A very specific warning came after Woody Allen met with a small group of journalists in a hotel suite in central Barcelona. “No MeToo, Rubiales or personal questions”, warns someone from the organization. And in a tone of veiled threat he adds: “There will be someone watching.” For a New York filmmaker with a career spanning more than 50 years to go to Barcelona, among other things, talk about your latest movie The film’s distribution company, however, feels it is necessary to assign someone to ensure that no questions are raised about Luis Rubiales. It seems like a scene with undeniably comedic possibilities. After all, no one asks about Rubiales.
In reality, Woody Allen is making a proposal in the Catalan capital Two concerts as clarinetist at Teatre Tívoli Takes advantage of stay as part of and for promotion of the 55th Voll-Damm Jazz Festival in Barcelona ‘Luck shot’, 50th film of his filmography as a directorIt will premiere in Spain on September 29. The round number invites grand gestures, and Allen, who is about to turn 88, has himself fueled speculation with somewhat vague statements. This could be the last title of his prolific career.
money problem
When asked for an explanation on the subject, he replies, “50 films are too many.” Moreover now The movies are in theaters for only two weeks. and then they go straight to television and streaming platforms. Making a movie that people will be watching from their beds two weeks after its premiere is neither exciting nor flashy. Now if someone came to me and said, “Here’s the money you need to make the movie you want to make,” the temptation would be hard to resist because the truth is, I have ideas to make more movies. ” So, is the biggest problem finding financing? “It always has been. When people ask me “I always answer what is the hardest part of making a movie: finding the money.”.
This difficulty in raising money has been exacerbated in recent years by the shadow it casts on the filmmaker, especially in the United States. sexual abuse allegations against him by his adopted stepdaughter Dylan Farrow (dismissed in court due to lack of evidence). This situation forced Allen to film outside his country perhaps more often than he would have liked. If you have previous movie, ‘Rifkin’s Festival’Set in San Sebastián, co-produced by Mediapro, ‘Blow of Luck’ is a French production set in Paris. Woody Allen for the first time directed a film spoken in a language that was not his own, but assures that it’s not too much of an issue. “It may seem difficult, but it’s not. I communicated with the actors in English, and because I wasn’t so aware of what they were saying, I was able to focus more on their expressions, their emotions. It’s like watching a Japanese movie: Even if you don’t know how to speak Japanese, you can tell which actors are good and who are bad.”
The importance of luck
Starring Lou de Laage, Melvil Poupaud and Valérie Lemercier, ‘Luck of Luck’ is an entertaining black comedy and at the same time A light exploration of how luck determines the course of our lives. Somewhat at odds with the cosmic pessimism with which he has dressed his public persona for years, and circumnavigating the serious reputational problems he has faced in the last decade, Allen basically describes himself as a very lucky man. “I owe a lot of my career to good luck. Being in the right place at the right time. “It’s true that I work hard too, but to have a long and more or less successful career in this business you have to be very lucky because there are so many things that are out of your control.”
Underestimating his own talent and gaining public credit is one of the New York filmmaker’s strategies to protect himself from criticism. For example, he does this when talking about (magnificent) works. cinematographer Vittorio Storaro On ‘Lucky Luck’: “Storaro is a genius. I’ve been lucky enough to work with great cinematographers throughout my life. They love working with me because I give them a lot of freedom and respect their creative vision. For this reason My movies look great and I just don’t want to ruin them. “That’s the way I work: Cast a good cinematographer and a few good actors, stand back and let them do their thing.”
And he does it again when asked to look back and pick his favorite moments from his film career, which began as a screenwriter and actor in 1965. ‘How are you, Kitten?’ (“It’s a terrible movie, but it’s quite successful,” he notes). His retrospective judgment is unusually harsh: “I’ve always been disappointed with the films I’ve made. That’s why after I make them, I never look at them again. If one of my movies comes on TV while I’m working out in the morning, I immediately turn it off because all I can think about is what isn’t right and what I would change. I have a few movies that I really like, I love them ‘Match Point’, ‘Vicky Cristina Barcelona’, ‘Midnight in Paris’, ‘The Purple Rose of Cairo’, ‘Bullets on Broadway’… I have made 50 films and maybe I can find 10 that I like. “I don’t like the other 40.”
Failure as learning
It is surprising that in evaluating his greatest works, Allen leaves out some of the most widely agreed upon works: ‘Annie Hall’ (1977), ‘Manhattan’ (1979), ‘Broadway Danny Rose’ (1984). ), ‘Crimes and Misdemeanors’ (1989)… The director says that in his early years, “making comedies with more or less funny jokes” was enough for him, and that he felt more responsibility as the years went by. “As you get older and your technique improves, you start to think that there is an audience coming to see your films. You owe him at least an effort to do something different and, if possible, better.. There is no use repeating the same formula anymore. In the process you learn to assume that you will fail many times because no one is good enough to constantly improve themselves, it just doesn’t work that way. But you also learn this Failure isn’t such a scary thing. “If your movie isn’t that good, no one will come and shoot you.”
The time allotted to meet the press is running out, so one of the journalists present decides to tempt fate and bypasses the initial ban by asking a question of a personal, almost intimate nature. “Appears in several scenes of ‘Golpe de Luck’ a fantastic electric train. Interested in electric trains? Did you have it when you were a child?” “The truth is I’ve never been impressed by them,” he replies. My dad bought me one once, but it was just lying around, so I didn’t find it very interesting.”