The rooftops of Paris at Midnight in Paris

There has to be a website that lays all the shots of Paris street scenes in the opening montage of Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris side by side with the famous paintings they pay homage to.

Allen and his cinematographer set up their camera at the same spots where the artists set up their easels or stood or sat with their sketchpads and filmed the scenes from the same angle at the same time of day depicted in maybe a couple of dozen paintings.

At least I think that’s what they did.

I’m not anything close to an art historian, but I’m sure I recognized a Manet or two, a bunch of Monets, the painting above by Gustave Caillebotte, possibly the one below also by Caillebotte…

and at least one…

…two…

three…

…Pissarros.

Or was that a Cortes?

I’m also pretty sure they worked similar homages into the movie and that the scene at Maxim’s includes something from Degas and of course the scene at the Moulin Rogue cribs from Lautrec. Allen is cagey enough not to show it but I suspect his Lautrec may be sketching one of the Lautrecs Allen’s scene designer used as models.

Two actual Picassos appear, along with Picasso, who looks like himself.

This portrait of Gertrude Stein, which provides a funny moment when we see Kathy Bates as Gertrude Stein sitting in a chair beneath it…

And one I haven’t been able to turn up with the Google, so maybe it isn’t a real Picasso after all, which is ok, since we learn isn’t what art historians think it is.

Anyway, back to Paris itself…

The problem with trying to identify the paintings I think I saw in the montage is that Paris itself looks like a painting…

…and it has been painted so many times by so many different artists…

…that every shot of Paris looks like it must have been a painting.

For instance, there's a shot of some rooftops with rows and rows of orange chimneys. I thought I know that one! But do I really?

Do I know that painting or did the shot look so much like a painting that my mind was convinced it "remembered" that painting?

I think I need to see the movie again.

Or go to Paris.

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Make sure to click on the pictures. They’re what they call in the video game trade Easter Eggs. Most of them will take you to more to see than just an enlarged image.

Originally posted at LanceMannion.com.

Lance Mannion on Monday, July 04, 2011 in Arts, crafts, and stagecraft, Now Playing at Cine 1001-2000 | Permalink