Midnight in Paris

Woody Allen is a genious. Decades of original talent take shape -before the skepticals- by over 80 awards received along his career. 

His scripts are known for taking comedy to its most intelectual side, often recurring to characters  struggling with existencial dilemma, sometimes  because they just can't help it.

Midnight in Paris is a film to enojy not only to Allen followers, but to bohemian and Paris lovers. Those who remember the 1920s as one of the most prolific artistic life in the city. 

From the last decade is because of this movie and Match Point that Woody Allen will be remembered. 

Owen Wilson, in the best character he has ever play reminds me -positively- of Woody Allen style in Annie Hall. Surprisedly, Rachel McAdams' role fits like a glove   (I start thinking her best roles are those of rich-spoiled-girl, just remember The Notebook).

Plot takes place in the City of Light, who also leads the story, where Wilson's, a screenwriter about to become a novel writer, questions the posibility of moving to the French capital once he gets married with McAdams. He wants to live as those artists from the past who give Paris her reputation.

From there we find multiple memorable characters such as conceived Paul

(Martin Sheen in a great performance) and a continuos march of stars playing intelectuales sush as Ernest Hemingway, Luis Buñuel,   Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stain and Salvador Dalí, among others. These two, well played by oustanding Kathy Bates and Adrien Brody.

Brody simply steals every scene he appears in and transmit the genius from which Dali is known for. He deserves an Oscar as Best Supporting Actor for this brief but valuable performance.

The end is not as important as the journey, where beautiful Marion Cottilard will atracct men from Picasso to Matisse (no matter if the second comes first in time),  it will be a little detour before so delicious adventure on parisian streets and Van Gogh's starry nights.

Inspired by the time Paris was the center of art, and by the legacy left by French impressionism, Midnight in Paris is an authentic surreal course in the most visited city of the world. Only Paris is magic after midnight.

Spanish version here

Adaptation

In this times, when Hollywood movies seem to be adapted from a tv show, a book, a magazine, a graphic novel or… another movie; I wonder how these people behind camera, who adapt ideas and turn them into a film work.

Let's start saying adaptation is not easy. And adapting comics has been hard work to scriptwriters, whom commonly, are verbally attacked by fans complains, alleging that screen versions are distant from what they expected.  Novels taken to cinema are not different from those. From that point, both authors and screenwriters explain that their art forms are different. And neither a book or a comic are the same than a movie. And there some reason there. The tree representations aren't the same. And the bring to the audience distinct elements, translated in different intensities for those who receive them.

A narrative book may be the art form that encourages the reader's imagination the most, according to his or her mental universe. It permits to create worlds between the writer's skill and the reader's capacity of appreciation.

On the other hand, comic is a visual abstraction; somehow the middle point between a painting or photograph and kinetic. It shows fixed images but simulating movement. They generally found the most success when they bring striking colors and depth. It's not a coincidence many of our favorite superheroes wear primary colors: Red, yellow or blue.

Finally, films do not need to abstract moments, on the contrary, it must show and intensify them when required. Here the use of color and lighting becomes complex. Depth has another context and takes allow a variety of choices and perspectives that neither literature or comic books offer. In contrast, it has the disadvantages of timing, because it has an average time period of two hours to develop a story that a spectator must understand in. An adaptation that maybe someone read in weeks or, talking about comics, years.

Not an easy job…

… But also, not impossible. There are several successful stories about adaptation. First comes to mind is 300. Based on Battle of Thermopylae, Frank Miller wrote an outstanding graphic novel enhancing the historical facts that happened there, and show them with impressive aesthetics. Then, director Zack Snyder took to cinema with huge success.

Another movie, related to this matter in a different way, is Adaptation, a 2002 movie written by Charlie Kaufman; who narrates the intricate job of a scriptwriter taking a bestseller to the big screen.  Starring Nicolas Cage, Meryl Streep  and Chris Cooper.

Then, there is the accomplishment of Chris Nolan, who brought Batman to the next level and recently, Matthew Vaughn with the prequel X-Men: First Class, a movie that I will write about next time.

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So, now tell me: What adaptation from book, comic or graphic novel that has been taken to the movies it's your favorite? Someone say The Godfather?

*Spanish Version: This post was translated from my blog Séptimo Sentido: Del libro al cómic, del cómic al cine