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Although she has earned a lot of acclamation for her onscreen performances, Blake Lively might as well be deemed nothing short of one of the most controversial figures in all of Hollywood’s entertainment industry as well. Be it for her backlash-inducing decisions like her plantation wedding or simply her arguable comments, she perfectly steals the spotlight every now and then.

That said, Lively isn’t all that choosy with her words and behavior either. To say the least, she is as straightforward as she is bold, and as unhesitant to speak her mind out as ever. As appreciable as this trait of hers is, it is also the very feature that often tends to leave her in a contentious position among fans, especially with the statements she makes and stands her ground on.

Blake Lively. | Credits: Image by Kristin Dos Santos from Los Angeles, California, United States / Licensed under Cca-by-sa-2.0 / Wikimedia Commons.

At 86, Ridley Scott is on the cusp of releasing one of the biggest films of his career — “Gladiator II” — and already has at least two additional projects lined up for 2025, a reteam with Paul Mescal and a Bee Gees biopic. With no signs of slowing down.

He’s not the only Hollywood veteran who’s still making movies: Martin Scorsese, who turned 82 this year, made one of the best films of his career with “Killers of the Flower Moon” while Clint Eastwood (94) has what might be his final film, “Juror #2” in theaters now.

Here are 15 directors over 80 who are still busy making movies.

Photo credit: Getty Images Martin Scorsese, 82

The prolific director of “Goodfellas,” and “The Departed” was Oscar-nominated again for his 2023 historic epic, “Killers of the Flower Moon,” and is now developing two films: “The Life of Jesus” and a movie about Frank Sinatra. He also returned to documentaries...

Mia Farrow shared how she felt about other actors working with the disgraced director and her ex-partner Woody Allen, in a CBS News Sunday Morning interview. Patti LuPone joined her for the interview, where they discussed their two-person play, The Roommate, that premieres Sept. 12.

In 1992, Mia Farrow and adopted daughter Dylan Farrow accused Allen of molesting Dylan beginning at age 7. Allen has denied the charges. The 2021 docuseries Allen v. Farrow, told from the mother and daughter’s perspective, chronicled the sexual abuse allegations and the aftermath of the custody battle on the Farrow family.

Mia Farrow doesn’t want to tell fellow actors whom they should or “shouldn’t” work with, even if it’s a matter of working with her former partner Woody Allen, who was accused by Farrow’s adopted daughter Dylan Farrow of molestation.

The allegations against writer/director Allen were made public in 1992. Allen went on to later marry Farrow’s other adopted daughter Soon-Yi Previn. His career has been marred by the allegations; however, Allen has continued to helm features that starred notable actors in the years since the controversy.

Farrow recently said during “CBS Sunday Morning” that she does not hold actors’ decisions to work with Allen against them.

“I completely understand if an actor decides to work with him,” Farrow said. “I’m not one who’d say, ‘Oh, they shouldn’t.’”

Allen confirmed in 2022 that he was not retiring anytime soon, and was helming his 50th film.

Another season of “Emily in Paris” is finally here, and Season 4 is diving back into the complicated web of love triangles and fractured friendships.

If you need a quick refresher on all the drama, the Season 3 finale left off with Gabriel and Camille’s disastrous wedding, during which Camille — who is pregnant with Gabriel’s child — outed Gabriel and Emily’s longstanding feelings for one another — in front of Emily’s boyfriend, Alfie — and called off her relationship with Gabriel.

We’ll also be seeing more of Sylvie’s husband, Laurent G, as well as Mindy’s boyfriend, Nicolas, and her band, comprised of Etienne and her ex-situationship, Benoit.

For the full breakdown of all of the “Emily in Paris” cast and characters in Season 4 Part 1 — and where you might have seen them before — see below.

Netflix

Lily Collins as Emily

Lily Collins stars as Emily, an American living in...

A quarter-century after lending his voice to Z in Disney’s CG feature “Antz,” Woody Allen is set to return to the recording booth and narrate the upcoming Spanish animated short “Mr. Fischer’s Chair,” which will formally add several key co-producers during this year’s Annecy Festival. The film’s directors have also given Variety an exclusive look at early concept art for the project.

“Mr. Fischer’s Chair” revisits the 1972 World Chess Championship, where Bobby Fischer faced off against Boris Spassky. During game 17 of their “Match of the Century,” the Soviet team accused the Americans of manipulating Fischer’s chair to maliciously harm his opponent, leading to an exhaustive examination of the Eames Executive seat.

The film is created and directed by filmmakers and producers Xosé Zapata and Lorenzo Degl’ Innocenti, who recently teamed on the Spanish Academy Goya Award-winning animated short “The Monkey.” Zapata is handling the screenplay.

