“What If…?”

Put a character from one of your favorite stories into the world of another

What would happen to them? What would they do? How would they interact with the characters of those stories? For this challenge, I decided to put Natalie Bennett from the movie Look Both Ways into the world of the movie Midnight in Paris.

Before I begin, let me introduce you the plot of both movies. :)

Plot of Look Both Ways:

During her senior year at the University of Texas, Natalie, who pursue her dream career in animation, has sex with her friend, with both agreeing not to "make it a big deal". A few weeks later, on the night of their graduation, Natalie feels sick and her best friend gets her pregnancy tests. When Natalie takes them, her life diverges into two parallel realities based on the result.

Plot of Midnight in Paris:

Gil Pender is a screenwriter and aspiring novelist. Vacationing in Paris with his fiancee, he has taken to touring the city alone. He is struggling to finish his debut novel, about a man who works in a nostalgia shop, and finds himself drawn to the rich artistic history of Paris, especially the Lost Generation of the 1920s. On one such late-night excursion, Gil encounters a group of strange -- yet familiar -- revelers, who sweep him along, apparently back in time, for a night with some of the Jazz Age's icons of art and literature. The more time Gil spends with these cultural heroes of the past, the more dissatisfied he becomes with the present.

MY Plot

Natalie is visiting Paris as a graduation gift from her parents. She is moving to Los Angeles soon with her best friends as she does in the original movie (Look Both Ways). She would explore various museums in Paris, even the ones in countryside in France, to get inspiration for her animation. She loves art, so she feel that it was the best graduation gift she could ever get.

Natalie would meet Gil, the main character of Midnight in Paris, and Inez, his fiancé, at one of the museums in Paris. Since they both are in love with Paris and the rich artistic history of Paris, Gil invited her to dinner that night, which he was having with his fiancé and his friends. Well, however, like the original Midnight in Paris, Inez ditched Gil after dinner, so that Gil and Natalie decided to enjoy night in Paris. It was normal until Gil told Natalie about the secret adventure he had been having after midnight, which is kind of crazy.

Gil in Movie Poster of *Midnight in Paris*

Think of 3 interesting and intriguing "what if" questions

Write each one out in one sentence. Pick the favorite of your "what if" scenarios; tell us about the world it would be taking place in and the main characters. Give a character a goal and some obstacles.

“What If…”

What if Natalie falls in love with Gil, and decided to move to Paris with him instead of moving to Los Angeles as she planned before?
What if Natalie wants to stay in Paris with Adriana (Gil’s lover who he met in 1920 Paris in original movie) during La Belle Epoque (around 1890s), where the technology Natalie uses to create animation doesn’t exist?
What if she becomes Picasso’s lover and influenced his later work?

Well, I love every scenario but I guess I have to pick one, so…

What if Natalie wants to stay in Paris with Adriana (Gil’s lover who he met in 1920 Paris in original movie) during La Belle Epoque (around 1890s), where the technology Natalie uses to create animation doesn’t exist?

To make it easier to understand for those who haven’t watched Midnight in Paris, Gil not only time-traveled to 1920s but also 1890s, which is a time known as La Belle Epoque which means “beautiful age” in French.

In this “What if…” scenario, Natalie decided to stay in Paris during La Belle Epoque, and let Gil go back to current Paris (2011) alone. This was a period of high artistic or cultural development in Paris, and Natalie couldn’t help but was completely fascinated by the idea of living with such a wonderful art she has been always admired.

One example of What La Belle Epoque looked like to artists

*Marchand de fleurs, la rue du Havre, Paris* by Louis Marie De Schryver (1862-1942)

One thing she didn’t realize was that, well, it was 1890s. There was no internet, and the worst thing was, animation was not invented yet. As an aspiring artist who pursues (or pursued!) her dream career in animation, she was devastated and even regretted that she had stayed. It was 1908 this guy named Émile Cohl created Fantasmagorie, considered the first fully animated film ever made, and it was 1937 when Disney released its first fully animated feature film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

Natalie was almost giving up, but she decided to shift her mindset so that she would be able to dedicated herself to animation, even though she didn’t have the technology she used to use before time-traveling. She started making flip books which is a similar idea of making animation, and she became famous in Paris thanks to the uniqueness of it. She kept expressing her passion towards animation and art, when 1908 finally came, she collaborated with Émile Cohl and put her name in our current history!

(Also, I loved the idea of Natalie being Picasso’s lover in 1920 Paris, so I was also thinking that I might as well make Natalie meet Picasso on one rainy night in 1904 Paris, when Picasso moved to Paris for good 😉)

Left: A biography of Emile Cohl written by Donald Crafton
Right: A biography of Natalie Bennete designed by Yuka Seiike

Hope you enjoyed!