Costume Review, Remix and Rendering #9: MIDNIGHT IN PARIS (2011)
I must admit that I’m not familiar with too many films featuring Owen Wilson because he tends to star in comedies, and comedies aren’t usually my thing. And while this movie fits into the category of a romance comedy, It also checks some other boxes like period film, set in Paris and featuring the likes of Marion Cotillard and Kathy Bates, that makes it a film right up my alley.
REVIEW
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!
In the present (2010) we have screenwriter Gil Pender (Owen Wilson) and his fiancée Inez (Rachel McAdams) on vacation in Paris with her republican parents. While there, they meet up with Inez’s friend Paul (Michael Sheen) and his wife Carol. Gil is obsessed with 1920s Paris and is attempting to move from screenplays to novels.
While out on a walk one night, Gil sees a 1920’s car pull up to him. The people inside invite him to join them and he does. He ends up at a party for Jean Cocteau. In attendance are people like Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald, Earnest Hemmingway, Josephine Baker, and Juan Belmonte. Ernest encourages Gil to show his unfinished manuscript to Gertrude Stein (Kathy Bates). So he leaves to grab it. But when he returns to the café where he met Hemingway, it’s now a laundromat as Gil has returned to 2010.
The next night he tries to share the experience with Inez, but she leaves before midnight and when the car pulls up at midnight, he realizes that it is when the clock strikes 12 that he can make this journey in time. He goes with Hemingway to visit Gertrude Stein who’s at Pablo Picasso’s place critiquing his latest piece, a painting of his mistress Adriana (Marion Cotillard).
Gil is instantly drawn to her and continues to interact with her over the next several nights as he travels to the past.
Meanwhile, Inez starts an affair with her friend Paul, Inez’s dad gets a private investigator to follow Gil around on his nighttime walks, and Gil all but decides to leave his present life, so he can live out his days in 1920s Paris.
When Gil realizes that Adriana, like him, is obsessed with a time from the past, and would much rather spend her time there than in her present (the 1920’s Paris that he’s obsessed with) he decides to go back to his time.
Once there he breaks up with Inez and settles into Paris, where he plans to live out his days…but in the present this time. While walking by the Seine at midnight, he runs into Gabrielle, a vintage shop owner he met earlier in his stay in Paris. It starts to rain and Gil offers to walk her home, where they both talk about their love of Paris in the rain.
I thought this movie was cute without being cheesy. I also loved the message of finding contentment vs. giving up on your dreams. And I LOVED the costumes. Obviously, I loved the period costumes. But I thought the contemporary costumes were so on point as well. Gil’s pieces did well for either period. And Inez’s, in particular, really showed what kind of vapid American tourist she was. Somehow her insistence on wearing belted shirt dresses and heeled espadrilles to walk around Paris, just worked for her character.
REMIX
Adriana’s carefree flapper looks spoke to me the most. Word is that Sonia Grande found all of Adriana’s costumes at Paris vintage shops.
One dress, a cream and mauve, color block piece, with a dropped waist and a sailor silhouette, was my absolute fave.
I looked through my fabric and pattern stashes and came up with a Mimi G pattern and a vintage knit fabric I purchased at the FIDM Scholarship store. I’m trying to not buy any new patterns or fabric as I wait out the strikes. The only things purchased for this project were the notions and 2 yards of burgundy satin for the necktie and cuffs.
Pattern: Simplicity x Mimi G 8690 Misses Dress
Fabric: Flower Print Knit from FIDM Scholarship Store & Wine Satin from Hobby Lobby
Style: Dress
Vintage/Contemporary: Contemporary
