I am always a little ambivalent about Woody Allen's movies - some are brilliant but his existential angst is sometimes a bit too much to bear, too close to reality to be entertaining...
But I usually go back to the cinema with an open mind - this time is was truly entertaining despite the cliches... it opened with a series of classical Parisian scenes in golden-brown light and in the rain at night - accompanied by light jazz - it gave everyone time to stop thinking and remember when they were last in Paris - a great personal introduction to being part of the escapism of the movie - the American voiceover was the beginning of the nightmare - a middle class capitalistic tea party loving american family on tour - typically the boyfriend/fiance did not fit in and preferred to reminisce to Paris in the 20's - we were treated to great scenes of the archetypal bohemian city with some wonderful tongue in cheek artistic characters - Gertrude Stein's open house was beautifully reproduced (it was great having seen some of the originals in July in San Fransisco MOMA) and we met so many of the great - Picasso, Hemingway, Matisse - each one echoed with audience slapstick laughter...There was an interesting flashback to Carla Bruni acting as a tour guidein the present in the Musee Rodin that was kind of fun... And the twist in the tale all happened as Gil, the escapist writer falls in love with Picasso's muse, who prefers to live in the 1890's in the belle epoch, and she walks away - leaving him to return to the present to confront the real issues he was running away from... a nice clear circle
the romantic nostalia was entertaining and expected - the cliches were also quite positively quirky and it all felt good with no real loose ends....
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