Every breath Gil Pender takes oozes with romance. He is in love with everything around him. His dream city of Paris, with nearly every woman he meets, with the idea of leaving his life behind. Gil is nearly incapable of approaching his own life from a realistic standpoint and as our guide through Paris, both in his present and through Les années folles (the crazy years of Paris), we see everything from an eye of romance. Paris is pristine, the city is absolutely spotless and the vast majority of the film takes place in the historical district of Paris, with enough gorgeous scenery and architecture to fill an entire film with b-roll. Before the story even starts, we are treated to a 4 minute sightseeing introduction to the beauty of Paris, allowing us to fall in love with the city just as hard as Gil has.
Mediocrity in Love I
Gil’s eternal romance with his world appears to stem from his fraught relationship with his fiancée Inez. The pair don’t agree on much of anything, from where they should live after they wed (Inez wants a Malibu mansion while Gil wants a little attic apartment in Paris), to even the itinerary of their trip. Gil planned tons of events with some literary or historical meaning while Inez would rather go dancing with her college friends Carol and her pretentious fiance Paul. The pair struggle to compromise on anything and as a result tend to go their own ways whenever they disagree on anything.
Their most important struggle is work, Gil is a successful screenwriter who creates easy but profitable scripts, he finds no fulfillment in the job and has been attempting to write a novel. Inez would much rather he keeps writing scripts so they can afford the home she wants, but Girl wants to become a writer he can actually respect. Gil wants to walk through the Parisian rain with Inez but she doesn't want to get her hair wet. While it appears that there is no romance in this relationship, as the two barely even co-exist outside of their hotel room for the duration of the trip, Gil derives a different kind of romance from Inez. Inez is the only true obstacle Gil faces within his life, a partner who doesn’t support him through his artistic journey, she belittles his intelligence and sides with her pretentious friends over him in every discussion. For Gil, Inez is the only thing stopping him from truly going over the deep end and immersing himself in his literary art. This allows him to romanticize his own life as a “starving artist,” even though he is actually doing incredibly well. This is made even more apparent in the script.
GIL - If I had stayed here and written novels and not gotten into grinding out movie scripts.
INEZ - Right, and becoming rich and successful. Tell me the sad story.
Inez gives Gil an easy excuse (even a sob story) as to why he has not already finished his novel, he can live in his self imposed mediocrity as long as he can blame Inez for stopping him from writing rather than actually taking control of his own life.
Nostalgic Glow II
Gil searches for these self-defining romances everywhere he looks, within the city or even from the city itself. Throughout the film, Paris is color graded to appear extremely warm and lush, from our outsider perspective the city appears welcoming and friendly. This warmth appears to reflect Gil’s feelings towards the city, the color grading becomes more intense during Les années folles. The city begins to take on the color of the streetlights illuminating it and becomes nearly orange in the lights. Even the people within the 20s begin to emit an inner glow to Gil, from his idols, Hemingway and the Fitzgeralds, to his new romantic love Adriana. His love creates an almost angelic aura around all of these historical figures, allowing the audience to view them with a similar prestige as Gil does
. Gil is not merely in love with the past, but in love with anyone and anything that will grant his life a higher meaning. Though Gil is successful, with a flourishing career and an upcoming wedding, he feels no actual fulfillment in his life. From his perspective, he has not achieved anything he considers to be meaningful. His novel is his first work that he is able to take any pride in, and it draws ridicule in his time but allows him to find adoration and romance in the twenties. Every character in Gil’s novel functions as a reflection of his own life, his main character works in a nostalgia shop and loves the past, just as he does. His character’s fiancée is cheating on him with their pretentious friend, mirroring Inez and Paul’s relationship. Everyone in his modern life finds the idea of the novel to be odd and a waste of his time and as a result Gil refuses to show it to anyone. However, once Gil arrives in the past that he’s romanticized for so long, he immediately asks Hemingway if the idea of the novel seems trite, and then asks him to read it. His novel allows him further opportunities, such as meeting Gertrude Stein, and begins his budding historical romance with Adriana.
His Muse III
Adriana is perfect, the moment Gil meets her he is entranced, she represents all that Gil is not. She has had impressive historical lovers including Picasso and Modigliani, she worked under Coco Chanel pursuing her dream of fashion, and she loves his novel. Adriana is not truly Gil’s new love, she rather represents Gil’s new muse. She gives Gil a further meaning and makes him feel more secure in his writing, she inspires the romance he needs to bring his novel to a further emotional level. She is placed on the same pedestal that Gil places all of his historical obsessions, Gil cannot love Adriana more than he can admire her. She represents a new exciting lover who praises his skill, someone who breaks him from the monotony of his modern life, she is able to bring a purpose to Gil’s life. Gil must now court her to continue feeling the rush of meaning within his life. She is nothing more than a muse, an abstraction of what Gil lacks in his current life, inspiration, love, and purpose.
The City of Love IV
Each of Gil’s love interests, Inez, Adriana, and Gabrielle (A Parisian shopkeeper Gil runs into throughout the present) all function to accelerate Gil’s quest for meaning rather than act as actual romantic leads. While Gil may have loved Inez at some point, during the events of the film all of their romantic interactions are rather shallow and it becomes evident that their relationship is fraught at best. Gil and Adriana meet no more than 3-4 times during their fleeting love affair, and both seem to be more so entranced in one another than in love. Gil and Adriana both use their relationship as an escape from their current realities, both find their present dull and uninspired, and both yearn for the artistic haze of another era. Gabrielle is a more accessible iteration of Adriana, she actually exists in Gil’s present, she also loves the past, and she and Gil seem slightly fascinated with one another. If Adriana represents Paris in the 20s, Gabrielle represents Paris now. Neither are the true target of Gil’s love, Paris is, but they both represent the aspects of Paris that Gil is in love with. They both live in the arts and culture of Paris, they both yearn for the art of the past, and they both function as opposites to Inez. Gil’s eternal romanticization of the city is pushed upon these women, Gabrielle even directly contrasts Inez while she and Gil stroll through the midnight rain.
GIL - Can I walk along with you or can I buy you a coffee? Oh god, it’s starting to rain.
GABRIELLE - That’s okay. I don’t mind getting wet. Paris is the most beautiful in the rain.
GIL - Oh what a thing to say. I couldn’t agree more.
Gil’s trip to Paris is not merely a time of romantic escapes and decades old celebrity encounters but a search for fulfillment and purpose from everything around him. In Gil’s quest to escape from mediocrity, he finds his validation from others rather than himself and is never able to shake the romantic idealist in his core. As he has attempted to find meaning, he has instead found love within the ethereal warm glow of the city.
Sophie Daniel