Midnight in Paris. A beautiful movie by Woody Allen. And it truly is beautiful. I fell in love with it. The direction, the cinematography, the characters and ahh the music. But most of all I loved the concept. A man who believes that the golden age is long gone, the 1920s in Paris to be precise. Something is lacking for him in the time of the present.
A writer by profession he’s lost in the 1920s. Because that is when true talent around the world came together to celebrate life and each other in Paris. Transported at the stroke of midnight, back into the world of Paris in the 20s, he rubs shoulders and ideas with the likes of Ernest Hemmingway, Scott Fitzgerald, Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, surrealists, realists, artists and aficionados.. A time, that most would kill to relive. And in turn he falls in love with a woman, who symbolised whatever he loved about Paris in the 20s.
Its not a love story though. Its a story of self discovery and self preservation. Preservation of your mind and soul. What does he discover in the end? That we as humans always believe the past is beautiful and perfect. It strikes the chords of truth. Those in the 20s took the time of belle epoque to be the golden age, who in turn believed the renaissance stood as the time of free imagination. And who knows what the renaissance artists believed..
We are stuck reminscing about a time long gone, constantly wondering why we never make the most of the present. That being, because we can never truly stop comparing. The world gone by, has gone. The present beckons, “Come, I could be intriguing, I could bring a smile to your face, I could free the leash of an unimaginative soul..”
But why do we ignore? Because we already know the magnificence of the past and ignore that, which could be of the present. We say we think about the future, but only what society has laid out for us. What of the path that we intend to build? What of the path that our imagination could build? We need to unshackle ourselves from the past, keeping them as fond thoughts, and take care of this moment.
Our glory days are yet to come, but only if we make ourselves think so.
Thoughts unexplored 