Scarecrow Video recommendations for "Midnight in Paris"

Woody Allen has kept up a prolific pace of a movie a year for quite some time now. His latest, "Midnight in Paris," opens this weekend, and it's his 42nd feature. It stars Owen Wilson as the Woody surrogate, a guy named Gil who, while on vacation in the titular city with his bummer of a fiancee (Rachel McAdams), finds himself transported back to the 1920s every night at the stroke of midnight. There he meets a kindred spirit, Adriana (Marion Cotillard).

My fondest memory of Paris is the time a cranky server dropped a stale roll onto my plate and said "Voila!" as if he'd magically produced it somehow. Also the Louvre was neat. Anyway, we thought we'd recommend a few other films that involve bizarre time travel and a little bit of romance.

First is the almost entirely forgotten "Happy Accidents," directed by Brad Anderson ("The Machinist"). Marisa Tomei plays Ruby, a lady who has the habit of trying to "fix" every man she falls for. We meet her while she's telling her therapist about her newest boyfriend Sam (Vincent D'Onofrio), who seems like a really nice guy for a change, until it becomes clear that Sam claims to be a fugitive from the year 2470 (he may or may not be responsible for his sister's death). While that sounds like the foundation for a thriller, this is more of a light drama, anchored by some strong performances that never get overwhelmed by the unusual concept.

Or perhaps you'd like something a bit more straightforward, in which case you might try "Somewhere in Time" from 1980. Christopher Reeve is a playwright who, after a strange encounter with an elderly woman, becomes obsessed with an actress (Jane Seymour) from the turn of the century. Somehow he manages to hypnotize himself back in time, where he meets the actress (who would go on to be the old lady he met at the beginning) and falls in love with her. This is kind of a classic '80s tearjerker romance, with a lot of emphasis on an elliptical sort of flashback structure. Combine that with a lot of broody pathos and you realize that this film sort of prefigures modern period romances like "Titanic." The score by John Barry (who did many a Bond movie score) is a recognized classic you've probably heard a million times without knowing it.

In completely the opposite direction, there's "Time After Time" from 1979. This one actually is a thriller. Malcolm McDowell plays H.G. Wells, who, in addition to being a writer and philosopher has also invented a time machine (which looks, of course, exactly like the time machine from the 1960 film "The Time Machine," based on Wells' novel). While he's showing the device to a group of friends, one of them, a surgeon played by David Warner, is revealed to be the infamous Jack the Ripper! Jack steals the time machine and heads for, of all places, 1979 San Francisco, pursued by Wells who hopes to bring him to justice. Wow, that's quite a plot, and we didn't even mention how H.G. falls for a pretty bank teller (Mary Steenburgen). This one is kind of a cult classic, underseen but a lot of fun. While some of it might be dated, it gains a lot of goodwill by striking a great balance between the scarier elements and an unusual romance plot. Definitely worth checking out.

Until next week!