(Paris) Woody Allen, who has just finished filming in Paris, explains that “making a film in France is a way of saying thank you” to his French audience, in an interview with Sunday newspaper.
French moviegoers “loved and showed their support for the young foreign director” who he was from Take the sorrel and get out! (1969), he recalls.
“When I dared more experimental projects, they followed and encouraged me more than the American public”, adds the filmmaker.
A sentence – “New York is no longer a very pleasant place, I’m happy to get some fresh air elsewhere” – also suggests that the director finds in Paris a refuge far from an American film industry that is turning its back on him. The 86-year-old American has been a Hollywood pariah since his adopted daughter Dylan Farrow accused him of sexually molesting her as a child.
Woody Allen denies these accusations for which neither of the two investigations launched resulted.
It is the first film shot in French (which he does not speak) for the man who “always dreamed of being a European filmmaker”, “most of the films” that made him want to do “this job ( being) French”.
Woody Allen knows “that the film will make less money in the United States, because the public there does not like the subtitles”.
If he can’t “make another feature film after this one”, although he “already has a script in mind”, “it doesn’t matter”. He would then turn to the theater or “write books”. “I have always found people to finance my cinema, but it is difficult today: spectators now consume films at home, in their bed… It is no longer as exciting”, he underlines .
In this interview, the director praises his French actors, Lou de Laâge — “this girl who is so beautiful and who also plays comedy well” — Melvil Poupaud — “class and elegance” — Niels Schneider — “very powerful actor” — and Valérie Lemercier, “a truly marvelous actress, capable of juggling between humor and depth”.
Woody Allen says just about his filming in Paris, which ended last Tuesday according to the JDD, that it “is a detective film, a serious story of crime and punishment. With a dose of romance, of course.”
This feature film is for now just known by its working title/code WASP 22 (Woody Allen Secret Project, Woody Allen’s Secret Project).