French Import
Woody's Paris Flick Premieres in New York
After opening the Cannes Film Festival, Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris had a comparatively low-key premiere last night at the Tribeca Grand: two-tone brown carpet, a mere handful of photographers. "It's funny to see Woody in a sweater and chinos instead of a tuxedo," Rachel McAdams noted on her way in.
Not that the turnout was small-time. Valentino, Lou Reed, and Sofia Coppola were among the guests who came by for a sneak peek at Allen's latest, a love letter to Paris that stars Owen Wilson as a dissatisfied writer visiting the City of Light with his fiancée (McAdams). On his late-night walks, Wilson's character is magically transported to the Paris of the twenties, where he clinks glasses with the likes of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and Salvador Dalí.
"I was not interested for a second in making a naturalistic and gritty film about Paris," Allen said at the screening, which was sponsored by Thierry Mugler. "I wanted to show the way I see Paris." One of the film's running themes is that the city is as beautiful in the rain as it is in the sun, and Allen's vision, hardly a surprise, includes no shortage of French beauties—including Marion Cotillard, Léa Seydoux, and Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, whose appearance in the film the director brokered over breakfast with the Sarkozys. "I told her I could get her in and out in two days, and she thought that it would be fun for her and that one day she could show her grandchildren that she was in a movie," Allen explained.
In her small role as a tour guide, France's First Lady gave fellow cast member Michael Sheen a Parisian tale of his own to share with his little ones. "We were in Rodin's sculpture garden—The Thinker there in front of me, and Carla Bruni there," Sheen recalled. "Not many tourists get that."
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