As part of a strategy to build a new cinephile audience and revive the filmgoing experience in Brazil, São Paulo-based distributor O2 Play is theatrically releasing a selection of classic films, starting with A24’s 4K restored version of the seminal ‘80s Talking Heads concert docu, “Stop Making Sense” by Jonathan Demme.

The company has also launched an app called “carteirinha de cinéfilo” (cinephile card), to offer moviegoers special discounts, collectibles and foster the theatrical experience.

“Available at the App Store and Google store, we decided to launch it to help engage our audience and bring them back to theaters,” said O2 Play founder Igor Kupstas who laments the universal decline in cinema attendance since the pandemic, felt in Brazil and most parts of the world.

According to Kupstas, who launched O2 Play in 2013, talks are underway with traditional and IMAX screen owners for the premiere of “Stop Making Sense...

Watching Woody Allen's 1979 romantic comedy "Manhattan" in 2024 is certainly a fraught affair. For decades after its release, "Manhattan" was hailed as one of the filmmaker's best, frankly and stylishly telling a story of modern New York life, revealing the embarrassing impulses of a neurotic man struggling through his own acknowledged sexual and romantic weaknesses. In the film, Allen plays Isaac, a 42-year-old, twice-divorced comedy writer trying to pen a book about how much he loves New York City. As part of his midlife crisis, he is romantically and sexually involved with Tracy (Mariel Hemingway), a 17-year-old prep school student.

Allen's fictional relationship with an underage girl was, at the time, seen as a strange quirk of the modern cosmopolitan arts milieu, and many critics remained unconcerned. It wouldn't be for a few more years, in 1991, that details of Allen's personal life would begin to emerge. He married the much-younger...

Home viewing charts inspire deja vu: “Anyone but You,” a hit as a PVOD release, just debuted at Netflix. It knocked out Netflix’s expensive “Rebel Moon — Part Two: The Scargiver” from first place after two weeks, falling to #6.

Similarly, “Dune: Part Two” returned for its second week as #1 at both iTunes (ranking by transactions) and Fandango (which calculates by revenue).

The “Dune” sequel fended off challenges by two recent theatrical releases. Dev Patel’s “Monkey Man” (Universal), once intended as a Netflix original, is #2 at iTunes, third at Fandango. The family-oriented “Arthur the King” (Lionsgate) took second at Fandango, but only #6 at iTunes. Both initially are available to rent for 48 hours for $19.99.

Two new home-play debuts also made top 10 lists. “Cash Out” (Saban) is #9 at iTunes, renting at $6.99; starring John Travolta, the critically reviled title may be getting as much attention for its little-known director Ives. That’s...

With two major sci-fi sequels debuting this week to lead the VOD and Netflix charts, the new films also inspired victory laps for the Part Ones of “Dune” and “Rebel Moon.”

“Dune: Part Two” (Warner Bros.) leads at both iTunes and Fandango, and Netflix’s original “Rebel Moon — Part Two: The Scargiver” is #1 at the streamer. iTunes packaged the 2021 “Dune: Part One” with its sequel as a $34.99 purchase, and it ranks second there. (“Dune: Part Two” alone rents for 48 hours for $24.99.) “Rebel Moon — Part One” returned at #7 on Netflix’s top 10.

Three other recent theatrical releases also transitioned to home viewing, with curiously different pricing and availability strategies. The top grosser is Neon’s “Immaculate” (approaching $16 million), but it rents for the lowest price: $9.99. “Late Night with the Devil” (IFC) is $14.99, but for that price consumers own it. “In the Land of Saints and Sinners” (Goldwyn) with Liam Neeson is a standard $19.99 rental.

Bill Maher decided to just absolutely go for it — it being defending Woody Allen to the hilt and calling Dylan Farrow’s accusations that the filmmaker sexually abused her when she was seven “very improbable.”

Maher delivered his full-throated defense during an interview with Katie Couric on his Club Random podcast. The conversation had turned to that specter of “cancel culture,” and Couric mentioned an article about the challenges of separating the art from the artist with regard to Allen and his new movie, Coup de Chance (a French film...

Bill Maher welcomed Katie Couric onto his “Club Random” podcast and passionately defended Woody Allen while the two discussed canceled artists in Hollywood. Maher said “I don’t think he committed that crime” in reference to Dylan Farrow’s molestation allegation against Allen, adding: “There was two police investigations that exonerated him.”

