The most ornate bridge in the city becomes a cathedral of silence. The golden cherubs and nymphs glow against the black water of the Seine. As the hour strikes, the Eiffel Tower sparkles for five minutes. For those five minutes, you are the protagonist in your own romantic tragedy.
That is the thesis of the film. As Gil famously says: “That’s the problem with the present. People look at it with such dissatisfaction, they imagine the past was better. That’s what the present is. It’s a little unsatisfying.” midnight in. paris
The film’s climax brings us to a poignant realization. Gil falls in love with Adriana, a woman from the 1920s who herself longs for the Belle Époque of the 1890s. We learn that nostalgia is a "cyclical trap." Every generation looks back at the one before it with rose-tinted glasses, ignoring the fact that life, in any era, is inherently a bit "unsatisfying." The most ornate bridge in the city becomes