At first, it’s a bit disorienting watching footage of a Woody Allen film all in French, but then Vittorio Storaro’s sun-drenched frames wash up on you.
The English-subbed trailer for Allen’s 50th film has been released, via its Australian distributor. A September 27th release date is set for French theaters. It’ll also have its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival.
Why didn’t Cannes director Thierry Fremaux pick this film for his official selection? I get it, Fremaux admitted being fearful of the controversy that might hit the Croisette if he selected “Coup de Chance,” but since when has Cannes been afraid of controversy?
“Coup de Chance” has been described by Allen as a spiritual successor to “Match Point.” It’s his 50th film, a contemporary romantic thriller “charting the story of two young people whose bond leads to marital infidelity and ultimately crime.”
Watching the trailer, you do get some “Match Point” deja vu, I just hope the film can distance itself from whatever comparisons might get made to Allen’s darkly thrilling 2005 film.
The upcoming ”Coup de Chance” had two private screenings in NYC back in March and April. Roger Friedman raved about it saying it was “sensational.” The previous month, Keith McNally snuck into a private screening and was blown away as well. “Coup de Chance” was also screened at the EFM market in Berlin with one buyer emailing me, echoing McNally’s sentiments, by saying that it was Allen’s “best film in years”.
Allen, who is 87, can’t stop, won’t stop making films. Here is the official synopsis released today:
Fanny and Jean have everything, they are the ideal couple: fulfilled in their professional lives, they live in a magnificent apartment in the hifh-end districts of Paris and seem to be as in love as the first day they met. But when Fanny crosses, by chance, Alain, a former high school friend, she is immediately hooked. They see each other again, and, very quickly, get closer and closer...
So far, no U.S. distributor has picked up “Coup de Chance.” Maybe it won’t get released Stateside, who knows. The last 20 years, Allen has been very hit or miss. The films that I really liked from this timespan were “Match Point,” “Midnight in Paris,” “Blue Jasmine,” “Wonder Wheel” and the underrated, and gloomy, “Irrational Man.”
While James L. Brooks teased last year that "we'll soon be seeing" Jack Nicholson, 89, act again, and that he was "reading scripts," that idea has now been shut down by his close friend Michael Douglas, 82.