“There’s these actors who won’t work with him anymore and some of them made movies with him are saying, ‘I regret doing that.’ What a bunch of pussies!” Maher said. “First of all, it’s a very improbable crime that they’re accusing him of. Plainly, the other party had motivation and [was] vindictive.”

Maher referenced the HBO documentary “Allen v. Farrow” and said it was all from Mia Farrow’s point of view, alluding that it can’t fully be trusted as an unbiased account of what allegedly happened between Woody Allen and his adopted daughter,...

Iconic director Woody Allen may retire from his career, noting that the film industry is not appealing to him anymore.

“The business has changed, and not in an appealing way,” Allen told AirMail. All the romance of filmmaking is gone.”

Allen struggled to find a North American distributor for his most recent film, Coup de Chance. The French thriller/romance film, starring French actors Lou de Laâge and Melvil Poupaud, premiered at the Venice International Film Festival in September 2023.

On the red carpet, Allen was booed by people in attendance, including the press and fans. The film was not released in U.S. theaters after the HBO docuseries Allen v. Farrow aired. The docuseries covers the numerous sexual abuse allegations against Allen, including the incident between Allen, ex-partner Mia Farrow and Farrow’s adoptive daughter Soon Yi Previn.

Allen was also accused of sexual abuse by his stepdaughter, Dylan Farrow.

We have recently written that legendary Australian filmmaker Peter Weir (79) has confirmed his retirement. On the other hand, Francis Ford Coppola (85), is currently shipping his latest project, Megalopolis, to studio executives. In light of this, another Hollywood legend, Woody Allen, has also talked about his future as a filmmaker and the possibility of retiring. Allen is 88 as of the time of writing, and his most recent movie, Coup de chance, premiered in 2023 and is still being distributed around the world in 2024.

While his private life has been the subject of numerous controversies, the multiple award-winning filmmaker is certainly one of the biggest names in the history of Hollywood, so news about his possible retirement is certainly something we have to report about.

The discussion he had with Air Mail actually started with Allen expressing his dissatisfaction with the current state of affairs as far as movie distribution is concerned, with...

Woody Allen has largely been missing from the American entertainment scene for quite some time now. Majorly working in Europe, the director’s career in the US seems to have gone only downhill ever since the s*xual abuse allegations against him by his adopted daughter.

Woody Allen (via CBS News interview)

Yet the director is back now in American theatres with his latest romantic thriller, Coup de Chance. However, the director seems to have no plans to continue making movies, as he recently revealed in a new interview after making a shocking claim about the craft.

Woody Allen States ‘The Romance of Filmmaking’ is Gone

Woody Allen’s Coup de Chance

Woody Allen has been in the entertainment business for more than six decades now. An actor, filmmaker, and comedian, Allen has several accolades to his name that make him one of the best filmmakers of contemporary times. But like any other celebrity,...

The 88-year-old director says he is ‘on the fence’ about making another film due to the work needed to get distribution and financial backing

Woody Allen has once again hinted at his retirement from film-making, saying that he is “on the fence” about making another film after the US release of his latest, Coup de Chance.

In an interview with Air Mail, the 88-year-old director was asked whether the French-language erotic thriller Coup de Chance would be his final film.

With his 50th film “Coup de Chance,” Woody Allen is finally back in American theaters after his last several films failed to find domestic distribution due to allegations against him by his adopted daughter Dylan Farrow. But the longtime hyphenate, who has openly flirted with retirement in recent years, isn’t sure how long he’ll keep making movies.

In a new interview with Air Mail, Allen expressed his dissatisfaction with the current state of theatrical distribution — though he denied that his trouble finding American distributors has factored into his opinions.

“It doesn’t matter to me whether I get distributed here or not,” Allen said. “Once I make it, I don’t follow it anymore. Distribution is no longer what it was. Now distribution is two weeks in a cinema… And then that’s it. I mean, ‘Annie Hall’ played in movie houses in New York for a little bit over a year.

Legendary filmmaker Woody Allen is unsure about making his next film. The 88-year-old filmmaker has helmed his 50th feature film in the form of the French erotic thriller ‘Coup de Chance’.

However, he is unsure whether it will be his last project as he still has lots of ideas but finds trying to obtain financial support for his work tiresome, reports ‘Female First UK’.

Woody told Airmail: “I’m on the fence. I don’t want to have to go out to raise money. I find that a pain in the neck. But if someone shows up and calls in and says we want to back the film, then I would seriously consider it. I would probably not have the willpower to say no because I have so many ideas.”

As per ‘Female First UK’, the veteran director, whose career has spanned over six decades and includes films such as...

