58 years after making his debut feature, Woody Allen is sitting “on the fence” about whether his latest movie Coup de Chance, his 50th feature, will be his last cinematic outing.
The veteran filmmaker has given an interview to AirMail, in which he was asked whether Coup de Chance, an erotic thriller filmed in France, with French-speaking actors, will be his last movie.
Allen said:
“I’m on the fence about it. I don’t want to have to go out to raise money. I find that a pain in the neck,” he says. “But if someone shows up and calls in and says we want to back the film, then I would seriously consider it. I would probably not have the willpower to say no, because I have so many ideas.”
Coup de Chance was released in the US by MPI Media Group, distributors of Allen’s last two titles, in theaters on Friday, and is set to be released on digital and VOD platforms on April 12.
Despite some favorable reviews comparing the movie with a previous one by Allen, Match Point, the delay between the film being made and it being picked up for release, has tested the director’s sangfroid about the state of the movie industry now compared with earlier chapters in his long career.
He told AirMail:
“It doesn’t matter to me whether I get distributed here or not. Once I make it, I don’t follow it anymore. Distribution is no longer what it was. Now distribution is two weeks in a cinema… The whole business has changed, and not in an appealing way. All the romance of filmmaking is gone.”
Allen has weathered diminished fandom for his movies in recent years, not least because of controversy over allegations made by his former partner Mia Farrow, all of which he has long denied. He said of the prospect of being “cancelled” in the same interview:
“Someone asked me about cancel culture, and I said, ‘If you’re going to be cancelled, this is the culture that you want to be cancelled from.’ Because who wants to be part of this culture?”
