Even for people who have never been to Paris, the name of the city is more than a metaphor for magic—it’s almost a synonym. Certainly there’s no better place on earth that Woody Allen could have chosen for his new romantic comedy than Paris.

It is a city with a unique mythology and heritage, celebrated for the extraordinary beauty of its streets, boulevards and gardens, as well as the splendor found inside so many of the greatest museums in the world. The resonance of its history, from major political and cultural events to the aura of its legendary restaurants and cafés, is felt everywhere.

The past endures and shines brightly in Paris, which makes it well suited for a story of a man reinvigorating his feelings and finding inspiration to reflect on his life.

‘Midnight in Paris’ is Woody Allen’s valentine to the City of Lights, which he considers equal to New York as the great city of the world. “Of course I’m partial to New York because I was born there and grew up there,” he says, “but if I didn’t live in New York, Paris is the place I would live.”

The film is the second time Allen has filmed there, after a small bit of ‘Everyone Says I Love You’. “I get great enjoyment out of presenting Paris to the cinema audience the way I see it,” he says. “Just as with New York, where I present it one way, and other directors present it other ways, somebody else could come and shoot Paris in a completely different way. I want to present it my way, projecting my own feelings about it.”

Allen fell in love with Paris during the shooting of ‘What’s New Pussycat’, his debut film as an actor and writer. Much like Gil, the protagonist of Midnight in Paris, he’s rueful about not staying there after the filming, as others on the film did. “It was an adventure that was too bold for me at the time,” he says. “In retrospect I could have stayed, or at the very minimum taken an apartment and divided my time—but I didn’t, and I regret that.”

Gil (played by Owen Wilson) is a Hollywood screenwriter who had aspirations to be a serious writer when he was a younger man. He idolized American novelists like Hemingway and Fitzgerald, and wanted to be a novelist in their tradition.

But somewhere along the way, Gil left that path, discovered he had a talent for writing screenplays, and fell into a well-paid routine of work that didn’t satisfy him and affluence that he wasn’t entirely comfortable with. “He found himself to be a victim of that old Hollywood joke,” says Allen. “I laid down at the pool… and when I got up it was ten years later.”

As the story begins, Gil and his fiancée Inez (Rachel McAdams) are tagging along on a trip to Paris with her father, John (Kurt Fuller), and mother, Helen (Mimi Kennedy). John, a conservative businessman who has come to Paris to finalize a high-level deal, makes no attempt to disguise his disapproval of Gil, who he sees as an unreliable lightweight unworthy of his daughter. Gil’s absorption with the novel he’s writing, rather than the more lucrative profession waiting for him at home, makes him seem even more frivolous in John’s eyes.

Being in Paris triggers Gil’s memories of his one-time literary ambitions. “Gil lived in Paris when he was in his twenties and he has this romantic attachment to it,” says Wilson. “It represents the time when his professional life was just beginning, when he thought about what he was going to do with his life. That was when he came to the fork in the road. So of course being there again makes him think about that time and the road he didn’t take.”

Allen originally conceived of Gil as an east coast intellectual, but he rethought it when he and casting director Juliet Taylor began talking about Owen Wilson for the role. “I thought Owen would be charming and funny but my fear was that he was not so eastern at all in his persona,” says Allen.

Realizing that not only could Gil come from California, it would actually make the character richer, so he rewrote the part and submitted it to Wilson, who readily agreed to do it. “Owen is a natural actor,” says Allen. “He doesn’t sound like he’s acting, he sounds like a human being speaking in a situation, and that’s very appealing to me.

He’s got a wonderful funny bone, a wonderful comic instinct that’s quite unlike my own, but wonderful of its kind. He’s a blonde Texan kind of Everyman’s hero, the kind of hero of the regiment in the old war pictures, with a great flair for being amusing. It’s a rare combination and I thought he’d be great.”

