2023-09-17 21:54:36
Woody Allen continues to tour Europe. If his previous film, Rifkin’s Festivalwas filmed in San Sebastián and presented at the Zinemaldia, with Stroke of luck has returned to the city that gave him such good results with Midnight in Paris. Europe has become an artistic refuge for Allen. After the outbreak of Me Too and the return of his adopted daughter’s accusations of sexual abuse – a charge for which he was never tried due to lack of evidence – the United States stopped producing his films… and releasing them. His previous work remains unseen in his country, and Stroke of luck ―which arrives in Spanish theaters on September 29― it seems that it will suffer the same fate despite the good reviews of this thriller with touches of humor that has a lot to do with Match Point.
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Despite this, Allen confessed at the last Venice Festival that, at 87 years old, he has not lost the hope that “a crazy person” will give him the money to shoot an idea he has for a film in his city, New York. It doesn’t look like it’s going to happen. Despite this, he does not have any type of resentment towards the US, and he emphasizes how much they have always loved him and supported him even with films that he believes did not deserve it.
In a meeting with a small group of journalists at the Venice Film Festival after the good reviews of Stroke of luck, Allen – who this Monday the 18th will play with his jazz band in Barcelona – explained that he has always had “a lot of love in the US.” “They have always been very kind, US critics and audiences overlooked the mistakes of my films when I started and wrote only about the good things. I have had a lot of success with the American public, but it is true that in Europe they immediately supported me. As soon as I made my first film in France, in Italy and throughout Europe, they treated me like one of their own, and as the years went by, if I made a film that was not so well received in the US, in European countries they found things hello good. It has been very interesting. In Europe I have always felt more affection from the heart,” he points out.
Woody Allen always responds like a comedian. He gives the serious part first, and then finishes with a final gag. He demonstrates this when he analyzes what he believes is the reason for the European affection that he has not received in the US in recent years. “People always ask me this and only two things come to mind. The first is that when I started I loved European films so much and I watched them so much that they get into your blood and that is what emerges later, that influence. The second possibility is that my films gained something from the translation, that when translated they were better,” he says, culminating his joke.
In his scripts he has laughed at almost everything, and although he does believe that people are more offended now, he assures that he has no problem removing phrases from his scripts if he considers that he has crossed the line. He even confesses that he has done it on occasion: “Yes, I think it has happened to me. If I’m writing or making a movie, or even filming it, and I see that something I thought was funny isn’t funny, but is just insulting, I cut it out of the script. Now, if I consider that it is an important point of the script for the film and someone tells me that they think people will not like it, but I think it is honest and important for the film, then I don’t care, I leave it . But there are times when I think something is smart, funny and brilliant and it isn’t. “It’s stupid, or just plain offensive, and we take it down.”
If I’m writing or making a movie, or even filming it, and I see something that I thought was funny isn’t funny, but is just insulting, I cut it out of the script.
Woody Allen — Director of cinema
Although he removes phrases if they offend, he does believe that the climate makes everything offensive. “I don’t know if it happens here too, but in the US we are going through a period in which people get offended all the time. Look what happened to Bradley Cooper’s nose – the actor was accused of anti-Semitism for the prosthetic nose used in Maestro―. Please give me a break. You will always find some strong opinions, some small minority who will give their opinion and get offended. It’s such a stupid thing… there was no trace of anti-Semitism. No sign. But you can always find people who are offended, and the press loves those people, because suddenly they have a controversy. It was boring to write about it, but it goes from being a simple movie to talking about anti-Semitism… And in the US a lot of things like that happen,” he says.
The thing about Bradley Cooper’s nose seems like a minor thing to him. In Annie Hall He appeared characterized with all the stereotypes of Orthodox Jews to show how people imagine them. That’s not a scene I would cut from the script now. “I would still do it. You have a lot of time to think if something is offensive. I see it in the dailies [material de cada día de grabación en un rodaje], in the montage, in the first montage of the film. If I see something offensive and my editor agrees with me, if it is something cruel to people or insulting, we can live without that scene. People are paying a lot of money to see a movie. Too much money. My daughter went to see the other day Megalodon 2, that shark movie, and it cost $27 to get in. “I went to the movies for 27 cents on the dollar.”
“Young people cannot afford to go to the movies. People pay to see movies and I’m not looking to give them a bad time or make them leave the screening or make them feel like they were insulted and that there was something terribly offensive. But I also don’t want to think all the time that this or that is offensive. That African Americans won’t like this. That women won’t like that. That the Jews will not like the other. Or Asians won’t like it. You know, being politically correct,” he says.
He denies that being a film director is hard work, the other way around. “A hard job is being a taxi driver, or someone who breaks stones on the street, those are hard jobs. Or a teacher. Show business is not. You come in in the morning, they offer you a coffee, everyone wants to do things for you. You tell them what to do and they do it. If you tell them something is wrong, they do it again. Or you thank them. I’ve always been lazy. I was never someone like Spielberg or Scorsese, who are ten at night and still searching for perfection. That never mattered to me. I finish at six in the afternoon. I don’t care if the last take wasn’t good, it will be good enough. “I go home, have dinner and watch the basketball game or the baseball game,” he says.
As if that were not enough, one finishes a film in “six months, eight at most,” and the rest of the year “there is nothing to do.” “You could say that someone who has worked in film as a director or as a writer or as an actor has never done a single full day of work in his life. I feel like I’ve never done a day’s work like a man who goes to an office and sits at a desk all day. So no, this job does not require energy, at most a little energy, but nothing more.”
I’ve always been lazy. I was never someone like Spielberg or Scorsese, who are ten at night and still looking for perfection. I finished six in the afternoon no matter how I am
Woody Allen — Director of cinema
Although it is not one of his greatest critical successes – despite Penelope Cruz’s Oscar – Allen always gives an example to Vicky Cristina Barcelona. He considers it one of his greatest works, but above all he remembers it as one of the best filming experiences. One that showed him that you don’t need to know a language to be moved. “There are moments in that movie with Penelope and Javier Bardem that I still don’t know what they say. They improvised and started yelling at each other and arguing. I don’t speak a word of Spanish, but I could see that this was wonderful. I don’t have to know the language to know that the emotion was there,” he recalls.
In Stroke of luck The theme of chance appears, of course, but Allen knows that the more money you have, the more likely you are to have better luck: “The rich are very lucky, of course. In life the most important thing is health. The second most important thing is knowledge. And the third most important thing is money. It is important in life to have enough money. “You don’t have to be rich, but you have to have enough money to survive.”
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