Woody Allen is "on the fence" about making another film.The 88-year-old filmmaker has helmed his 50th feature in the form of the French erotic thriller 'Coup de Chance' but is unsure whether it will be his last project as he still has lots of ideas but finds trying to obtain financial support for his work tiresome.Woody told Airmail: "I'm on the fence about it. I don't want to have to go out to raise money. I find that a pain in the neck."But if someone shows up and calls in and says we want to back the film, then I would seriously consider it. I would probably not have the willpower to say no, because I have so many ideas."The veteran director - whose career has spanned over six decades and includes flicks such as 'Annie Hall' and 'Hannah and Her Sisters' - explained...

Woody Allen isn’t exactly sure what he wants to do next in the movie industry, as he feels “all the romance of filmmaking is gone.”

In an interview with AirMail, published online Saturday, the director was asked about his latest film Coup de Chance, his 50th feature, and the delay it faced for release in North American markets.

“It doesn’t matter to me whether I get distributed here or not,” Allen said. “Once I make it, I don’t follow it anymore. Distribution is no longer what it was. Now distribution is two weeks in a cinema… And then that’s it. I mean, Annie Hall played in movie houses in New York for a little bit over a year. It’d be in one theater for six, seven months, and then somebody would pick it up and it would hang around another few months. The whole business has changed,...

58 years after making his debut feature, Woody Allen is sitting “on the fence” about whether his latest movie Coup de Chance, his 50th feature, will be his last cinematic outing.

The veteran filmmaker has given an interview to AirMail, in which he was asked whether Coup de Chance, an erotic thriller filmed in France, with French-speaking actors, will be his last movie.

Allen said:

“I’m on the fence about it. I don’t want to have to go out to raise money. I find that a pain in the neck,” he says. “But if someone shows up and calls in and says we want to back the film, then I would seriously consider it. I would probably not have the willpower to say no, because I have so many ideas.”

Coup de Chance was released in the US by MPI Media Group, distributors of Allen’s last two titles,...

Easter is behind us, we’re into a new month, and we’re fully into spring … and yet, the box office might be hitting another lull. Read on for Gold Derby’s box office preview.

There aren’t many scenarios where “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” doesn’t win its second weekend at #1. Even with a steep drop from its Easter opening, it should still be able to bring in another $30 million this coming weekend, which will be hard to beat.

It might be a coin flip on which of the other two new wide releases might do better, but I have to give a slight edge to “The First Omen,” 20th Century’s prequel to a horror franchise that began all the way back in 1976 with the horror film, “The Omen,” directed by Richard Donner pre-“Superman.” That led to two sequels in 1978 and 1981, even though the original...

Woody Allen’s Coup de Chance starts appropriately with a random encounter and finishes with an out-of-nowhere intervention. But what lies in between those moments of chance is tightly scripted and purposeful, with barely a scene or line out of place. The film is at once among Allen’s most economical works and one of his most free-spirited.

When Alain (Niels Schneider), a fiction writer, runs into Fanny (Lou de Laâge) on a Parisian street near the art auction house where the latter works, it’s a seemingly fleeting moment. Fanny seems charmed but not overly impacted by this encounter with Alain, a passing acquaintance from their time at the Lycée Français in New York. Slightly restless in her marriage to Jean (Melvil Poupaud), a financier whose one-percenter friends describe her as a “trophy wife,” Fanny sees no harm in reconnecting with Alain. You can imagine where this might go.

New York, March 28, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Woody Allen’s newest film is set for release in select theaters across the United States on April 5, 2024. Coup De Chance, a romantic thriller shot entirely in French and starring an acclaimed international cast including Lou de Laâge (International Emmy winner. The Mad Women’s Ball), Valérie Lemercier, (The Visitors), Melvil Poupaud, (Eric Rohmer’s A Tale of Summer), and Niels Schneider (Heartbeats, How I Killed My Mother) is Allen’s 50th film as director.

A sensation when it debuted at the Venice Film Festival, Coup De Chance has received glowing reviews during its international release across Europe and Asia with comparisons to some of Allen’s most acclaimed masterpieces including Blue Jasmine, Match Point, Vicky Cristina Barcelona and Midnight in Paris.

In English, the title means “stroke of luck,” and the film centers around the central role of chance and luck in our lives. Fanny (de Laâge) and Jean (Poupaud,...

Woody Allen’s Coup de Chance premiered at the Venice International Film Festival last September, and THR reports that MPI Media Group will release the movie in the U.S. on April 5th, followed by a Digital/VOD release on April 12th.

