“Nostalgia is denial – denial of the painful present… the name for this denial is Golden Age Thinking – the erroneous notion that a different time period is better than the one ones living in – it’s a flaw in the romantic imagination of those people who find it difficult to cope with the present.”
In the movie Midnight in Paris by the great Woody Allen, the protagonist, Gil Pender, is disenchanted with the present, and yearns to live in another time. I think this is representative of many people today. I cannot detail how many times I have heard “things were so much better back in my days”. I think it’s nice to reminisce about the past, but I find no productivity out of dreaming of a better time to live than the present. It’s not that I cannot relate – I can definitely relate. I sometimes romanticize the past (I won’t say specifically what time period), thinking how great it would be to live through such influential times. It must have been amazing back then! However, that is the problem. By only focusing on the retrospective admiration of the accomplishments and beliefs of a certain time, I am actively displacing disadvantages of living then. I fail to take into account my life expectancy, medical practices, and the lack of modern comfort. I think this is indicative of my taking things for granted. Although I don’t think I would entirely give up the present to live in the past – it would take a couple of days of intense thinking and hesitation.
I never believed that nostalgia would be so far-reaching into the depths of one’s feelings. Well, I guess it’s quite easy to put two and two together, now that I think about it. I am not a nostalgic person (I do believe that focusing on the past distracts from the present), but it’s just now that I realize how many people are so disillusioned with their lives right now. Are people like this every time things go awry? The economy sinks, or their entire lives are turned upside down, and they look to the past and dream of a time when things were simple and just. A time without corruption and bureaucracy and modern technological distractions. Um, HELLO! I don’t recall of anytime in history where there wasn’t corruption, bureaucracy, and modern technological distractions! There is always this cycle of each generation leapfrogging the next in terms of beliefs and traditions. It’s not as if one could be entirely content with the present when one lives through three generations. I’d like to think some adaptation is necessary. It’s not nearly as painful as nostalgia, and it is the only way to go forward in one’s thinking when dealing with nostalgia.
I guess that’s the solution to Golden Age Thinking – realizing that the best way to deal with the present, if disillusioned, is to joyfully enjoy the fruits of the past to bear the present. For example, Gil Pender realizes that reading Ernest Hemingway’s books are just at least as, or even more, preferable than being around him. I think that’s a win-win. I sure wouldn’t like to be around Hemingway (from what I observed about him in the movie, haha). I think this shows the right way to enjoy the past. One doesn’t need to entirely let go of it. One can both enjoy the past and the present simultaneously, no? Another example – there’s no need to give up one’s culture and ethnic identity when coming to America – it’s a choice everybody makes. One can acclimate to values and beliefs as quickly, or as slowly, as one desires, as long as one is willing to embrace a new part of life. The sooner everybody realizes that the past is not entirely separate from the present, and that reality is best experienced now and not in another time, the better. Or, alternatively, one can just watch Midnight in Paris 
P.S. Hemingway, in this movie, had one of the greatest monologues I have ever heard, about love and life.
“All men fear death. It’s a natural fear that consumes us all. We fear death because we feel that we haven’t loved well enough or loved at all, which ultimately are one and the same. However, when you make love with a truly great woman, one that deserves the utmost respect in this world and one that makes you feel truly powerful, that fear of death completely disappears. Because when you are sharing your body and heart with a great woman the world fades away. You two are the only ones in the entire universe. You conquer what most lesser men have never conquered before, you have conquered a great woman’s heart – the most vulnerable thing she can offer to another. Death no longer lingers in the mind. Fear no longer clouds your heart. Only passion for living, and for loving, become your sole reality. This is no easy task, for it takes insurmountable courage. But remember this, for that moment when you are making love with a woman of true greatness… you will feel immortal.”
I saw this movie last week! I watched it twice in a row because it was that good! Thanks for the post!
We are kindred (movie) spirits — I was enchanted by Midnight in Paris, and I LOVED Hemingway’s monologue.
NOT a fan of Owen Wilson, but that’s another comment altogether…
Great post!
I couldn’t agree more! I thought a younger Woody Allen would have been better suited, although, Owen Wilson almost managed to match up. Almost.
Good post. Love those two quotes and I also loved the movie. I especially liked it when Owen Wilson is talking to Kathy Bates and their talking about his book and how both Hemingway and Bates didn’t believe the protagonist of the book didn’t know that his fiance was cheating on him. They didn’t buy it. And Owen pauses then says yeah … “it’s called denial.” Classic.
Oh how i loved that movie. I also love the denial line in the movie. Sometimes you pretend not to see what is so clearly in front of you. Denial indeed.
words so true, thank you, thank you, thank you
Nostalgia is feeling good about the time you have lived. For you might as well have not.
Himmiggway probably never met his great woman.
I just love how amazing posts i get to read through the Freshly pressed list!!!!A great read.
