Paris and literature taken to golden heights of intelligence and humour

Rating: 10/10 (18 June 2011)

Have you ever wanted to see Owen Wilson play a modern day Alvy Singer and then transport him into the 1920s? I'm assuming that nobody other than Woody Allen has even thought about doing that. But trust me, now you'll want to see it. "Midnight in Paris" pairs ingenious casting with Allen's usual parade of characters (a neurotic writer, a right-wing Republican ignoramus, and a pedantic know-it-all) and places them in Paris.
Woody Allen movies are typically described as a love affair with the city, but this one is just so much more. It's not just a love affair with Paris, but with the romanticism of Paris, and with the idea of the best years of the city, and a love affair that is too crazy to be real that we don't even call it cheating.
Here we get a romantic comedy, and at the beginning, one that appears that it could be a very standard romantic comedy. But we flirt with philosophical notions of loving and living in the past, and of wanting to live in a time that has past, and then we heavily flirt and engage with the golden-age of literature. That's where the intelligence, education and Allen's pure intellect come in, but he makes it hilarious, not heavy.
"Midnight in Paris" is, quite literally, one of the smartest and funniest movies I have ever seen. It's almost as smart as "Crimes and Misdemeanors" (1989) and just as funny as "Annie Hall" (1977). It will take a few more years and viewings before I can officially place it in that order of Woody Allen's best films, which for the most part is the same as the World's best films. But after the best night out at the cinema I have ever had, I have no doubt that's where "Midnight in Paris" will go.