The film is Woody Allen’s 50th theatrically released movie and has already made the rounds in many European markets. The official synopsis reads: “Fanny and Jean have everything of the ideal couple: fulfilled in their professional life, they live in a magnificent apartment in the beautiful districts of Paris and seem to be in love as on the first day. But when Fanny crosses, by chance, Alain, a former high school friend, she is immediately capsized. They see each other again very quickly and get closer and closer.” The film stars Lou de Laâge (The Mad Woman’s Ball) as Fanny, Niels Schneider (Sybil) as Alain and...

Woody Allen’s latest film “Coup de Chance,” his 50th feature, is getting a U.S. release. The movie will be distributed by MPI Media Group, the company that has released Allen’s latest few films ever since allegations resurfaced that he sexually abused his adopted daughter Dylan Farrow.

“Coup de Chance” will open at the Quad Cinema in New York City on April 5 (other venues will be confirmed at a later date), followed by a VOD and digital release on April 12.

MPI Media Group previously released “A Rainy Day in New York” (2020) and “Rifkin’s Festival” (2022) in the U.S. “Rainy Day” was originally meant to be released through Allen’s deal with Amazon Studios, but Amazon ultimately canceled the deal when the abuse allegations resurfaced. (Allen won a legal settlement against Amazon.) Allen has been a persona-non-grata in Hollywood, but he’s continued to make movies in Europe.

“Coup de Chance...

Controversial director Woody Allen’s 50th film “Coup de Chance” is coming to U.S. theaters. MPI Media Group will release the movie on April 5 for North American markets, with a digital/VOD release on April 12.

The film, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival in September, drew both protests and an enthusiastic two-and-a-half minute standing ovation.

U.S. theatrical distributors have generally avoided Allen since the #MeToo movement resurfaced Dylan Farrow’s allegations of child molestation against him, and actors like Rebecca Hall, Timothée Chalamet and Greta Gerwig have expressed regret over working with him.

“Coup de Chance,” which translates to “stroke of luck,” stars Valerie Lemercier, Niels Schneider, Lou de Laage, Elsa Zylberstein and Melvil Poupaud in a tale of murder and intrigue that follows a beautiful couple living in Paris whose lives change when a former flame re-enters their orbit.

Variety’s chief film critic Owen Gleiberman...

Last week, The Hollywood Reporter reported that cinephiles were sharing “samizdat” links to Woody Allen’s latest film Coup de Chance from a French-to-Dutch-to-English translation, and New Yorkers were attending clandestine screenings at an East Village bar/event space. Today, THR can exclusively report that those who wish to see the 88-year-old’s latest project, which debuted at the Venice Film Festival in early September to (mostly) positive reviews, can do so without slinking around or needing secret codes.

MPI Media Group will release the picture, Allen’s 50th theatrically released feature film as a director, for North American markets on April 5, 2024. A digital/VOD release will follow on April 12.

The movie, shot in France in French, stars Lou de Laâge (Respire, The Mad Woman’s Ball) as a self-aware trophy wife who reconnects with an old chum from the Lycée Français in New York, played by Niels Schneider (Heartbeats,...

“I’m seeing it logged on Letterboxd. You know anything?”

This was the message I received from an industry friend. The topic was Woody Allen’s 50-somethingth directorial effort, Coup de Chance. Little did I know a network of file sharing and secret screenings were already underway, part of a series that (almost) included Timothée Chalamet.

The 88-year-old director’s latest and perhaps final film debuted at the Venice Film Festival out of competition in early September 2023 to solid reviews, and is currently boasting an 84 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. (The Hollywood Reporter’s critic Leslie Felperin was muted in her praise, calling it “competent but forgettable.”) The droll relationship drama with a soupçon of criminality has accrued $7.4 million in receipts, according to BoxOfficeMojo, with its top four markets being Italy, Spain, Russia and France.

Yet the people leaving their witty remarks on the popular cinephile social networking service Letterboxd were not doing so from overseas.

Exclusive: The Sea Beyond stars Giacomo Giorgio and Serena de Ferrari are among several Italian actors who have boarded Rai’s ambitious opera drama Bel Canto, which went into production this week.

Notably, Caterina Ferioli (The Tearsmith) and Adriana Savarese have landed the key roles as teenage sisters Carolina and Antonia, whose close friendship is tested by desires to become Italian opera singers.

Vincenzo Ferrera, another The Sea Beyond actor, has also joined the cast, alongside Andrea Bosca, Nicolo Pasetti, Carmine Ricarno (Loose Cannons), and Antonio Gerardi.

The series is among the highest profile drama series coming to of Europe this year. Production on the €15M ($16.3M) budget series began yesterday, with filming set to to take place in Naples, Rome and other parts of Italy such as the town of Pavia in Lombardia. France...

