Woody Allen: «Life? As long as it works”

«GThank God there are the French.” It was 2002 and the finale of Hollywood Ending – an American director who, due to temporary blindness, made a rambling film that American critics panned and Europeans went into raptures – has today the value of prophecy. Woody Allen, 88 years old on November 30, made the very first exile film. Is titled Coup de chanceMeaning what Fluke as the Italian title says, but also “joke of chance”, and it is his third film shot in France, but the first in French – which Woody doesn’t speak – with non-American actors, which Woody would have wanted – but they were not available. The result, and it is certainly a “coup de chance”, is a rather beautiful film, which passed out of competition at the last Venice Film Festival, which will be seen in cinemas on December 6th.

Fisherman’s hat and high-waisted trousers, unmistakable Allen look, the director of Manhattan And Me and Anniehe tells I Woman how the idea of ​​this film to be inscribed was born, and let’s record the comment of the French monthly Positive«in the dark and detective vein» of his filmography. In fact, there are many crimes and misdeeds that are recorded in 96 minutes, but at the screening for the press in the lagoon, many drew laughter and one, oh wonder!, open applause.

«The starting idea was simple: a young married woman has an affair, her husband finds out and, since he is a rich and influential person, he decides to eliminate his rival completely, not just beating him or shooting him, but actually making him disappear off the face of the earth” summarizes Woody Allen.

Why choose to work with foreign actors at this point in your career?
At first I wanted them to be Americans, I called a couple of friends, but they couldn’t drop everything they were doing to come to Europe. So I said to myself: «Why not do it in French? I have idolized European cinema since I was young, I always wanted to be a European director, but it didn’t work out for me. I will be able to be a French filmmaker at least for the duration of a film.” And even though I don’t speak the language, it wasn’t difficult: even in a Japanese film without subtitles you can tell if an actor is acting well or badly.

Lou de Laâge, Melvil Poupaud and Neils Schneider actually act very well…
I didn’t know any of them. They all turned out to be talented, nice and kind. I encouraged them to improvise and at the end I asked the interpreter: “Did they say something terrible?”

They are a rich bourgeois couple and a bohemian writer. How had you imagined them from the beginning?
I wanted her to be elegant and cool, but able to be a girl again, and Lou did that beautifully. While the husband had to be charming, don’t look like a criminal, a guy capable of having a good conversation in short. The writer is the most interesting character, in my opinion, because being an artist, he stands outside society, he observes it in its conformity and rebels by not adapting to expectations. Artists are necessary in this world, but not all of them can be, otherwise there would be chaos.

The Cannes festival, where she has presented most of her films lately, did not want this. Maybe out of fear of scandal? (Woody Allen is now considered a pariah in America, even if two separate investigations have ruled that there is no place to proceed regarding the accusations of molestation of his daughter Dylan and psychologists have even raised the doubt that Dylan was influenced by her mother Mia Farrow)
It’s their choice, I have nothing to say about it. I’m not a big fan of festivals, I go because the producers tell me to and because it helps the films. I don’t like promoting movies, I don’t like doing what I’m doing right now, saying the movie is good, we worked hard and the red carpet hysteria. But I have a responsibility, wherever they tell me to go I go, Cannes, Venice, it doesn’t matter.

Are Soon Yi and her family accompanying her?
One of the reasons I accept invitations is that my wife loves to travel and is a professional shopper.

There were many who didn’t bet on the duration of your union. What is the secret of your long marriage?
I do everything she says. In December it will be 25 years since we got married in Venice (it was the then mayor Massimo Cacciari who celebrated it, ed). It’s true, everyone said: «What a strange marriage, he is so much older. It won’t last.” They criticized us, they claimed that she would manipulate me, or that I would manipulate her. Instead we have two daughters (Bechet, 24 years old, of Chinese origin and Manzie Tio, 23, born in Texas, ed) and we have fun and love each other.

How will you celebrate the anniversary?
Very modestly, I will take my wife to the restaurant. But I will be very happy anyway.

The daughters at work on the set of Emily in Paris

Do your daughters work in the cinema?
They’re starting, one works on Emily in Paris (Bechet is a costume designer, and also worked on his father’s last two films, ed). And the other, which was about to reach it, was blocked by the strike. They love living in Paris, although I think they will eventually settle in New York with us. They are fine in New York, but for now they are happy to be in France and, unlike me, they speak French perfectly.

On some occasions he said he was ready, despite himself, for retirement. AND Like this? AND a defeat?
Those who say that the hardest part of making a film is writing and directing are wrong. For me the hardest part has always been finding the money. Because I have rules and I’m not willing to compromise. I don’t want anyone to read the script and that means the financiers have to give me the money on trust. And then every decision on the film is mine, they can’t tell me: “We’ll give you money if you choose this or that actor.” Sometimes it works, more and more often it doesn’t. And then, to get the result, I have to have meetings, lunches, and I no longer want to go through all this. But if I no longer had to make films I would still be happy: I can always write books and plays.

He gives the impression, with age, of being a little less neurotic. AND Like this? Have you found a new balance?
No, no, I’m still sad and desperate (look down and protected by the brim of my hat, but we sense the hint of a smile, ed).

He has said in the past of Hollywood that “it’s a very funny place because everyone is so ambitious, so stupid.” But Europe has so far responded to the call and its films, relatively low budget, with actors paid by the union, have been made here for some years…
But there is also the problem of frenzy, films are no longer given time to attract the public to the theatre. In two weeks everything is done and the film ends up immediately on the platform or on TV. People look at things in bed, while cooking. The audience laughing together no longer exists, a sadness.

Life like the robbery in Take the Money and Run

He transferred themes, the power of chance, and figures, chic, white, Protestant America, from New York to Europe. Yet they are very different societies.
It’s not like that, it works the same way everywhere. My first film, Take the Money and Run, it had cost a million dollars. They told me: «Aren’t you scared? You’ve never made a film before and they give you a million.” Why should I? I had written the film, it worked, it’s not like open heart surgery. He is not much different from a man who robs a bank. It can go well or badly for him. And it works identically in New York and France. Our very existence in life is entrusted to chance. We can convince ourselves that we have everything under control, but we know that everything can change at any moment whether we like it or not: life is a lottery.

He writes books (The Last, Zero Gravityreleased in Italy for La nave di Teseo), and also managed to organize a European musical tour.
It’s not difficult to multitask. It’s difficult to drive a taxi in New York, or to be a bricklayer or a school teacher for a starvation salary. I could say I haven’t worked a single day in my life. I get up early in the morning and write, we eat at the restaurant, in the evening I mostly watch sports on TV, or old films, the news and then I go to bed… My father worked, my mother worked, in a flower shop, every day. It’s not hard to do what I do, they give you a lot of money and make your life enjoyable.

In Hollywood Ending his character said: «I wouldn’t spend thirty seconds on what the critics write, they are the lowest level of culture». AND amazed by the positive reviews the film has received, including many American media?
I haven’t read them in years. I used to do it, I even read the local newspapers, until I realized that in Minnesota, Texas or Pennsylvania they saw the film in very different ways. And then I never read a word again, I don’t reread the interviews I give, the articles about me. The important thing is to work: if you work well, everything will be fine, if the film isn’t good it will end up forgotten. Then sometimes the opposite also happens, but you can’t do anything about it.

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