The premiere of the director’s 50th movie, “Coup de Chance.” However, it did not appease the demonstrators who pleaded with organizers to “turn the spotlight off of rapists.”
Although Woody Allen hasn’t had a movie released in the US in six years, the Venice Film Festival was nevertheless keen to give the 87-year-old director’s most recent work the red carpet treatment. But not everyone there was happy to have the filmmaker there.
His most recent picture, “Coup de Chance,” made its Venice premiere on Monday and received the lengthy standing ovation that is traditional for festival premieres. However, protesters are said to have removed their shirts before the film and distributed paper with the request that the festival “turn the spotlight off of rapists.”
Allen is not the only filmmaker in Venice who is embroiled in controversy; he has always refuted claims of sexual assault made by his adoptive daughter Dylan Farrow. The festival debuted “Dogman” by Luc Besson earlier this week, who was accused of sexual assault in 2019 but was cleared by prosecutors, as well as “The Palace” by Roman Polanski, who was found guilty of having sex with a minor illegally in 1977 but fled the country before he could be sentenced.
Allen’s 50th movie, “Coup de Chance,” is also his first French-language production. A married woman reconnects with an old flame in this suspenseful thriller featuring Lou de Laâge and Melvil Poupaud, which prompts her jealous husband to consider murder.
Allen’s “Coup de Chance” was hailed by Variety critic Owen Gleiberman as his best movie since “Blue Jasmine” in 2013, but just like his most recent two releases, “Rifkin’s Festival” and “A Rainy Day in New York,” it is not currently available in the United States. The 2017 drama “Wonder Wheel,” starring Kate Winslet, was the final Allen movie to be released in the United States.
This week, Allen was questioned once more about the Dylan Farrow allegations in a Variety interview. I always have the same response,” he said. “Two big investigating bodies, not two people, but two major bodies, have looked into the case. Both came to the conclusion that the accusations were without substance following extensive, thorough examinations.
Allen hinted in the same interview that after “Coup de Chance,” he had pondered quitting since he no longer wanted to raise money to finance his movies. I don’t know what it means to be canceled, he added, though. I am aware that for me, nothing has changed through the years. I create my own films.