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Every year, filmmakers gather at festivals across the globe and compete over whose is the longest.

At the Venice Film Festival earlier this week, Bradley Cooper’s measured an impressive seven while Adam Driver’s was an average-size six. Woody Allen’s, though, was only a five and poor Roman Polanski’s was a puny three.

But hello there, Yorgos Lanthimos! The Greek director’s unfurled at a whopping 10!

Wipe that smirk off your face — we’re referring to the length in minutes of the standing ovations each of these filmmakers received after screenings of their new movies.

Ovation lengths, as anyone who’s been keeping up with the trades knows all too well, is how success and failure are gauged at the festivals these days. As measurements go, they...

Tempting though it is to pen this review in the voice and style of Mort Rifkin, the most indelible Woody Allen character in years, the embattled New York-born director deserves a fairer shake––maybe a fair trial, if we could say. In this early-2020s era of a gradual pushback against MeToo morality, Allen actually found himself, with Coup de Chance, enjoying a high-ish-profile Venice premiere earlier this week on the verge of a legitimate comeback. A new Variety interview hinted at a path for resuming work in his former production model, an absolute pick of American A-listers again if (perhaps) just one of them scabs. But do we want this? Isn’t it all still enveloped in a kind of discomfort?

Making a very natural transition into classy Francophone cinema, here he has the choice of a potential royal flush of French stars. Coup de Chance is rather pleasurable...

Director Woody Allen, 87, made an appearance with his wife, Soon Ye Previn, 52, at the Venice International Film Festival on Monday. But the reception might not have been what he expected: he was loudly booed by many of the press and fans in attendance.

At the red carpet event, Allen premiered his latest and 50th film, Coup de Chance.

In addition to his wife of 25 years, their children Bechet, 24, and Manzie, 23, were also present to support their father.

Allen and Previn married in 1997, six years after they reportedly began their controversial relationship. While their age gap of 35 years may be questionable to many, their romance became national news not because of the age difference but because Allen had been in a 13-year relationship with Previn’s adoptive mother, Mia Farrow, when they reportedly began their affair.

Approximately one month after Allen and Previn became involved, Farrow found nude photos of her...

Woody Allen is attending the Venice International Film Festival for the premiere of his latest film, “Coup de Chance”.

On Monday, the director of such acclaimed comedies as “Annie Hall” and “Midnight in Paris” walked the red carpet ahead of the movie’s screening, joined by wife Soon-Yi Previn and the couple’s daughters, Bechet, 24, and Manzie, 23.

Photo by Aurore Marechal/Abacapress.Com Photo by Aurore Marechal/Abacapress.Com — Photo by Aurore Marechal/Abacapress.Com

As People reported, during the “Coup de Chance” press conference, the 87-year-old director discussed his contentment with his family.

“I was lucky my whole life really,” Allen said.

Read More: Woody Allen Talks Cancel Culture, Reveals He Hasn’t Seen Dylan Or Ronan Farrow Since Sexual Assault Allegations

“I had two loving parents, I have good friends. I have a wonderful wife and marriage, two children,” he said.

Allen’s appearance at the festival was not without controversy.

Not a lot was expected of Richard Linklater’s 23rd film, “Hit Man,” before it premiered at the 2023 Venice Film Festival on Tuesday, September 5. For one, it was coming at the end of a mini trend of films studying contract killers (or those who impersonate them). First came David Fincher’s “The Killer.” There was also Woody Allen’s “Coup de Chance,” which has a murder-for-hire as a central plotline. “Hit Man” came relatively late to the game, but in the process may have snatched the thunder out from under the other two in terms of audience response and early critical buzz that’s heaping praise on the acclaimed director of “Boyhood,” “School of Rock,” “Apollo 10 1/2,” “Before Sunset” and “Before Midnight.”

The indie action comedy “Hit Man” stars Glen Powell, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Linklater. The story is very loosely based on a 2001 Texas Monthly article...

Is it something in the air? At this year’s Venice Film Festival, the unofficial theme appears to be hit men. David Fincher’s “The Killer” is all about an icy methodical professional executioner. Woody Allen’s “Coup de Chance” turns on an act of murder-for-hire. And now, just in time to steal the buzz from both those movies, we have Richard Linklater’s “Hit Man,” a screwball philosophical thriller comedy noir about the world’s unlikeliest undercover agent. He’s a one-of-a-kind movie hero, though in more ways than not he’s just like us.

The movie, which is based on a 2001 Texas Monthly article, tells the tale of Gary Johnson, a part-time college teacher who works for the New Orleans Police Department as a tech consultant, helping to make recordings of sting operations. Then he’s tapped to go undercover himself. Why would this even happen? The film...

