Writer and director Woody Allen says his filmmaking career may be nearing its end. His upcoming film, Coup de Chance, is a romantic thriller that marks his 50th, and possibly his last, feature film. The French-language film premiered at the Venice Film Festival last week, and Allen told Variety that after controversies have limited his funding stateside, producing a new movie means hustling to secure backing, and at 87, he’s not sure he still wants to do that kind of work.
“I have so many ideas for films that I would be tempted to do it, if it was easy to finance. But beyond that, I don’t know if I have the same verve to go out and spend a lot of time raising money.”
And while independent film financing has always been a struggle, Allen has fallen out of the marketplace entirely in the U.S. after press coverage of the allegations of sexual abuse by his daughter Dylan Farrow. He wasn’t exactly beloved before the allegations, as he married his young step-daughter after divorcing her mother. But he has essentially been blacklisted since the accusations of sexual abuse came out.
He went on in the article to defend his work for women in the film industry and patted himself on the back for casting women in leading roles and paying women on the crew equal wages. He also denied all the allegations against him concerning his daughter. When asked if he felt that he had been canceled, Allen said:
I feel if you’re going to be canceled, this is the culture to be canceled by. I just find that all so silly. I don’t think about it. I don’t know what it means to be canceled. I know that over the years everything has been the same for me. I make my movies. What has changed is the presentation of the films. You know, I work and it’s the same routine for me. I write the script, raise the money, make the film, shoot it, edit it, it comes out. The difference is not is not from cancel culture. The difference is the way they present the films. It’s that that’s the big change.
Allen has made some good movies over the years, but I won’t be sad to see him go.