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Oscar Vault Monday – Midnight in Paris, 2011 (dir. Woody Allen)
I’ve written a lot about Woody Allen over the last few years and I’m sure I’ll be writing about him for many more years to come. He doesn’t always hit the mark, but when he does, he hits it better than just about anyone. Case in point: 2011’s smash hit Midnight In Paris. It may well be in my top five favorite of Woody Allen’s many films. Part of this has to do with my love of Paris in twenties (and the fact that pretty much everything mentioned in the film was something I studied in college) and partly because of the experience I had when I first saw it. I had just moved back to San Francisco (like, literally THAT DAY) and I went to see it with my roommate and one of my good friends (who was visiting from Florida!) and it had been raining and the showtime we wanted to go to was sold out so we had to wait an hour in the lobby and it was the most perfect experience I could have asked for. There’s a lot of things to write about with this film, but I’ve decided just to focus on a few facets of it that I really love. The film was nominated for four Academy Awards, winning one: Best Art Direction, Best Original Screenplay (won), Best Director and Best Picture. The other films nominated for Best Picture in 2011 were: The Descendants, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, The Help, Hugo, Moneyball, The Tree of Life, War Horse and winner The Artist.
Eight Beautiful Shots From Woody Allen’s “Midnight In Paris”
The trailer for Allen’s newest film leaked earlier today and I just can’t stop watching it. Part of what I love about it is Darius Khondji’s gorgeous shots of Paris. Allen has worked with Khondji before, 2003’s Anything Else (one of the 9 Allen films I still haven’t seen!) The cinematographer has a pretty impressive resume, filled with lusciously shot films, including: Haneke’s Funny Games (2008), Wong Kar-Wai’s My Blueberry Nights (2006), Sydney Pollack’s The Interpreter (2005), Fincher’s Panic Room (2002) and Se7en (1995), Danny Boyle’s The Beach (2000), Polanski’s The Ninth Gate (1999), Alan Parker’s Evita (1996) and Marc Caro & Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Delicatessen (1991). I’ve picked some of my favorite shots from the trailer to share with you.