Rachel McAdams joins the cast as Gil’s fiancée, Inez. “Inez is used to having her way,” says McAdams. “She’s very sure of what she wants. She’s in love with Gil or she thinks she is and is maybe not too inquisitive about the state of their relationship or the health of their relationship.

She thinks Gil’s a good guy, a good catch and he’s stable, provided that he keeps writing screenplays and they can have a comfortable life in the States. She’s supportive of his dabbling with a novel, provided that it’s a slight preoccupation, but I don’t think she’s encouraging it as a life-long dream, something he should spend too much of his time on.”

Says Allen: “Inez just wants Gil to make enough money so they can go to parties and raise children. There’s nothing wrong with her aspirations; they’re just not Gil’s.” Allen has high praise for McAdams’s work on the film. “Rachel just gets it,” he says. “She’s funny when she has to be funny; she’s serious when she has to be serious. She’s unfailingly real, she doesn’t do anything too big or too under-acted, and she’s totally alive on the screen.”

Says Wilson: “What I saw even more from Rachel’s performance was how Inez is kind of funny in the way she uses her sexuality to manipulate Gil. Rachel has a very good sense of humor and knew exactly how to play those scenes.”

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The Vow, Kim and Krickitt Carpenter’s amazing, true story of faith and commitment and the inspiration behind the No. 1 movie in the country, topped the New York Times non-fiction best-seller list in its first week of re-release.

From B&H Publishing Group, The Vow joins three other film-related, faith-based books as national best sellers, including The Resolution for Men, The Resolution for Women and The Love Dare, Nos. 10, 12 and 13, respectively on the Times paperback advice list.

“The phenomenal success of these books—each dealing with the importance of faith and commitment in the family—shows the great hunger for encouraging and inspiring messages today,” said Selma Wilson, B&H Publishing Group president. “The Carpenters, Alex and Stephen Kendrick and Priscilla Shirer are sharing needed and wanted truth and doing so in a way that encourages and engages readers.”

The Vow traces actual events from the 1990s, when Kim and Krickitt Carpenter met, fell in love and married. Just 10 weeks later, the couple survived a terrible car wreck with Krickitt awakening in the hospital married to a stranger. The accident had claimed 18 months of her memories, including all recollection of Kim.

With Kim committed to his marriage vows and Krickitt maintaining her strong Christian faith, even if recent memories were gone, the couple began the long road to a rebuilt relationship, choosing to fall in love again and capping that with a second wedding ceremony and renewal of their vows almost three years later.

Their story inspired the No. 1 movie in the country, THE VOW starring Channing Tatum and Rachel McAdams, which took in over $40 million its opening weekend. The Vow book, in addition to its No. 1 rank on the Times non-fiction best-seller list, also earned the No. 7 spot for combined non-fiction print and e-books. The book, originally released in 2000, launched again Feb. 10 with an additional chapter and photos updating the Carpenter’s story.

“Krickitt and I feel very blessed that our story might give hope to others facing difficult circumstances,”Kim Carpenter said, “and inspire them to stick together for better or worse, in sickness and in health.”

Also from B&H Publishing Group, three more books with connection to faith films maintained best-seller status.

• The Resolution for Men by brothers and filmmakers Alex and Stephen Kendrick with Randy Alcorn issues a call to godly parenting, challenging fathers to resolve to be the kind of dads God means them to be and their families need them to be. The book title relates to the film COURAGEOUS, which featured four fathers publicly resolving to lead their families well.
• The Resolution for Women , by nationally known speaker and Bible teacher Priscilla Shirer with Alex and Stephen Kendrick, offers help, hope and challenge to women desiring to find God’s will and live it God’s way in their lives and the lives of their families.
• The Love Dare also is by Alex and Stephen Kendrick and now marks more than 170 weeks as a Times best seller. Reflected in the Kendricks’ hit movie FIREPROOF, The Love Dare challenges readers to offer 40 days of acts of unconditional love to spouses.

