(Community Matters) Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris – to live in 1920’s Paris, among Gertrude Stein, Hemingway, F. Scott & Zelda Fitzgerald, Picasso, Matisse, Dali, Man Ray, Cole Porter and T.S. Elliot. Dining at Les Deux Magots with Ernest or with Pablo at La Rotonde – and an even earlier era evening at Maxims with Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Gauguin and Degas.
The movie isn’t set in an earlier Paris, it’s about a contemporary engaged couple (Owen Wilson & Rachel McAdams) on holidays with her parents (she and they a European stereotype of an American bore) and who happen to run into “friends” from home – even worse than bores, pretentious, pendantic pseudo intellectuals. At midnight, Owen stumbles into a not-quite unbelievable way of transporting to his idea of the golden age, 1920s Paris.
The movie opens with scenes of Paris’ familiar sites, corners and strolls, easily taking you back to your last visit. On the heels of last month’s visit and in the middle of The Paris Wife: A Novel, gotta say, not sure there’s a better movie – Loved It!
and . . . we all loved Austin’s new Violet Crown Cinema located in the AMLI midrise on 2nd Street, a block west of City Hall. Parking? It’s not an issue – free valet. Steven, Brent, Hilary and I joined Emily Keeton. Dinner & drinks in the lobby before hand (pizzas, Mediterranean dishes & cake balls); you can carry your dinner and/or drinks into the theater. Claire & Carl Stuart and Karen Bernstein, w/ a friend from Marfa, there for the movie too. I’ll go back to see it again.
Owen Wilson was surprisingly good in his role, and Kathy Bates could have been Gertrude Stein.
After the movie, drinks and treats at Congress Bar, then a stroll up Congress Ave where the Republic of Texas Biker Rally was in full swing – even a stage and bands at 6th and Congress. While not a stop at Le Dome, a walk along the Siene, nor strolling the narrow streets of Montmartre. . . still . . . uniquely Austin, and surprisingly analogous.
Community Matters 