Ummm….nicely put…and here is my own take on the film…and of course Woody Allen
:
http://myeternalconsciousness.wordpress.com/2011/12/21/woody-allen/
PS: Thank you for the monologue!
Love
Was just immensly inspired by a documentary on Woody Allen, and feel a bit embarassed I haven’t seen his most famous film! This post just drove that nail in deeper. Must watch Midnight in Paris ASAP! Thanks for sharing!
This post very good ..Thank
Great writing….I also have a tendency to think about past happy moments when things are not great with the present. I think it’s a mean for myself to take my mind away from the troubles and also reassure myself that good times were there in the past, it can happen in the future as well.
There’s so much wisdom in this post. Thank you.
Well said.
awesome!! great movie
Great observations, can’t wait to see MIP again on DVD now. Every writer should see it.
nyc one
that was quite the script i must say…always easier to think of living in ‘better’ times..great post!
Great post. Though I have never been a Woody Allen fan, I think he’s creepy. But I am in the small percentage I’m sure.
I am guilty of remembering my own past, my much happier days, the days I lived with passion and not fear of my future. The times I spent laughing, dancing through each day. I think of those days while I work to regain those feelings of freedom from a decade or two ago. It gives me hope and makes me try harder to achieve. It’s the balance of working through reality and knowing my own past that helps me create my future.
Well said…and I, too, think Woody Allen is creepy. I’ve watched few of his films but made an exception for this one.
Nostalgia is ‘just remembering the good parts’.
Yes, this was a delightful film that highlighted the darker side of reminiscence. I’m so pleased to see it discussed. However in Woody Allen’s clever way ( also see Vicki, Christina, Barcelona…?) he showed those without the capacity to get carried away like Gil, to be shallow imbeciles, in more ways than one. So, to dream of the past is perhaps wonderful….but the key is moderation, tempered with an appreciation of the now. N’est pas?
It’s human nature to want to cling to the time of your youth, and believe that era was the greatest. I used to hate when my parents said the 1950s were the best time because how can you understand that if you weren’t even born yet. Now, I am doing the same thing with my son. And that is a great quote from Midnight in Paris. Loved that movie.
I love the word “Nostalgia.” It is commonly unrecognized as a painful word. Nostos means to have a longing for the past and Algos means something that brings misery. I almost consider nostalgia a DSM diagnosis. I know I suffer from it. Things were great back in the day; however, when I think back on those days, I feel like crap.
Great movie though. Great post as well!
I like the way you weaved the movie into the post to make more sense of your main points. Great writing — perhaps even enough to persuade me to watch the movie.
I saw this movie a while back, and I remember really liking this monologue. Thanks for posting!
This post really resonated with me, as a fan of Midnight in Paris and an occasional participant in golden age thinking. I think I have a tendency to over-romanticize a few select eras, but you are absolutely right that we look at history with rose-colored glasses. Sometimes, it helps me to remember that this present is as exciting as every “present” ever was.
Lovely Post. These we such wonderful words of wisdom. I thoroughly enjoyed your post and I think I will be getting that movie soon!
Adieu scribbler
It’s just happened that I watched this movie today. Enjoyed the movie and your blog post too.
I completely agree. It comes with every one’s belief that the grass is greener on the other side. When really everyone should embrace the present. Good post! Loved the movie!
You expressed the very thoughts I had about this film in more eloquent a manner than I ever could have! I’m so glad wordpress recommended this post.
I liked this movie for the ideas it conveyed. But, I felt it fell a little short of getting me to feel fully seduced by the nostalgia monster. Also, what the hell is Thong Tin talking about? Her message vs her emoticon clearly display she is a passive aggressive comment producer. Bahahaha! “This post is great! #Failblog.org Love, Thong Tin”
Wow!! what a great writing!!1
one of my favourite films about my favourite city! love this view on it.
great post, I see we have the same format for our blogs lol, nice that you made yours red
Those who profess to the existence of a “golden age” are just selling it for a few pieces of silver.
Thank you SO MUCH for saying what I wanted to say. I am a hopeless romantic. *SIGH* This is one of my favorite movies. I think all of your blogging friends should meet a coffee house and sit and discuss this film. Maybe we could walk in the rain to get there.
I saw the movie twice on the big screen. I’m a Woody Allen fan. Not that I found this one to be his best, but it made me think a lot.
I longed to live in the past, and while I knew all the intellectual arguments against that feeling, I found it hard to shake. What was beautiful about this movie was that Gil Pender was transported not only to the twenties he so revered, he was placed amidst his literary idols. Don’t forget, he’s a nobody in the twenties—a nobody who shouldn’t have access to Fitzgerald and Hemingway and Gertrude Stein. This movie showed that in spite of being thrust into your most ideal situation in the past, life is a little dissatisfying, and that feeling cannot be cured.
Nicely written. Congrats on getting Freshly Pressed!
