Woody Allen is a prominent director, actor and film writer. He has created many award winning films, known for their excellent story lines, interesting characters and exemption music. The movie that we are providing a comparison on is ‘Midnight in Paris’. This movie is set in Paris. The main character Gil played by Own Wilson, feels like he can’t relate to his current time period. The plot follows his holiday, with his finance Inez played by Rachael McAdams, as he travels back in time and meets his literary and art heroes. This is amazing for him, being an aspiring writer himself. The scene we will show is the first time he travels back to the 1920’s.
Woody Allen has many unique and distinct features to his movies. These include the use of people in urban society, use of heavy diction, long shots and his style of comedy. Some of the common features that we will be analysing is the form of comedy, collision of two worlds, use of sound and costuming.
Part 3 speech
Music, costuming and the collision of two worlds, causing comedy are themes explored in both ‘The purple Rose of Cairo’ and ‘Midnight in Paris’
Music is often used by directors to convey a certain mood or meaning. In movies, there are two different types of sound, Diegetic and non-diegetic. Diegetic sound is sound that can be heard by the actors in the film, whereas non-diegetic is sound that they cannot hear, for example a voice over narration, or the movies soundtrack. Woody Allen uses both of these features to his advantage. In the scene, non-diegetic sound, becomes diegetic as Gil leaves the car and arrives at the party. The change in music indicates a change of location and a change of mood.
The first words that the audience hears of the song playing at the party are ‘Lets fall in love’, which quickly establishes a romantic setting. This emphasises the themes of love and relationships that Woody Allen’s films are known for.
“The Purple Rose of Cairo” also uses sound to convey meaning. Woody Allen has specific music for Cecilia’s ‘fantasy’ of the movies. It is used to indicate a change of place and mood, as she enters her, ‘special place’.
Costuming is also a very important part of Woody Allen’s films. The outfit that a character is wearing, is used to identify them as a ‘regular’ or a ‘traveller’. A regular is