Venice Film Festival
Protest and applause: Woody Allen presents new film
Woody Allen arrives at the premiere of the film “Coup de Chance” in Venice. photo
© Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP/dpa
The premiere of the comedy “Coup de Chance” at the Venice Film Festival provoked mixed reactions: demonstrators gathered on the red carpet, the cinema audience applauded.
There was applause in the cinema hall, but also protests in front of the building: US director Woody Allen has in Venice presents its 50th film. The comedy “Coup de Chance” premiered at the film festival on Monday evening. As the industry magazine “Hollywood Reporter” reported, a group of about 20 demonstrators gathered at the edge of the red carpet while Allen walked on it. The group shouted: “No spotlight for raping directors!” The background to earlier allegations of abuse against Allen. His adopted daughter Dylan Farrow accused him of sexually abusing her when she was seven. Allen has always rejected the allegations, a court decades ago largely agreed with him.
In the cinema, however, “Coup de Chance” received a lot of applause. In the comedy, Allen has once again taken on a dialogue-heavy relationship story. Much of what is known from the works of the 87-year-old appears again: neurotic characters from the artistic milieu, ironic humor and jazz music.
“Coup de Chance” is set in Paris. At first glance, Fanny (Lou de Laâge) and Jean (Melvil Poupaud) have a great marriage. But then Fanny bumps into her school friend Alain (Niels Schneider) again and things get complicated.
French is spoken in the film. Allen said in Venice his decision to shoot in France and in French was born out of his lifelong love of European cinema: “When I was younger, the films that impressed us the most were when we all started to be filmmakers , European cinema, all the French films, Italian films, Swedish films. We all wanted to make films like Europeans.”