Love it….nicely put through
Thanks for your thoughtful comments concerning the movie, living in the past and present with our nostalgia. You have inspired me to respond if I may upon my own blog site entitled All The Warm Places. I needed to hear you.
I’m so happy to see someone reviewing a Woody Allen film being Freshly Pressed! I am an avid fan of W. Allen, and thought Midnight one of his lighter films, but it’s exciting to see how it has found it’s way into the popular imagination. Our relationship to our past, or a past in which we did not live is critical to how we see ourselves in the world. To me nostalgia is a kind of formalized way to keep us aware of where we were, aware of what we thought we were…The past is fixed, perhaps it’s natural to romanticize that which can no longer be touched.
This was a good read. Hemingway’s monologue was enchanting and deep. Great post!
Great post, thanks! I love the way movies can inspire one to really think about life and our journey through it!
Good Movie.
One of the best article I ever read, today. I can read for the tenth time and never get bored of it. Good work!
I loved this movie, the first of Woody’s I have actually liked! I liked how most of the artists also wanted to live in a previous time. Very well written article.
Wonderful movie and one of my favorite monologues as well. Great post!
I was just telling a friend of mine that she needed to watch this movie and pay attention to Hemmingway. Great post.
I enjoyed the film and agree nostalgia is a funny thing
You’re right that it’s unproductive to reminisce about the past, but that doesn’t mean that society today isn’t deteriorating in many areas. Sometimes it can be productive to reflect on the good things we’ve lost and attempt to regain them. The Earth, for one…
I loved the film, perhaps because I enjoy a break from reality from time to time, and reminiscing about the past is sometimes a nice diversion.
have u been to Paris
I didn’t care for the film, but the point was solid. It always helps to remember that there really was no “Golden Age.” There have always been problems, some different, some the same, but the big things we want to escape we won’t avoid in the past.
beautiful. I actually wrote about the same topic in my blog, http://innamazing.wordpress.com/2012/07/16/vintage-russia/ check it out. I talk about nostalgia in general, but also connect it with woody’s movie and Russia – which is the main topic of my blog. cheers! loved the post!
Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don’t need. We’re the middle children of history, man; no purpose or place. We have no Great War, no Great Depression. Our Great War is a spiritual war. Our Great Depression is our lives. We’ve all been raised by television to believe that one day we’d all be millionaires and movie gods and rock stars. But we won’t; and we’re slowly learning that fact. And we’re very, very pissed off. Tyler Derden
Great blog. Across the ages, there have always been the same problems, moments of weakness, feelings of greatness… falling in and out love… The Golden Age presents the same in a different way… because everything is more expansive now.
Nice blog… enoyed it totally!
I love Paris by the way. It is a city in which I come alive….
Magdalene
First – I did love this movie. It was unexpected.
I have a love of the 80s – the music, the culture, the movies, even the big and bright clothing. When I was in the 80s, I love the 50s. I bought a whole set of cassette tapes on t.v. and played them in my bedroom while I did homework. As I’ve grown, both physically and emotionally, I find that time is the everpresent. What was then will come once again, and what is now has already been. From a broader perspective, that is (beyond myself). What I have learned is that time is the galley, and I am here for the ride. My goal is to enjoy it, whenever it takes me…
One of, if not “the”, favorite movies of mine! And I’m SO glad that you brought up the Hemingway monologue! I’ll definitely be reposting that with a link to your blog:)
Loved the movie and loved your post!
Very insightful and very eloquently written.
Thanks for sharing! I love this movie. I too love the 1920′s and whenever times get stressful I always think about how nice it would be to live in that time period, however, Gil had a good point when he said:
Gil: These people don’t have any antibiotics!
Adriana: What are you talking about?
Gil: Adriana, if you stay here though, and this becomes your present then pretty soon you’ll start imagining another time was really your… You know, was really the golden time. Yeah, that’s what the present is. It’s a little unsatisfying because life’s a little unsatisfying.
So then I realize, years from now, I’ll be thinking that this life I’m living now was the golden age, so I better enjoy it now! Haha!
Really impressive post. It sort of took everything I was thinking about the past few days and neatly organized it on a shelf. Very glad I found it. Loved it. Great writing.
Fantastic post…. I haven’t seen the movie but would love to see it now.
Also, completely agree to the points made. Today, when I am working for a company with responsibilities ranging from office work to paying taxes, many a times I feel life was much simpler, better and enjoyable in college. Of course, it was. But there was also a flipside to it. I didn’t had the financial freedom back then, dependency on parents for many things, no cell phone, no bike of my own and many other things. If I compare on those parameters, life is much better today. But then the comparison won’t lead anywhere and I might end up wasting precious moments of my present while feeling nostalgic about the past.
And yes, one of the greatest monologues I have read till date….. Thanks for sharing this….and congratulations on appearing on Freshly Pressed…this post deserved it!!
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