Woody Allen is also present at this year’s Venice Film Festival. The world premiere of his 50th film, “Coup de Chance”, will take place there on Monday (September 4th). It may also be his last feature film as the director appears to be considering retiring.
The 87-year-old has little financial support in the United States because of allegations of sexual abuse by his daughter Dylan Farrow. He told Variety that he wasn’t sure he’d want to work that hard to get support for his work at his age. Allen has denied all allegations of sexual abuse.
“I was like, this is my 50th film and I have to decide if I want to do more films,” Allen said. “I thought about two things. The first is that raising money for a film is always so exhausting. And do I want to go through this? Making the film is one thing, but raising the money is tiring and not glamorous.”
The director also has a problem with the rise of streaming platforms: “The other thing is in which direction films have developed. I don’t like the idea — and I don’t know of any other director who does — to make a film and see it on TV or streaming platforms two weeks later.”
When asked directly about the allegations and his take on the #MeToo movement, Allen called aspects of the movement “silly.”
“I think any movement that has actual benefit, where it’s doing something positive, like for women, is a good thing,” Allen explains. “If it’s going to be silly, then it’s silly. I’ve read of cases where it was very beneficial, where the situation was very beneficial for women, and that’s good. If I read some instances of a story in the newspaper where it’s silly, it’s silly.”
Allen continues, “It’s silly if it’s not really an issue of feminism or injustice to women. When trying to the extreme to create a problem when in fact most would not even perceive it as an offensive situation.”
The ‘Midnight in Paris’ director has continued to maintain his innocence over the allegations Farrow made against him. He also emphasizes that he has always campaigned for equal rights for women on his sets, from equal opportunities to equal salaries.