Woody Allen hasn’t had a picture released in the United States in six years, but the Venice picture Festival was keen to throw out the red carpet for the 87-year-old director’s newest attempt. However, not everyone in attendance embraced the director warmly.
His latest film, “Coup de Chance,” premiered in Venice on Monday and received a standing ovation lasting several minutes, as is common at most festival openings. Protesters allegedly removed their shirts outside the screening and handed out pieces of paper begging the festival to “turn the spotlight off of rapists.”
Allen is hardly the only filmmaker at Venice who has rejected sexual assault allegations made by his adoptive daughter Dylan Farrow for decades. Earlier this week, the festival screened “Dogman” by Luc Besson, who was accused of sexual assault but exonerated by authorities in 2019, as well as “The Palace” by Roman Polanski, who was convicted of illegal intercourse with a child in 1977 but left the United States before being sentenced.
“Coup de Chance” is Allen’s 50th film and his first in French. It’s a Paris-set dramatic thriller starring Lou de Laâge and Melvil Poupaud about a married lady who reconnects with an old sweetheart, which leads her possessive husband to thoughts of murder.
Variety reviewer Owen Gleiberman dubbed “Coup de Chance” Allen’s greatest picture since “Blue Jasmine” in 2013, although it, like his previous two films, “Rifkin’s Festival” and “A Rainy Day in New York,” has yet to be released in the United States. Allen’s most recent film to be released in the United States was the 2017 drama “Wonder Wheel,” starring Kate Winslet.
Allen was questioned about the Dylan Farrow claims again in an interview with Variety this week. “My reaction has always been the same,” he said. “The situation has been investigated by two people, two major investigative bodies, not people.” And, after extensive examinations, both found that the accusations were without merit.”
In the same interview, Allen hinted that he was thinking of retiring after “Coup de Chance,” since he no longer wants to go through the process of seeking funds to finance his projects. “I don’t know what it means to be cancelled,” he said. I know that everything has remained the same for me throughout the years. “I make my own films.”
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