Probing the illusion people have that a life different from theirs would be much better?
Woody Allen’s “Midnight in Paris,” which opened the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, has a bit part for a vintage Peugeot. The movie debuts this Friday in New York and Los Angeles.
The leading man travels through time in a Peugeot Landaulet 184 dating from 1920, which met the production’s requirement for a car having “a driver’s compartment with a convertible roof and a covered passenger compartment.”
The film also features a 177 Torpedo, a Peugeot 401 from 1934, and the interior of a Peugeot 404. Two Peugeot 508s also appear in the film shot in July 2010.
Midnight in Paris is a romantic comedy set in Paris about a family that goes there on business. It’s about a young man’s great love for a city, Paris, and the illusion people have that a life different from theirs would be much better. It stars Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Marion Cotillard, Kathy Bates, and Carla Bruni, among others.
In 2010, its bicentenary year, Peugeot consolidated its position as the leading French car brand by worldwide sales, and moved up a place to ninth place among global automakers by selling 2,142,000 vehicles. Peugeot is arguably the most diversified transportation company since it sells passenger and utility vehicles, scooters and bicycles, along with associated services.
About Ken Zino
Ken Zino, editor and publisher of AutoInformed, is a versatile auto industry participant with global experience spanning decades in print and broadcast journalism, as well as social media. He has automobile testing, marketing, public relations and communications experience. He is past president of The International Motor Press Assn, the Detroit Press Club, founding member and first President of the Automotive Press Assn. He is a member of APA, IMPA and the Midwest Automotive Press Assn.
He also brings an historical perspective while citing their contemporary relevance of the work of legendary auto writers such as Ken Purdy, Jim Dunne or Jerry Flint, or writers such as Red Smith, Mark Twain, Thomas Jefferson – all to bring perspective to a chaotic automotive universe.
Above all, decades after he first drove a car, Zino still revels in the sound of the exhaust as the throttle is blipped during a downshift and the driver’s rush that occurs when the entry, apex and exit points of a turn are smoothly and swiftly crossed. It’s the beginning of a perfect lap.
AutoInformed has an editorial philosophy that loves transportation machines of all kinds while promoting critical thinking about the future use of cars and trucks.
Zino builds AutoInformed from his background in automotive journalism starting at Hearst Publishing in New York City on Motor and MotorTech Magazines and car testing where he reviewed hundreds of vehicles in his decade-long stint as the Detroit Bureau Chief of Road & Track magazine. Zino has also worked in Europe, and Asia – now the largest automotive market in the world with China at its center.
