Here's my Taki's Magazine review of Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris
Satire is a reactionary art form powered by contempt for the present. Although Woody Allen, now 75, has always espoused conventionally liberal views, he’s one of the last figures in American culture unaffected by the 1960s’ faux egalitarianism.
Having turned 21 in 1956, Woody’s enthusiasms remain those of a cultured mid-century New Yorker. In his famous speech at the end of 1979’s Manhattan on what makes life worth living, Allen references Mozart, Flaubert, Cézanne, Louis Armstrong, Groucho Marx, Marlon Brando, Frank Sinatra, Willie Mays, and Ingmar Bergman—in other words, nobody from the 1960s or 1970s. Like Ralph Lauren, Woody Allen has always been an old-fashioned snob.
In his delightful new romantic fantasy Midnight in Paris, Allen takes on a challenge similar to Evelyn Waugh in Brideshead Revisited: recreating a vanished golden age. To Woody, it’s the 1920s Paris of the Lost Generation modernists.
Read the whole thing there.
By the way, I've been reviewing Woody Allen movies for a decade so let's see if I came up with anything new to say about him this time. Here are the old reviews:
The Curse of the Jade Scorpion, 2001
Melinda and Melinda, 2004
Match Point, 2005
By the way, I've been reviewing Woody Allen movies for a decade so let's see if I came up with anything new to say about him this time. Here are the old reviews:
The Curse of the Jade Scorpion, 2001
Melinda and Melinda, 2004
Match Point, 2005
Reading through them after finishing this new one, I'd say, well, huh, maybe I didn't come up with 800 words of wholly new ideas each time. But they are at least as original as Woody's movies from the last decade!
But, don't let that dissuade you from seeing his latest, Midnight in Paris. It's a joy.
But, don't let that dissuade you from seeing his latest, Midnight in Paris. It's a joy.
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11 comments:
A favorable post-WWI exchange rate made Paris cheap for affluent Midwesterners such as Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Cole Porter. Those artists weren’t starving. The title of Hemingway’s Parisian memoir, A Moveable Feast, can be read literally: A three-course dinner with wine cost $0.20 back then.
I have seen quite a few documentaries about the 1920's Artists living in Paris and this is the first time I have ever heard this.
Funny how that reality never made it into the various PBS/NPR pieces, huh?
One interesting question -- why did you miss reviewing certain films (e.g. "Vicky Christina...")?
"Satire is a reactionary art form powered by contempt for the present."
It depends on the context. In a conservative society, satire generally liberal. Satire generally targets the powerful, and it depends on who has the power.
But I suppose one could argue that satirists generally have a skeptical, cynical, and/or dark view of human nature, and that tends toward conservatism.
But then, there are many kinds of conservatism. Evangelical conservatives seem to believe if you believe in Jesus, the Cosmos will love you and take care of you like it did Forrest Gump--incidentally one of Buchanans' favorite movies.
And if conservatives are generally more skeptical and complex, why do so many of them wax romantic about Old Disney movies when things were so much simpler?
Woody Allen's best movie:
http://www.dailymotion.com/
video/x8tkdq_woody-allen-on
-the-jack-parr-show-1_shortfilms
Yes, there's a Hemingway reference. Oh, hell, we were all better in 1964.
I saw a trailer for this (before Of Gods and Men, of all things - which you should review, by the way) that made no mention of the time-travel element. I was quite surprised to learn of it afterwards. Seems like poor marketing.
"Allen references Mozart, Flaubert, Cézanne, Louis Armstrong, Groucho Marx, Marlon Brando, Frank Sinatra, Willie Mays, and Ingmar Bergman"
But Brando's biggest role in GODFATHER in the 70s. LAST TANGO IN PARIS was also a big thing for him. Sinatra has some big hits in the 60s. And Ingmar Bergman reached his artistic zenith with PERSONA in 1966.
Is Owen Wilson the brother of Luke Wilson and are the sons of the guy who was in IN COLD BLOOD? I could check Wiki but I'm too lazy.
Allen is a brilliant comic but I totally despise him as a human beign. There's nothing worse than a dishonest person pretending to seek the truth.
"In contrast to Jonathan Demme’s 2002 dud, The Truth About Charlie, which exulted in a multiracial Paris that didn’t seem much different from Houston, Woody has no interest in the Paris of immigrant Muslim youths setting cars on fire. His Paris, like his New York, is 95 percent white, with the remainder stylish blacks."
Yup, that's Allen alright, so typically Jewish. He supports Obama and multiculturalism for white folks, but he prefers to hang around fancy areas and bang Anglo shikses. (His marriage to Soon Yi is an act to cover up his embarrassment.)
"but he prefers to hang around fancy areas and bang Anglo shikses"
If he's banging anyone at his age, he's doing quite fine. And I don't think anyone starts screwing his 'daughter' to cover something else up.
Seems to me that Allen, in addition to banging Anglo shiksas, also has a thing for Asian women. In other words, NOT Jewish women.
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