With Hideous Men," "Salt" and the upcoming "The Bourne Legacy."
McAdams' other film credits include "The Notebook," "Wedding Crashers" (in which she appeared opposite Owen Wilson), "The Time Traveler's Wife," "Sherlock Holmes" and its sequel, "State of Play," and "The Vow."
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Straight from Cannes, "Midnight in Paris" hits L.A.
Video:
Woody Allen explores fantasy world with "Midnight in Paris"
David Edelstein reviews "Midnight in Paris"
"60 Minutes" Overtime: The Woody Allen interviews
Photos:
"Midnight in Paris" at Cannes
Carla Bruni-Sarkozy's Acting Debut
Official website:
"Midnight in Paris" (Sony Pictures Classics)
By CBSNews.com senior editor David Morgan
"The Artist"
"The Descendants"
"Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close"
"The Help"
"Hugo"
"Midnight in Paris"
"Moneyball"
"The Tree of Life"
"War Horse"