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.
“I’m on the fence about it,” Allen said. “I don’t want 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.”
Coup de Chance is Allen’s 50th feature and it faced an embattled release in US cinemas after premiering at the Venice film festival in 2023, where it received a warm reception. Since #MeToo, Allen has been effectively blackballed by Hollywood over allegations that he sexually assaulted his adopted daughter, Dylan Farrow, in 1992. Allen, who was investigated by the child sexual abuse clinic of Yale-New Haven hospital and the New York Department of Social Services and cleared in both cases, has always maintained his innocence.
After months of delays – and clandestine screenings – Coup de Chance was released in the US on 5 April.
“It doesn’t matter to me whether I get distributed here or not,” Allen told Air Mail of the US. “Once I make it, I don’t follow it any more. Distribution is no longer what it was.”
The director said that his Oscar-winning film Annie Hall played “for a little bit over a year” in cinemas when it was released in 1977.
“Now distribution is two weeks in a cinema,” he said. “The whole business has changed, and not in an appealing way. All the romance of film-making is gone.”
Allen has previously shared similar sentiments: in 2022, he told Alec Baldwin during an interview on Instagram live that “a lot of the thrill is gone” from film-making due to the changing nature of cinema distribution.
That same year, he sparked a round of retirement rumours after a Spanish newspaper reported that he would be focusing on writing rather than film-making – though he later denied the claims.
“Woody Allen never said he was retiring,” a statement said at the time. “He said he was thinking about not making films, as making films that go straight or very quickly to streaming platforms is not so enjoyable for him.”
Despite his comments in Air Mail, Allen may well have another film in him this time too. In a New York Times interview this week, his sister and producer Letty Aronson said that a new film “is in the process of being negotiated” and that Allen is “working on a script”.
