So here we are. Woody Allen is making his fiftieth film. And on the fiftieth – at least that’s what he said at the time of the announcement, now Venice 80 shown – the last of his entire career should also fit in. And it’s cruel. But it’s also right in the middle of the light comedy we know so well (which makes it even wilder). And he returns once again to a theme, that of happiness and how much it determines our lives more than any other factor, which he seems to obsess over more than anyone else over the course of several films. According to some, some of them are among his best. Why Coup of opportunity It’s an even wilder and more brutal Match Point, but in the tone of Woody Allen’s lighter and more humorous comedies. It is a graduation film to many things, but also a harbinger of many new things. Which is great for a (possibly) farewell film.
Paris, city of love
Paris. Woody Allen chooses it – and chooses a film performed entirely in French – because it is one of the cities he loves most in the world. And here he already shows that he wants to put everything he loves into Coup de Chance. Because Paris is the city of love. But put it in your hands by Allen from Match Point, ready to get very black. One morning like thousands of others, two school friends meet again after years. she is Fanny (Lou de Laâge), marriage with an artist behind him, remarriage to the rich as the mysterious and disturbing Jean (now very popular Melvil Poupaud of French cinema), good work, auction house, no reason to mess up life. He Alain (Niels Schneider), bohemian, with another failed marriage behind him, now a writer.
He recognizes her because he was secretly in love with her He has thought about her all these years since high school, while she barely has a vague memory of her. They meet like this, for a coup de chance, a stroke of luck. They start hanging out on their lunch breaks. They like each other. They’re getting closer. Fanny “betrays” Jean. But Jean is starting to eat the paper, and the discovery that he would have earned all the money after the mysterious disappearance of his partner years ago, for whom there was talk of suicide, murder or kidnapping, does not reassure us at all. The stroke of luck could turn into bad luck for some.
Coup de Chance (almost) like Match Point
Vittorio Storaro’s photography through contrasts
“Whoever said: “I would rather have luck than talent” has recognized the essence of life. People are afraid to admit how important happiness is in life. It’s frightening to think it’s so out of control. Sometimes in a play the ball hits the backboard and can go over or back for a moment. With a bit of luck it goes further and then you win. Or not, and then you lose.”
Like in Match Point, with the famous opening sequence where a narrator told us about itMeaning of happiness Set against the backdrop of a tennis court net, this film was also expected to be Allen’s return one of his wildest films And for many who appreciate Allen’s wildness more than his lightness, he is one of his best. Coup de chance everyone will agree, will combine drama and light comedy in a lively and sublimely false way.
Of course it had been there before Crimes and Misdemeanors (And there too, as in “Match Point”, it was about luck as an instrument of ultimate impunity). In Irrational man Instead, we had the opposite result: the Match Point ring became a torch. In both cases the cause was murder. The stroke of luck (or bad luck) only affected the epilogue. Here, however, it is present throughout the entire film. It is the root of the meeting. It becomes crucial in all moments of revelation. And it returns more unexpectedly and ironically than ever in the finale, which of course we don’t want to tell you.
The entire film, the situations, but also the dialogues that directly address him, such as Abe Lucas’ philosophy lessons in “Irrational Man”, are a handbook of his many nuances. As brutal as Match Point, as jazzy as Vicky Christina Barcelona. Only a Woody Allen could have the courage and irony to incorporate his opening credits music into a scene with a corpse. And cause the viewer to, with all the carelessness in the world, calculate the size of the pocket it should be in and wonder if they actually tore it to pieces before putting it in. “Coup de chance” is like the shotgun scene from “Match Point,” but with the humorous, offbeat joy of “Midnight in Paris.” It’s something of a middle ground that he tried with the hugely successful Blue Jasmine.
Woody Allen still teaches
Melvil Poupaud in Coup de Chance
We were a little afraid of this fiftieth anniversary. Woody Allen’s latest films didn’t convince us at all, especially not the Rifkin’s Festival. Today, however, “Coup de chance” proves to us – even in the face of the searing disappointments we have experienced here in Venice 80, from Liliana Cavani’s film to Roman Polanski’s – that Woody Allen is one of the few (almost) nonagenarians capable of this are still making great films. Talk about what he loves for as long as he’s allowed, but show it in the meantime unexpected news. In short, one of those for whom a bad film is just a “coincidence” and has nothing to do with senility.
To tell you something new from many: We challenge everyone at the age of 87 and after 50 films to write a villain in the modern sense of villain. Because Woody Allen wrote a lot of villains, but Melvil Poupaud is a villain in the truest sense of the word. One that validates and confirms the other vision of the world regarding happiness like Harvey Two-Face, who “makes his own luck”. To write life like this, with this freshness, with this philosophy, to take it philosophically: It is Woody Allen who takes us all back to school again. We wish him to do it again and again – as he hopes at the press conference here in Venice 80. But if you think about it, this would be the perfect ending: well-rounded, coherent, lively, wild, carefree, a completely Alenian character.
“Coup de chance” is not one of those films where you wait for the black screen to appear and leave. It’s one of those movies where we tremble because of the black screen to applaud.
Keep following us on CiakClub.it for all live Venice Film Festival reviews!