We haven’t heard from Woody Allen since. A rainy day in New Yorkreleased in 2019. Here it is again with Rifkin’s Festival, a joyful comedy that pays tribute to the founding films of his cinephilia. “I loved cinema passionately, confides the 86-year-old director to 20 minutes. And I would like to give the public a taste for all these classic films that I have loved. »
Rifkin’s Festival takes place at the San Sebastián Film Festival, in Spain, where Mort Rifkin, a disillusioned film historian (Wallace Shawn who irresistibly brings to mind Woody Allen), sees his press attaché wife (Gina Gershon) being flirted with by a filmmaker from avant-garde (Louis Garrel in French lover intellectual). “Louis Garrel has the charm and the sense of humor necessary to feed this character”, believes Woody Allen. Elena Anaya and Sergi Lopez round out a cast busy debating and loving between filming sessions in a sun-drenched city.
Fantasy and respect
The subject of his film allows Woody Allen to scratch the cinema as it is practiced today. “My disaffection came little by little, insists the filmmaker. Among recent films, there is hardly Phantom Thread by Paul Thomas Anderson that I really liked. I no longer find my account, neither in blockbusters, nor in films that are too intellectual. “Through the fantasies of his hero, a jealous old film buff, Woody Allen pastiches all those who have marked him, Jean-Luc Godard, Federico Fellini or Ingmar Bergman, of whom we will remember a parody of the Seventh Seal led by Christoph Waltz as Death. “There is a playful side of mad cinema lovers in these fantasies, he admits. But also an immense respect for the directors I quote. »
And after ? Rifkin’s Festival, his 49th feature film, will be followed by a final opus that the director will shoot in September in France, “a country that has always supported me”, he says. Then the director will definitely bow out. “Fifty films is a good number to stop,” he said. At 86, I have less energy and I’ve lost the sacred fire to look for funding and experience the stress of filming. »
Although he has always denied them, the accusations of sexual assault by his adopted daughter have undoubtedly deeply affected Woody Allen, especially as they have led many professionals, in the wake of the MeToo movement, to turn the blame on him. back. The director then had much more difficulty setting up his projects, he who had accustomed the public to presenting him with one feature film per year and who had not released one for three years, before this excellent Rifkin’s Festival.