Midnight in Paris

Gil , a successful and affable but distracted Hollywood screenwriter, and his fiancée, Inez , are in Paris, vacationing with Inez's wealthy, conservative parents . Gil is struggling to finish his first novel, which is about a man who works in a nostalgia shop, and Inez and her parents are critical and dismissive of Gil's stated desire to give up his lucrative Hollywood career and write a novel. They do not share his romantic view of Paris, do not appreciate the arts, and do not like the French, and while Gil is considering moving to the city for inspiration, Inez is intent on living in Malibu. By chance, they are joined by Inez's friend Paul, a pseudo-intellectual who speaks with great authority but little actual substance or accuracy on the history and art of the city. Inez idolizes him, but Gil, who is an ardent admirer of the Lost Generation, finds him insufferable.Paul and his wife Carol invite Inez and Gil to go dancing. Inez accepts but Gil, sick of Paul and a little drunk, declines and chooses to walk back to their hotel through the streets of Paris, eventually becoming lost. As he stops at a set of stairs, bells chime midnight and an antique car pulls up, and the passengers—a group of champagne-drinking party-goers dressed in 1920s clothing urge Gil to join them. They go to a bar, where Gil slowly comes to realize that he has been transported to the 1920s, an era he admires and idolizes in the novel he is writing. He encounters Cole Porter , Josephine Baker , and Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald , who take him to meet Ernest Hemingway. Hemingway agrees to show Gil's novel to Gertrude Stein, and Gil goes to fetch his manuscript from his hotel. However, as soon as he leaves the bar, he finds he has returned to 2010.Over the next few days, Gil spends each night in the past, telling Inez that he is wandering the streets getting inspiration for his novel. His late-night wanderings frustrate Inez, who cannot understand his interest in Paris or his desire to write a novel, and arouse the suspicion of her father, who hires a detective to follow Gil. This proves unsuccessful, as the detective attempts to follow the car and winds up lost in Versailles during the era of Louis XIV.Gil purchases earrings for Adriana and, returning to the past, confesses his love for her. As they kiss on a deserted street, a horse and carriage appears. They are invited inside by a richly-dressed couple and are transported to the Belle Époque, an era Adriana considers Paris's Golden Age. They are taken to the famous Maxim's Paris restaurant, and meet Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec , Paul Gauguin and Edgar Degas . When Gil asks what they thought the best era was, the three determine that the greatest era was the Renaissance. The enthralled Adriana is offered a job designing ballet costumes, and proposes to Gil that they stay, but Gil realizes that despite the allure of nostalgia, it is better to accept the present for what it is. Adriana elects to stay in the past, and they sadly part ways.