MovieChat Forums > Midnight in Paris (2011) Discussion > What's your Golden Age?

What's your Golden Age?

posted 13 years ago by rfresa
118 replies | jump to latest

I thought this movie made some very interesting points about nostalgia, and how every era had an earlier era they considered the "golden age".

When I was a teenager I was fascinated by the middle ages, and played out elaborate scenarios in my head about how I would get by if I was suddenly transported back in time to Europe in the 11th century or so. I love the old dresses, the castles, and the stories. I really felt like the present was boring and I had been born in the wrong time. I'm sure some of it was just feeling like I didn't fit in, like any teenager, and thinking I'd rather do needlework and pottery (some of my hobbies) than go to school and feel like an outsider.

I am still very interested in this period and like to imagine living in it, but I think part of growing up has been realizing and appreciating how good the present really is. Like Gil pointed out, we have antibiotics now! I can vote, have a good job, car, and apartment, and do so much that I wouldn't have been able to do even 100 years ago, let alone 1000! I've also met someone like Inez, a complete realist who can't comprehend that need to escape from the present. We didn't get along, but trying to understand her opened my eyes a lot. People had just as many problems then, only theirs came with smallpox, oppression, and ignorance.

Are you a realist or a nostalgiac? What time period/place would you visit if you had the chance?

[–] maixiu 13 years ago

In one of his books, P.J. O'Rourke addresses the notion of "the good old days" and says that for anyone who pines after some lost golden age he has one word: dentistry.

[–] rfresa 13 years ago

So, a realist then.

[–] Adler-99 13 years ago

My husband and I were talking about this last night after watching MiP and we both agreed, as the OP said, that other time periods would be nice to visit but we wouldn't want to live there because we like modern medicine, electricity, computers, phones, cameras, and so on too much.

I'd like to visit the Victorian era but only if I had enough money to live like a grand lady and not a scullery maid. My hubby would like to visit the 1880s American West and be a cowboy (although I mentioned he'd probably immediately die from tetanus or something).

[–] lspear76 13 years ago

Two time periods... Atari/Coleco era 1983-1985. Also NES/SMS/Genesis/SNES 1989-1993.

I'd be happy back in either time.

[–] randyhndrsn 13 years ago

The 1970's for me.

[–] oldmaddog 10 years ago

I miss the 50s, 60s, and even the 70s, but back then I thought I would want to live in the post civil war 'wild west'. (I grew up on Gunsmoke and romanticized westerns.) And the 50s and 60s would have been better if we had KNOWN we weren't going to be vaporized (or worse, not) without warning.
I wasn't thinking about Novocaine and modern surgery though. (I love P. J. O'Rourke's writing. LOL) I expect all such fantasies gloss over the negatives, and center on the perceived positives.

I also have to admit that meeting Hemingway, Dali, Cole Porter, Picasso, etc would be really neat. If I'd been Gil I would have been tempted to try and bring a few 'lost' paintings forward....

I thought it was funny that the detective was caught in pre-revolutionary France. I wonder if he thought that was HIS golden age.

[–] DaveBowman2001 (517) a year ago

Absolutely. Loved the 70s as a kid. As a teen and still today what an astounding musical time to be alive. The 80s and 90s were good too, but the simplicity of the 70s was great.

[–] PoppyTransfusion 13 years ago

1967/8, California.

my vessel is magnificent and large and huge-ish

[–] Kariann1 13 years ago

Yes, that's a nice time period. I would have liked to be at Woodstock, too (1969).

[–] hanstemp 13 years ago

In my head, (and even thought I'm Dutch) I've always romanticized the kind of small town America in the 50s and 60s that Stephen King often writes about (It, Hearts in Atlantis, Needful Things, among others). But maybe that's because I've read many of his books and like the picture he paints of it.

[–] iseepinkelefants 13 years ago

Yeah I often think that was probably a nice period. Everything was on the up, life was a bit more easy going in a sense (the Cold War for instance was probably not a good threat to live with), but as an American I wouldn't choose that as my MiP.

To be honest I don't know which period I'd choose. Weird for an avid history lover I'm sure but whenever I think back to time periods long lost I always think of the not bathing, the disease, soceity's issues, the lack of electronics, globalization, etc, etc., and I'm not sure I'd want to live in another period (for instance at the end of Kate and Leopold I thought why would you want to go back?!?).

I guess if I had to choose I'd go with Edwardian England but even then... you'd have to be well off and as a woman I wouldn't have the choices I overlook on the regular (like equality, the option to marry whom I love, etc).

History is nice to study but I wouldn't want to travel back to it. Though Wilson's character chose a nice period to travel to. The 20's wasn't that bad. Even England in the 20's would have been fun (think Bright Young Things) or Hollywood in the 20's. I often wonder what is was like back in the "Golden Age" of film.

If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all

[–] brupey-1 12 years ago

Yeah I often think that was probably a nice period. Everything was on the up, life was a bit more easy going in a sense
___________________________________

Not if you were black

[–] Franny25 12 years ago

I have a number of golden ages

NYC late 1940s and 1950s.

London & Paris 1950s - but able to escape the rationing in England.

I'd also like to have been in England during WWII and been involved somehow in the war effort - maybe in intelligence. But since this is my fantasy then I want to survive.

California mid 1950s to early 1960s.

[–] isotop235 10 years ago

Hanstemp, I live in the US...New Jersey and places like Stephen King writes about still exist and are plentiful. The farther away from big cities, you come across towns stuck in a time warp. Myself and my girlfriend look for them, its fun.

Fiery the angels fell, deep thunder rolled around their shores, burning with the fires of Orc

[–] ath-11 13 years ago

The 2400s, where they have transporters, holodecks, food replicators, cool spaceships, and no money.

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"...and that, my liege, is how we know the Earth to be banana shaped."

[–] rfresa 13 years ago

Hey, I've been there!

[–] sbowesuk 13 years ago

I like Star Trek as much as the next person, but that's not a valid answer, since it's based on fiction and the future.

Besides, would you really want to have to dodge Borg wanting to assimilate you and everyone you've ever cared about? You clearly didn't think this through did you? Time to join the rest of us in the real world bro.

[–] ath-11 13 years ago

LOL

If I had clearly thought this through, there would have been no answer. Bro.

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"...and that, my liege, is how we know the Earth to be banana shaped."

[–] Dejay 10 years ago

The 2400s, where they have transporters, holodecks, food replicators, cool spaceships, and no money.

Say hello to comrade Chekov! :)

[–] LarryLestersBuns 13 years ago

My golden age is 1920's Paris, so MiP was an absolute delight to watch. I've always loved Parisian culture. If I could visit any time and place, it would be then, just to walk through the streets at night and hear the music and soak in all the life and to just sit among all the great minds and listen to them talk.

http://filmluvr.tumblr.com/

[–] empering 13 years ago

I grew up way too late. I've always dreamed of growing up during the 60's (above the Mason-Dixon line, of course) as a hippy. I know the lifestyle is sort of messed up, but think about it: in a time of what seemed like impending apocalypse, there was whole group of people who didn't give a crap and I appreciate the whole tolerance and understanding thing going on with that group of people. It just seems like a ton of fun.