Returning to Midnight in Paris (2011)

I’ve been busy getting ready for a trip to Paris, and so fired up Midnight in Paris (2011) while feeling totally conflicted about supporting director Woody Allen. In fact, I almost didn’t write this review, because I feel so conflicted about him! In the film, a modern-day scriptwriter (Gil, played by Owen Wilson) is on a trip to Paris with his fiancée and ends up going back in time to the 1920s to hang out with all the key Lost Generation writers and artists, from Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald to Ernest Hemingway to Salvador Dalí. And along the way, he falls in love (with Marion Cotillard, who wouldn’t) and realizes his fiancée is terrible and his life is on the wrong track.

I feel conflicted about loving this movie, because Woody Allen as a person is a dirtbag. As a director, he’s very talented. Trystan wrote at length about this conundrum, and all I can do is point out the two very true facts.

So instead of focusing on Allen, let’s look at designer Sonia Grande’s (The Others, A Matador’s Mistress, The Liberator) costumes! In an article about a later film, she mentioned that for Midnight, “I reference Man Ray a lot” (National Post). Man Ray was a painter and photographer of the era (American born but lived/worked in France) who was part of the Surrealist and Dada movements. Here’s a couple of his iconic fashion photographs, from a nice BBC article about his work in this arena:

Many of the garments featured in the film were antiques, as Grande told the Sunday Mirror:

“Costume pieces were found through a tireless search of half the world’s antiques in Paris, London, Madrid, Buenos Aires and their sultry boutiques” (Demelza De Burca, “From Paris with Love: Demelza De Burca’s Style on Sunday.” Sunday Mirror, Oct. 9, 2011).

Overall, Grande’s focus is on character:

“When preparing for a film, you don’t choose an individual look. You think about the overall development of each of the characters, their actions and physical and emotional journeys. You don’t really think of fashion as a tool, but use it as a tool of communication.”

Let’s look first at fictional character Adriana, the love interest of the film. According to that same interview, “Adriana is romantic, idealistic, feminine and a dreamer, but also exquisite. She’s a delicate muse to artists and intellectuals in the ’20s.” When Gil first meets her, she’s in an amazing beaded ivory and silver dress:

Then she transitions to black with a headband, which I know is perfectly period but just bings my “bad Halloween costume” antenna:

And then in her final appearance, she wears a beautiful sheer white dress with red embroidery that’s stunning but just seems more daywear than evening??

Now let’s look at the other characters, primarily those from real life! Writer/painter/socialite Zelda (Alison Pill) and writer F. Scott Fitzgerald (Tom Hiddleston) are probably my favorites, because both just have ICONIC 1920s hairstyles — her in the kind of fluffy waved bob that I adore and him with perfect Marcel waves:

Compare to the real deal:

Then you’ve got Kathy Bates as a BADASS Gertrude Stein (novelist/poet/playwright/art collector). I love how she basically runs everyone:

Looking at the real deal, yes, Bates’s look ABSOLUTELY checks out:

Writer/journalist Ernest Hemingway (Corey Stoll: The Many Saints of Newark), who is hot hot hot:

And Adrien Brody as surrealist artist Salvado Dalí, and yes, he is as SMOKIN’ HOT (DAMN he’s got charisma) and funny AF as I remembered:

We get a quick glimpse of Josephine Baker (Sonia Rolland: Toussaint Louverture):

And a few other bits of interest:

What’s your thoughts on the Woody Allen conundrum, and Sonia Grande’s costumes in Midnight?

 

 

 

Find this frock flick at: