In this blog post, we explore why the film Midnight in Paris portrays midnight not merely as a moment in the night, but as a turning point where past and present converge to guide Gil’s growth, examining the meaning of time.
His Midnight Variations, ‘Midnight In Paris’
Cinderella vanished with the stroke of midnight. Yet for Gil, the protagonist of ‘Midnight In Paris’, his fantasy begins with that very chime. While most romantic comedies focus on the female protagonist’s fantasy, this film features a male lead. Yet, aside from this, it strictly adheres to the conventions of the romantic comedy genre in both form and story. In short, ‘Midnight in Paris’ is a kind of ‘variation film’ within the romantic comedy genre, swapping the roles of man and woman and dressing it in fantasy.
One example: the moment the stunning scenery of Paris unfolds early in the film, both the audience watching and the artists appearing in the film, including the protagonist ‘Gil’, become completely immersed in it. Yet, the female characters in the film are the only ones who neither know nor seem to want to know how charming Paris is. This is a detail that runs counter to how most films depict Paris as a space filled with a woman’s romantic fantasies. Thus, from beginning to end, the film tells the story of Parisian romance seen strictly through a man’s eyes.
Truthfully, ‘Midnight In Paris’ isn’t particularly special. Yet the director swapped the roles of man and woman from a typical romantic comedy and, using only the time ‘midnight’, crafted a rather splendid hybrid genre film blending fantasy and romantic comedy. This aspect was intriguing, and the film’s beautiful scenery and protagonist Gil’s fantasy about the past closely resembled my own fantasies. So why did he send him traveling specifically at ‘midnight’? I want to discuss the film, exploring the various meanings ‘midnight’ holds within it.
A Man’s Coming-of-Age Story and Midnight
The main thread and core of the romantic comedy genre is the ‘conflict’ between a man and a woman. This conflict, present in most romantic comedies, persists tenaciously throughout the film before being resolved at the end. This is the most conventional characteristic that best describes romantic comedies. The film ‘Midnight in Paris’ also follows this basic formula of the romantic comedy convention quite well. Conflict exists between the male protagonist ‘Gil’, the female protagonist ‘Inez’, and ‘Adriana’, and the film ends as this conflict is resolved. However, this film portrays the male and female protagonists and their conflict in a slightly different way compared to other romantic comedies.
The male protagonist, ‘Gil’, travels to Paris with his fiancée, ‘Inez’. But the two bicker constantly throughout the trip because they each dream of different things. ‘Gil’ dreams of life in Paris, but ‘Inez’ doesn’t understand him. At first glance, the conflict between them seems to be the common conflict between men and women seen in other films. But looking deeper, this conflict can be seen as protagonist Gil’s internal struggle between his dreams and reality. It’s a kind of coming-of-age story for Gil, standing at a crossroads: should he continue his comfortable but uninspiring current life, or pursue a new life as a writer – a path not guaranteed, but one he finds compelling?
Such coming-of-age stories are common in romantic comedies. What makes this one special, however, is that it’s the coming-of-age story of a grown adult man, not a woman. If the protagonist in this film had been ‘Inez’ instead of ‘Gil,’ it would undoubtedly have become just another run-of-the-mill romantic comedy, indistinguishable from countless others. We’ve seen countless films about women struggling and growing between work and love. But the story of an utterly ordinary man wrestling with work and love is precisely why both men and women can enjoy this film. It differs from most romantic comedies that make men sacrifice for women or portray the female lead as a disruptive force trying to claim her Gil, which often makes male audiences uncomfortable. Moreover, this portrayal of men in conventional films implies they’ve been depicted as closed-off characters whose growth is already complete. (At this point, perhaps existing romantic comedies, by featuring women as protagonists, were actually discriminating against men.) By placing a man at the center instead of a woman, this film also breaks the conventions of male characters within the romantic comedy genre.
And if the protagonist had been a woman, the specific time of midnight wouldn’t have been necessary. Like a variation, this film, by featuring a male protagonist, imbues the time of midnight with power. Romantic comedies with female protagonists must be beautiful. It goes without saying that the male counterpart must be handsome, and the woman must be undeniably lovable. Therefore, to make these male and female leads stand out, they are invariably placed in bright, vibrant, beautiful spaces. However, looking at the leads themselves, the male protagonist ‘Gil’ is a fairly successful screenwriter, yet he is far from the ideal male figure women dream of. He talks only about romantic, impractical notions like the rainy scenery of Paris, rather than worrying about practical problems like money or a house. Instead, the male ideal that ordinary women dream of is likely ‘Paul’, the fiancé of ‘Inez’s’ friend who appears here. Unlike ‘Gil’, he is intelligent and possesses both a strong sense of reality and capability. In a way, it’s only natural that ‘Inez’, who symbolizes the ordinary woman, would have an affair with him. Seeing ‘Gil’ like this, it makes more sense in the film for him to be in dark places rather than bright ones. For someone dreaming of being a writer and denying his current reality, the bright light of noon doesn’t suit him. Indeed, in the film, ‘Gil’ prefers rainy Paris over sunny Paris. When it rains, night falls within the world’s daytime. Dark clouds create midnight-like darkness even at noon, when the sun is at its zenith. And while in the world of noon he is merely an incompetent aspiring writer, in the world of midnight he is recognized as a promising writer. Therefore, in this film about the growth of an ordinary man named ‘Gil’, midnight seems to signify more than just the time of midnight. Midnight sends everyone else off to another world, helping him grow. This simultaneously suggests that midnight represents a realm within us—one we ourselves may not realize exists, yet where the potential for growth lies dormant.
Man, Woman, and Midnight
As mentioned earlier, the conflict between ‘Gil’ and his fiancée ‘Inez’ stems from her failure to understand his dream. She refuses to acknowledge his dream and desire to become a writer and settle in Paris. Meanwhile, the glamorous marriage and beautiful new home she dreams of are in America, not Paris. Of course, her attitude—not acknowledging his dream and ultimately even cheating with another man—doesn’t feel like unconditional stubbornness or forced conflict for the sake of the film’s progression. To her, on the verge of marriage, the figure of ‘Gil’, her future husband, must have felt stifling. She is thinking about the ‘future’ she will share with him. This aspect of her is entirely convincing. Rather, it is the protagonist ‘Gil’ who feels less convincing. He, too, finds her attitude stifling. These two fail to understand each other from the beginning to the end of the film. ‘Inez’ isn’t the only one with whom the protagonist ‘Gil’ fails to communicate. ‘Adriana’, whom he met in the past era he so glorified, also fails to communicate with him. He believed that ‘Adriana’, living in the romantic era he yearned for, would understand his dreams, but ultimately, she too speaks of a different kind of romance.
Of course, if one interprets the conflicts between ‘Gil’, ‘Inez’, and ‘Adriana’ – stemming from ‘Gil’s’ attitude – as solely their own private struggles, his character might seem unconvincing. However, that would be merely a feminist interpretation analyzing men through the female perspectives of ‘Inez’ and ‘Adriana’. This conflict reveals the fundamental difference between men and women. Fundamentally, men and women exist in different times and spaces. No matter how hard they try, they are inherently incapable of understanding each other’s desires; they are beings incapable of communication.
Director Woody Allen visually embodies this impossibility of communication between men and women through the spaces of Paris and America, and the times of midnight and noon, presenting it to us. Let’s focus on time here. If the man’s time is midnight, let’s substitute the woman’s time as noon, when the sun is at its zenith. Both occupy the same position on the clock: 12 o’clock. Yet despite sharing the same position, midnight and noon contain an inherent impossibility of meeting. Women typically handle everything during the day. They eat, meet friends for chatter, and go shopping. Consider the things women value: bags, clothes, jewelry—glittering objects. But these hold little meaning in the dark. Only in the light do they reveal their true form and receive recognition for their worth. But when night falls, they become indistinguishable from other cheap trinkets in the darkness. So the woman turns away, sleeping while they vanish into the shadows.
Unlike these women, for most men, daytime is dull and uninteresting. Rather, a man’s desires don’t fade at night; they awaken. Women are captivated by dazzling jewels, but men are captivated by the glittering neon signs of the night, by the light of car headlights. This same nocturnal splendor shines even brighter in this film through encounters with Parisian artists. These artists are the secret held only by ‘Gil’ and midnight, a secret known only to them. In this film, that secret symbolizes the male desire represented by the countless Parisian artists. All things feel more beautiful to us, especially to men, when they hold some hidden secret. The reason the night streets in ‘Midnight in Paris’ feel particularly beautiful is because they conceal such a secret. That is, this midnight symbolizes both the object of men’s desire and desire itself.
What struck me as truly excellent about this film is how it uses the conflict between men and women not merely as a device to fulfill cinematic conventions, but to explain the fundamental differences between them that inevitably cause friction. A typical romantic comedy might have resolved this communication gap through reconciliation between the leads, but this seasoned, wise director—who has lived long enough—chooses to acknowledge it through the failure of reconciliation instead. Moreover, the fact that this conflict can be linked to time itself reveals how much effort the director poured into this film’s screenplay.
Encountering Fantasy at Midnight
Another element impossible to overlook in the film ‘Midnight In Paris’ is its fusion with the fantasy genre. The protagonist ‘Gil’ travels back in time at midnight, spending happy moments with the artists he once dreamed of. So why did Gil travel to the past rather than the future? And why did he meet artists?
Separation from reality is one of the defining characteristics of the fantasy genre. The key word here is ‘separation’. All humans carry the fear of separation. If this separation is successfully achieved, moving forward to the next stage—the present—becomes possible. But if it fails, one remains stuck in the past. To remain is to fall behind. Yet great works of art and the artists who created them are free from the judgment of being left behind. The beautiful, even if unchanged in its place, causes the future to follow the past.
Therefore, Gil’s time travel is not merely a journey satisfying his literary fantasy. It is an encounter between the present and the past, and between the present and the future, signifying that a good past can influence even the very distant future.
Indeed, in the film, ‘Gil’ was someone unable to move forward from the present into the future. Caught in a jumble of past and present, he remained stuck in reality. His state closely resembles the image of midnight. The midnight hour when he embarks on his journey is also the point where yesterday’s past, today’s present, and tomorrow’s future converge. In other words, the time of midnight itself is the protagonist ‘Gil’. His journey into the past, meeting artists who created timeless classics still revered today, and subsequently finding his own path, signifies that progress can only be made when the past and future communicate.
This hidden message within the sweet fantasy romance film ‘Midnight in Paris’ reveals director Woody Allen’s deep contemplation of past and present, present and future—a theme he has explored throughout his long filmmaking career. Perhaps, through the character of ‘Gil’ in the film, the director himself is finding answers to his own questions about the direction he should take. Within this somewhat shabby fantasy, where one departs by carriage, lies not only the protagonist’s romance but also the answer to the path that the protagonist ‘Gil’ must take, and furthermore, the path that the aging director Woody Allen and art itself must follow.
A Fairy Tale for Men, Good for Women Too
The protagonist ‘Gil’ bears many similarities to the protagonist ‘Cinderella’ from the fairy tale. From riding in a carriage to the appearance of the midnight hour. However, there are several differences between the film and the fairy tale. While the fairy tale perceives midnight merely as the end where all fantasy concludes, this film sees midnight as both an end and a starting point.
Yet the biggest difference I wanted to highlight through ‘Midnight in Paris’ – and the film’s strength – is that it’s a fantasy fairy tale for both men and women. Women dream of becoming Cinderella when they see her, but strangely, men who read Cinderella don’t aspire to be the prince. The same holds true for conventional romantic comedy genre films. Previous films existed solely as fairy tales for women, treating men as mere incidental devices.
While this film explores male fantasy from a male perspective, it is not a film conceived solely for men. As mentioned earlier, the characters and hidden messages within the film can resonate deeply with both men and women. Underpinning this resonance is the time of ‘midnight’. Time affects not only people but also inanimate objects. Men, women, and this world all experience the same time, and simultaneously, don’t they all experience the hour of midnight too!
Ultimately, I thought, isn’t the film ‘Midnight In Paris’ a warm, delicious film that’s good for both men and women, visually beautiful throughout its runtime, and a treat for both the eyes and the soul?
