Group B 11/25

Midnight in Paris

Although I was not in class for discussion of the movie, I watched the film and want to express some of my opinions on one of the scenes.  One scene that I found particularly interesting was at the beginning of the 30 minute mark.  Gil and Inez meet Inez's parents at the store, and Inez's mom tries to convince the couple to buy an antique armchair.  The chair, which costs upwards of $20,000, is too expensive for Gil and he looks for excuses to not purchase the chair.  Inez, on the other hand, is intrigued by the piece of furniture and mimics her mother's fondness of the item.  We begin to see the relationship between Gil and Inez's parents become distasteful, as their clear discrepancy in values is evident.  Inez and her family value material goods more than Gil, which leads to a greater divide in their relationship.

This scene was an important part of the movie as it helped lay the groundwork for this theme of a diverging relationship.  It is evident by the emotions and expressions of the characters that they do not agree on some aspects of their lives.  Gil is not as interested in material goods as Inez is, which we can see comes from her parents.  That is why I believe this scene holds so much importance to the development of the story.

Comments

  1. Jordan SilversmithNovember 25, 2018 at 6:29 PM

    This scene definitely indicated the differences between Gil and Inez. Inez values material possessions much more than Gil, as indicated by this scene, as well as by her attempts to convince Gil to return to writing movie scripts. Gil is more interested in feeling fulfilled, and realizes how absurd it is to pay 20,000 dollars for a chair. These fundamental differences indicate that Gil and Inez's relationship is not moving forwards.

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  2. UnknownNovember 27, 2018 at 5:16 PM

    I agree. It seems like Inez is characterized by superficial things, while Gil wants substance. It seems like the entire trip for Gil is about finding substance to write about. Gil seems to really value meaning and living, as opposed to shopping for things that show status

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