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‘Romance,’ the celebrated women’s fragrance by Ralph Lauren, has been named the exclusive fragrance partner for the upcoming feature film, ‘The Vow,’ a romantic drama starring Rachel McAdams and Channing Tatum, in theaters February 10, 2012.

‘The Vow’ and Ralph Lauren ‘Romance’ share the theme of enduring love. Paige and Leo (Rachel McAdams and Channing Tatum) are a happy newlywed couple whose lives are changed by a car accident that puts Paige in a coma. Waking up with severe memory loss, Paige has no memory of Leo, a confusing relationship with her parents (Sam Neill and Jessica Lange), and an ex-fiance (Scott Speedman) she may still have feelings for. Despite these complications, Leo endeavors to win her heart again and rebuild their marriage.

“The moving narrative of The Vow reflects the Ralph Lauren Romance story about true love conquering all,” says Guillaume de Lesquen, President of Ralph Lauren Fragrances Worldwide, “and there couldn’t be two better actors than Rachel and Channing to convey this narrative.”

As part of the collaboration, Ralph Lauren ‘Romance’ will be the exclusive sponsor of ‘The Vow’ red carpet world premiere and after-party, taking place on Monday, February 6, 2012 in Los Angeles. One winner of two passes to these events, and three winners of the Ralph Lauren Romance fragrance, will be randomly selected on January 19, 2012 through a sweepstakes hosted on the Ralph Lauren Facebook fan site.

The Ralph Lauren Romance commercial ad, shot by renowned photographer and filmmaker Bruce Weber, will appear in advanced screenings of ‘The Vow’ throughout the U.S. and Canada January 24-26, 2012. The advertisement features Argentinean polo player, Nacho Figueras, with his wife, Delfina Blaquier, on location at Blaquier’s family’s Argentinean estate, ‘La Concepcion.’ The advertisement depicts their real-life fairytale love story and creates a perfect pairing for the romantic premise of ‘The Vow.’

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After a decade of complicated neuroticism, Woody Allen returns this year with Midnight in Paris, a refreshingly delightful romantic comedy. Albeit incomparable to his comedy classics Annie Hall and Sleeper, Allen succeeds in combining a witty script, professional cinematography, and quality acting against the stunning backdrop that is Paris.

Gil (Owen Wilson) is a struggling novelist with a fiancee (Rachel McAdams) who seems more interested in her pretentious friend Paul (Michael Sheen) than in him. To make things worse, his parents-in-law (to be) hate him, and we all know that never bodes well. All of this is compounded by the fact that he feels out of place, and I don’t mean physical location. Gil, as he walks through the beautiful jardins of Paris, yearns for the 1920′s and the bohemian artists and writers who lived and loved at that time.
Suddenly, by way of an old-time motorcar, Gil is transported back in time to his beloved era, and meets the famed greats like F. Scott Fitzgerald (Tom Hiddleston), Cole Porter (Yves Heck), Ernest Hemingway (Corey Stoll) and Pablo Picasso (Marcial Di Fonzo Bo). One takes enjoyment watching Gil party with literary heroes, where, thanks to Owen Wilson’s splendid acting, you can see the excitement dancing in his eyes.

Johanne Debas and Darius Khondji make movie magic with their cinematography, sweeping the audience up in the quiet cobblestone streets   of the culture capital. Throw in a warm lighting and flapper couture, and one could swoon for the City of Romance right then and there.

All in all, the charming simplicity at the heart of Midnight in Paris leaves the audience with butterflies and a few simple questions in their conscience. What would you do if you could time travel into a world so different then your own? if you could meet your hero? Gil has a chance for self-exporation through artistic creation, inspiration, and criticism, thus realizing his life is made better through art, thanks in part to his larger-than-life heroes.

That sweet reminiscence and Woody Allen’s characteristic wittiness brings together an all-in-all great star-studded film, a perfect date night movie.

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