Midnight in Paris

A scene from “Midnight in Paris” (or afternoon in Monet’s garden in Giverny…)

The new film by Woody Allen “Midnight in Paris” will open the 2011 Cannes Film Festival in May. The romantic comedy is described by the director of the Festival as “a wonderful love letter to Paris,”  adding: “It’s a film in which Woody Allen takes a deeper look at the issues raised in his last films: our relationship with history, art, pleasure and life.”  The movie follows a family travelling to the city for business, and a freshly engaged couple that has their lives transformed.
The cast includes Owen Wilson, Marion Cotillard, Kathy Bates, Adrien Brody and for a cameo role also the Italian artist Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, France very own first lady, apparently receiving  a bit more attention than the others.

Woody Allen, Owen Wilson and Carla Bruni-Sarkozy

Woody Allen and Carla Bruni-Sarkozy

But let’s talk about Interiors, as part of the film was shot in a gorgeous Parisian apartment in a building Napoleon III style (Second Empire)  and of course with a monumental  front door and soaring ceilings.

Owen Wilson and a typical Parisian wrought iron railing.

This image of the apartment is not part of the movie, but was shot for an exhibition of contemporary pieces of furniture, as the Chesterfield sofa by Poltrona Frau  and the chair Grande Papilio by Naoto Fukasawa for B&B Italia. Exquisite original wood floor and walls and ceilings decorations. The dark grey creates a very elegant background for antiques or for contemporary pieces, the large and tall windows allow the light to play with the different shades of grey.
I can see drapes not perfectly hung and a throw on the sofa casually draped around cushions, I have no idea about this choice but perhaps the photograher wanted to create a lived-in atmosphere in such an austere apartment of the past.

On the antique card table the modern lamp Abat-Jour, designed by Ettore Sottsass  for B&B Italia. Again the cord of the lamp could have been shortened but I like it as it is, since it gives the impression that someone is living in the place, instead of a perfectly staged image for a magazine.

Black marble for the fireplace is a background for the contemporary silver candlestick by Ora-ïto for Christofle. On the right a vintage armchair covered in moiré velvet.

In this room we see a dark purple-red upholstery for the chair Moël by Inga Sempé for Ligne Roset near a vintage table surrounded by industrial look chairs. A B&W portrait is casually standing on the antique fireplace mantel, behind a teapot that looks like an Alessi one.

Until I will see the movie “Midnight in Paris” I will keep wondering about the interior decoration Woody Allen’s team has created for the story which spans a few decades of the last century.

Top image by Roger Arpajou © 2011
Interiors photography by Didier Delmas

If you receive this post by Email and wish to leave a comment please click HERE and go to the comments section.
I love to hear from you.