Protesters demonstrated at the Venice film festival while US film director Woody Allen walked on to the red carpet to present his 50th film, Coup de Chance. Some critics have denounced the festival for giving Allen a prestigious slot for his new film. The protesters chanted slogans referencing rape and patriarchy and scuffled with security and police. The director is known as a controversial figure, having been accused of abusing his daughter Dylan, which he has always denied. No charges have ever been brought against him...

“Judge the art, not the artist.” That is the mantra we hear each and every time someone in the entertainment world is accused of heinous behavior, and it’s one that was repeated by artistic director Alberto Barbera prior to this year’s Venice Film Festival.

In an interview with The Guardian, Barbera discussed his decision to include films by Roman Polanski, Woody Allen, and Luc Besson in the 2023 festival program — Polanski’s The Palace, a class comedy about a dinner party at a luxury Swiss hotel on the eve...

“The positive response of audiences represents an act of respect for artists on strike.”

Over halfway through its 2023 edition, Venice Film Festival has posted increased admissions, across its public tickets, subscription passes and number of theatre admissions.

Statistics released by the festival from the first five days (Wednesday August 30 to Sunday September 3 inclusive) show 35,496 public tickets sold – up 9% on 2022. This includes 6,375 subscription passes – a 17% increase on last year.

Total theatre admissions – a combination of single ticket entrances, subscription passes and press and industry entrances – is at 114,851, up a strong 18% on 2022.

The festival has granted 11,328 accreditations for this year – a slight 0.5% increase on last year.

“The positive response of audiences represents an act of respect for artists on strike.”

Over halfway through its 2023 edition, Venice Film Festival has recorded increased admissions, across its public tickets, subscription passes and number of theatre admissions.

Statistics released by the festival from the first five days (Wednesday August 30 to Sunday September 3 inclusive) show 35,496 public tickets sold – up 9% on 2022. This includes 6,375 subscription passes – a 17% increase on last year.

Total theatre admissions – a combination of single ticket entrances, subscription passes and press and industry entrances – is at 114,851, up a strong 18% on 2022.

The festival has granted 11,328 accreditations for this year – a slight 0.5% increase on last year.

Woody Allen is considering retirement after his latest film.The 'Coup de Chance' director has returned to Venice Film Festival with a romantic thriller - his 50th movie to date - and he explained there are two factors he's thinking about when it comes to the idea of developing another project.He told Variety: "I was thinking this is my 50th film and I have to decide if I want to make more films. There’s two things that I thought about. One is, it’s always such a pain in the neck to raise money for a movie. And do I want to go through it?"Making the movie is one thing, but raising the money for it, you know, is tedious and not glamorous. And now if somebody steps out of the shadows and says, ‘I’ll give you money to make your movie,’ that would...

“Coup de Chance” bowed at the 2023 Venice Film Festival on Monday, September 4. Written and directed by Woody Allen, it’s the filmmaker’s 50th feature and the first shot entirely in the French language with English subtitles. The 87-year-old Allen was controversially on hand to attend the screening in person, drawing a small group of protestors on site due to longstanding but never substantiated child sexual abuse allegations made by his daughter Dylan Farrow. The audience in attendance at the world premiere warmly embraced the feature and its writer-director with a reported three-minute ovation upon its conclusion.

Premiering out of competition at the festival, the film was shot in Paris and features an all-French cast. A twisty tale of murder, “Coup de Chance” stars Lou de Laage and Melvil Poupaud as Fanny and Jean, described as “an ideal couple who have everything. Fulfilled in their professional life, they live in...

A group of roughly 20 people chanted outside the premiere of Woody Allen’s “Coup de Chance” at the Venice Film Festival Monday. While those inside Palazzo del Cinema watched the movie, the group yelled a variety of slogans, such as “no spotlight for rapist directors” and “the alpha male doesn’t exist.”

Film and TV reviewer Luke Hearfield shared a flyer from protestors on Twitter. Bolded text reads, “You would never let those involved in the Palermo, Caivano, and Milano violences walk the red carpet” in reference to a series of gang rapes that have rattled Italians in recent weeks.

The flier also states, “Patriarchal society believes the genius artist and not those who were sexually assaulted.”

Protesters have rallied together at #Venezia80 to “turn the spotlight off rapists”.

This protest just took place during the premiere of Woody Allen’s new film Coup de Chance. pic.twitter.com/cpG...

Woody Allen received a three-minute standing ovation at the Venice premiere of “Coup de Chance” on Monday night, which would have gone on longer had the filmmaker not started to exit. After two minutes and 30 seconds of sustained applause once the film finished, Allen began to make his way toward the door, cutting the standing ovation short. The filmmaker looked visibly moved during the reaction and at one point took out a tissue.

