Woody Allen's last movie is coming out: what is it about and why you should watch it

The last few months of the year did not please us with a variety of major movie premieres. This was partly due to the strike of actors and screenwriters - release dates were postponed, filming was suspended or canceled. However, the end of the year will be marked by the premiere of a great maestro, Woody Allen. His movie "Coup de Chance" will be released on the big screens on December 28.

In July 2022, the director announced that he was filming a French-language romantic thriller. He also said that this would probably be his last directorial work. Allen explained that he wants to focus on writing and screenwriting, as he no longer enjoys making films as much as he used to.

The new film is called Coup de chance, in Ukrainian distribution it is called "Happy Chance". It reveals the usual theme of love, relationships, and fate for the director. A married Parisian woman Fanny meets a school friend who confesses that he has always been crazy about her. This starts a whirlwind of events filled with passion, romance, betrayal, suspicion, guilt, which eventually lead to a crime.

After the filming was completed, Woody Allen said in an interview: "I can only tell you that this is a crime movie, a serious story about crime and punishment. Of course, with a touch of romance."

The film premiered in September at the 80th Venice International Film Festival out of competition and was warmly received by critics and audiences. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has an 81% rating from critics. The film will be released in Ukraine on December 28. This is the 50th film by the famous director.

Everything you wanted to know about Woody Allen but were afraid to ask

The artist's real name is Allen Stuart Konigsberg. He was born and raised in New York City in a Jewish family. His relationship with his parents was difficult, so he had a difficult childhood. However, Allen was always surrounded by friends at school. He played basketball, baseball, and amused schoolchildren with magic tricks, which contrasts with his roles of weak and unsocialized boys that he would later embody in movies.

The future maestro began his career by writing jokes for newspapers. It was then that he took the pseudonym Woody Allen, which stuck with him for life. At the age of 16, he was noticed by comedian Milt Kamen, who helped him get a job on the popular comedy show Sid Cisar.

After entering New York University, Allen chose to major in Communications and Film. However, he was not a student for long, as he failed the cinematography exam and was later expelled. Nevertheless, Woody passed the test of life in the film industry with flying colors, becoming one of the most iconic directors of all time.

At first, the screenwriter and actor worked on television, performing comedy improvisations. However, later he came to filmmaking. What's New Pussycat (1965) was Allen's film debut. He improved the original script and played one of the roles. The film was quite successful, and Woody was invited to work on other projects, but he was not satisfied with working under the close supervision of producers.

His first independent work was Take the Money and Run (1969). Later, he released Bananas, Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex * (* But Were Afraid to Ask), Sleeper, and Love and Death. However, his first major success was the 1977 film Annie Hall, which won four Academy Awards. Today, "Annie Hall" holds high positions in movie ratings.

The next film was the gloomy Interiors (1978). Here we can clearly see a distancing from the usual genre. The black-and-white Manhattan (1979) returned the director to romantic comedy. It became Allen's second highest-grossing film, after Annie Hall. The film also received several awards, including the BAFTA for Best Picture. Manhattan was also nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.

Starting with Stardust Memories, Allen's films have been filled with philosophical and dark elements. The director began to combine comic and tragic moments, which is clearly expressed in the films Hannah and Her Sisters and Crimes and Misdemeanors. This change in style was due to the influence of European directors Ingmar Bergman and Federico Fellini.

In the 90s, the maestro began to experiment with styles again. The best films of this period are the drama Husbands and Wives (1992), which received two Oscar nominations, the black comedy Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993), and the comedy Bullets Over Broadway (1994), which earned Allen a nomination for Best Director. In the films Deconstructing Harry (1997) and Celebrity (1998), Woody's style becomes closer to the films after 2000.

In the early 2000s, Allen's films were not successful. Many said that Woody's era was over and that all his best films were behind him. However, in 2005, he released the dramatic thriller Match Point, set in London. It became one of the director's most successful films. The maestro himself called it his best film. In addition to the high grosses of $85 million against a budget of $15 million, the film received nominations for prestigious awards: "Best Screenplay (Oscar) and Director and Screenplay (Golden Globe).

Allen continued to work in Europe, as he felt pressure from major US studios that were not interested in auteur films. His next successful film was the comedy Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008), which intertwines love, passion, moral dilemmas, and the search for happiness and meaning in life.

The romantic fantasy melodrama Midnight in Paris (2011), about a writer who has the opportunity to travel through time and meet his writer heroes, became the highest-grossing film in the director's career, grossing $148 million against a budget of $17 million.

The romantic-comedy Roman Adventures (2012) and the comedy drama Blue Jasmine (2013) were also successful, garnering good box office and positive reviews from critics. The director again highlighted love relationships, marriage problems and their consequences. After that, there was a decline in box office receipts - Magic in the Moonlight (2014), Irrational Man (2015), and Café Society (2016) still made a profit, but Wonder Wheel (2017) collected almost 10 million less than the budget and received low critical acclaim.

Earlier, OBOZ.UA wrote that a film about Mariupol was shortlisted for two Oscars at once.

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