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Woody Allen’s “Coup de Chance” premiered at the Venice Film Festival on Monday. The film, which Allen directed and wrote, received a five-minute ovation from the audience.
The focus of Coup de Chance is Fanny and Jean, who look like the ideal married couple – both are professionally successful, live in a beautiful apartment in an exclusive Parisian district and seem to be just as in love as when they first met. But when Fanny accidentally meets Alain, a former high school classmate, she is completely beside herself. They soon see each other again and get closer and closer.
Allen’s fiftieth film stars Lou de Laâge, Valérie Lemercier, Melvil Poupaud, Niels Schneider, Elsa Zylberstein, Bárbara Goenaga, Grégory Gadebois, Anne Loiret, Sara Martins, Guillaume de Tonquédec and Arnaud Viard.
The 87-year-old director received a warm welcome from the press and applauded everyone.
“I was very, very lucky. I’ve been lucky all my life. I had two loving parents and good friends. “I have a wonderful wife and marriage, two children…When I started making films, all the people emphasized what I was good at…they were generous,” Allen said.
Before the premiere, a group of around 20 protesters reportedly marched down the festival’s red carpet, chanting things like “No rape culture” and “A rapist is not a sick man, he is the healthy son of the patriarchy.” Allen had just walked onto the carpet , when the demonstration began.
It was broken up by festival police minutes later. A day earlier, banners reading “Island of Rapists” and “No Golden Lion for Predators” were posted around the festival to protest against Allen and Roman Polanski, whose film “The Palace” is up for the top prize this year.
One of the demonstrators told the Hollywood Reporter they were protesting “the rape culture of this festival that celebrates men accused of assault while we have an epidemic of femicide in our country.”
Graffiti is seen on the floor during a protest at the 80th Venice International Film Festival 2023 Marc Piasecki/Getty Images
Allen has previously described Coup de Chance as “a contemporary story of romance, passion and violence in contemporary Paris.”
“Shot across the city and a bit in the countryside, the film revolves around a romance between two young people who are old friends, which leads to marital infidelity and ultimately crime,” he continued. “The main roles are played by very talented French actors and actresses, everything is in French and looks very beautiful, photographed by the great cinematographer Vittorio Storaro.” I leave the rest to surprise.”