Woody Allen
His take on Cancel Culture and #MeToo
Woody Allen is currently in Venice presenting his new film.
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Woody Allen presents his new film in Venice, where he spoke about the #MeToo movement – and where he sees it as “silly”.
In view of the serious allegations that his adopted daughter Dylan Farrow (38) is still making against him, director Woody Allen (87) is certainly one of the most controversial guests at this year’s Venice Film Festival – probably only topped by Roman Polański (90 ). In an interview with the US industry magazine “Variety”, Allen also talked about the #MeToo movement and the cancel culture in addition to his new film, the French production “Coup de Chance”.
He certainly describes himself as an advocate of #MeToo, but with one caveat: “Any movement that actually leads to improvements […] for women, for example, is a good thing.” He had read about such examples. But he had also “read in newspaper articles about examples where it was silly”.
Allen didn’t give a specific example, but went on to get to the point. “It’s silly when it’s not really a feminist issue or it’s not about injustices against women. When there’s too much trying to make it an issue when in reality most people don’t see it as an offensive situation would.”
His last film?
Since the #MeToo movement, Allen has only been sporadically in his native USA. Amazon Prime, which produced the romantic comedy, distanced itself from the film “A Rainy Day in New York” after the renewed allegations against the director. The following strip “Rifkin’s Festival” (2020) was a Spanish, Italian and US American co-production, “Coup de Chance” did not involve any US involvement at all.
Does Allen see himself as “cancelled” in view of this development? “I don’t think about it,” says the filmmaker. “I don’t really know what it means to be canceled. I know it’s all stayed the same for me over the years. […] I write a screenplay, raise the money for it, make the film, shoot it, edit it and then it gets released.”
However, he admitted that raising money in particular was increasingly dreading him and making him consider retiring: “It’s always such a struggle trying to find money for a film. Do I still want to do it?” He is also bothered by how the film business has recently developed: “I don’t like the idea […] that you make a film and two weeks later it’s on TV or on a streaming service.”