With "Cantaloupe Island", by Herbie Hancock, as background music, and the wonderful photography by Vittorio Storaro, Woody Allen pays homage to French filmmakers of the 1950s and 1960s, such as Claude Chabrol, Jean-Claude Luc Godard and François Truffaut, in his latest film COUP DE CHANCE (2023). As the title indicates, 15 films after MATCH POINT (2005), Woody Allen returns to exploring the theme of luck and chance, now giving us the reverse of the coin.
COUP DE CHANCE (2023) is based on the premise that even the most fortuitous events can have profound and lasting consequences, showing how the characters' lives are shaped by a series of coincidences and unforeseen events.
Ironically, the only character who thinks he is making his own luck ends up succumbing to the whims of fate, becoming a victim of luck, or the lack of it, and his own Machiavellian design, which leads us to ponder the illusory nature of total control of our lives.
When comparing COUP DE CHANCE with MATCH POINT, we can observe an interesting dialogue between the two. If in MATCH POINT, we see a character who escapes justice due to a twist of fate, in COUP DE CHANCE this theme is inverted, presenting a character who believes he has everything under control, not counting on external elements that may eventually influence in his plans. This inversion offers an intriguing perspective on how luck and chance can condition the course of events, regardless of each character's beliefs or actions.
Thus, by presenting a subversion in relation to MATCH POINT, COUP DE CHANCE broadens the viewer's understanding of the role of luck and chance in our lives, and invites us to reflect on the complexity and unpredictability of human destiny. This time, the tennis ball lands on the less favorable side of the net.