Allen was greeted in the theater by a standing ovation before the movie even screened as fans tried to catch video of him. The reception was the same on the red carpet, with fans cheering him on enthusiastically — however, just outside the carpet a group of protesters walked by. According to social media posts, the protesters removed their shirts and handed out sheets of paper encouraging the fest to “turn the spotlight off of rapists.”

“This year...

Woody Allen’s Coup de Chance premiered at the Venice Film Festival on Monday. The film, which was directed and written by Allen himself, received a five-minute ovation from the audience.

Coup de Chance centers around Fanny and Jean who look like the ideal married couple—they’re both professionally accomplished, they live in a gorgeous apartment in an exclusive neighborhood of Paris, and they seem to be in love just as much as they were when they first met. But when Fanny accidentally bumps into Alain, a former high school classmate, she’s swept off her feet. They soon see each other again and get closer and closer.

Woody Allen stunned by the enthusiastic response to Coup de Chance at #Venezia80 which received a 5-minute ovation pic.twitter.com/vjRd2FSYLV

— Deadline Hollywood (@Deadline) September 4, 2023

Allen’s fiftieth movie stars Lou de Laâge, Valérie Lemercier, Melvil Poupaud, Niels Schneider,...

Around 15 topless protestors marched and chanted outside the main venue.

A group of topless protestors have disrupted the world premiere of Woody Allen’s latest film Coup de Chance in Venice.

Around 15 protestors, the majority of them women wearing tape across their chests, stood outside the Palazzo del Cinema venue and chanted in support of victims of rape and sexual assault. The protestors were from several Italian collectives, including feminist group Non Una Di Meno, which hails from Venice, Padova and Treviso; and smaller collectives Cso Morion, Spina Collective, Squeert Collective and Cso Pedro.

The protestors also distributed a leaflet...

A group of protesters demonstrating against what they called the “rape culture” of the Venice Film Festival marched past the festival’s red carpet during the world premiere of Woody Allen’s Coup de Chance.

The group of around 20 people shouted slogans like “no rape culture”; “we are speaking for those without a voice against the director predators”; “a rapist is not a sick man, he is the healthy son of patriarchy”; “No spotlight for rapist directors”; and “the alpha male doesn’t exist.”

The protestors began their demonstration just as Allen stepped onto the red carpet of his film. They stopped shortly past the carpet, forming a line and taking off their shirts before chanting more.

The demonstration lasted only a few minutes before they were led out of the festival area by police. One of the demonstators, who gave their name as Melania, told The Hollywood Reporter they...

We are told to judge the art rather than the artist, but sometimes the artist makes this difficult. Woody Allen still carries loud freight – the freight of someone who was accused by his daughter, Dylan Farrow, of child sexual abuse. People will argue that none of the above matters, that he has been convicted of no crime, that only what is onscreen counts. And so we try to watch Coup de Chance, an adequate seriocomic immorality tale that had its world premiere Monday at the Venice Film Festival, with eyes and minds wide open.

An affluent partner to a much younger spouse finds himself in a sentimental bind. So tight is this knot that he must resort to extra-legal solutions in order to extricate himself so he calls up a hoodlum acquaintance and nervously requests a meeting “in the usual spot.” Were this the 1980s, the rich man might have been played by Martin Landau; a decade later, the thug on the other end of the line could have resembled Tony Sirico. In 2023’s “Coup de Chance,” that usual spot happens to be on the banks of the Seine, just below Pont-Neuf.

Marking the director’s French-language debut (if hardly his first trip to Paris), Woody Allen’s 50th feature, “Coup de Chance,” proves that every now and then, much can be gained in translation. And though the film hardly treads new ground, it nevertheless gamely reshuffles many of Allen’s pet-obsessions and stock...

If you’re looking for an inviolable law of cinema, the Venice Film Festival just confirmed an ironically delightful one. It is this: Murder agrees with Woody Allen. We already knew that, of course. We knew it from “Crimes and Misdemeanors,” a drama that was shocking when it came out in 1989 — and if you see it today, it’s still shocking, because the theme of the movie isn’t just that ordinary people commit murder (we see that in movies every day). It’s that they seem disturbingly ordinary even as they’re doing it, which is a bit scary. Martin Landau, as a mild bourgeois ophthalmologist who hires someone to kill off his mistress, seemed to be playing the squirmy essence of every amateur criminal, and the fact that he got away with it was the unsettling part. It made you think: How many people like that are out there?...