I did not successfully lobby for Woody Allen Summer Project 2022 placing on our list of most-anticipated 2023 films. Rather than get into any reasoning for or arguments against the artist’s exile, we might all focus on the art: yet another work about somebody committing a horrible crime and finding small moral struggle with their decision.
I jest, though Allen’s hyped his next as a “poisonous romantic thriller” with explicit reference to Match Point, and today it’s known the picture––his first French-language production, titled Coup de Chance (Stroke of Luck en Anglais)––will make some appearance at the Berlinale’s EFM this month. (Which is to say: no distribution yet, but screened at least in part, if not fully, for anybody willing to release a Woody Allen film stateside in 2023.) Attached to the news is a first still featuring stars Lou De Laâge and Niels Schneider, the explicit reference to Coup as a policier (à la Le Cercle Rouge or Touchez pas au grisbi), and this small summary from the director:
“Coup de Chance is a contemporary story of romance, passion and violence set in contemporary Paris. Shot all over the city and a little bit in the countryside, it evolves around a romance between two young people who are old friends and devolves into marital infidelity and ultimately crime. It stars very gifted French actors and actresses, is all in the French language and looks very beautiful as photographed by the great cinematographer, Vittorio Storaro. The rest I’ll leave to surprise.”
Coup de Chance will also star Melvil Poupaud, Valerie Lemercier, Elsa Zylberstein, Bárbara Goenaga, Grégory Gadebois, Anne Loiret, Sara Martins, Guillaume de Tonquédec, and Arnaud Viard
Use though we may the near-total creative dearth of Allen’s recent films as evidence for (creative) prosecution, any chance we return to the world of Match Point––or Crimes and Misdemeanors or the deeply undervalued Cassandra’s Dream––is the most I’ll need.