Woody Allen has hinted at a possible end to his illustrious directing career after his latest release struggled to find a distributor within an “unattractive and unromantic” film industry.
The Academy Award-winning filmmaker says the “romance” of contemporary cinema in an industry he helped define during the 1970s and beyond has faded, prompting him to consider his own future as a director.
“The whole business has changed, and not in a sexy way,” Allen, 88, said. Air mail. “All the romanticism of cinema is gone.”
Allen’s comments came after he struggled to find a North American distributor for his latest film, Coup de Chance, but the director insists he is not surprised to acquire one.
And he added: ‘I don’t care if they distribute me here or not. Once I do it, I don’t follow it anymore. Distribution is not what it used to be.’
Woody Allen has hinted at a possible end to his illustrious directing career after his latest release struggled to find a distributor within an “unattractive and unromantic” film industry.
Citing his groundbreaking 1977 film, Annie Hall, Allen stated that it “ran in theaters for over a year,” while “now distribution is two weeks in theaters.”
“Now the distribution is two weeks in a theater… and that’s it,” he said. ‘I mean, Annie Hall played in New York movie theaters for a little over a year. She would be in a theater for six or seven months, and then someone would pick her up and she would stay for a few more months.’
Allen also spoke about cancel culture in the AirMail interview, following years of waning popularity in the states in the wake of increased scrutiny stemming from allegations of sexual misconduct made against him by adopted stepdaughter Dylan Farrow in 1992. .
Allen, who has denied the allegations, was not charged after a 1993 investigation by Connecticut authorities.
“Someone asked me about cancel culture and I said, ‘If you’re going to get canceled, this is the culture you want to get canceled from,'” Allen said. ‘Because who wants to be part of this culture?’
Allen, whose $68 million deal with Amazon Studios to make four films was canceled during the #MeToo movement, has struggled to find distributors for his films in recent years.
Coup de Chance, a comedy-drama starring Lou de Laâge, Niels Schneider and Anna Laik, marks Allen’s 50th feature film.
The film opened April 5 in theaters and is scheduled to be released on digital/VOD services by MPI Media Group on April 12 following the film’s debut last fall at the Venice Film Festival, according to an article in February 12, The Hollywood Reporter.
Allen, photographed at the 2023 Venice Film Festival, noted that once he’s done making the film, he doesn’t “follow it” after the fact.
Allen, photographed with his wife Soon-Yi Previn, 53, at last fall’s film festival, says “this is the culture you want to be canceled from.”
The outlet previously reported that copies of the film had been circulating through “a network of file sharing and secret screenings.”
Allen, speaking with actor Alec Baldwin in June 2022 on Instagram Live, explained why he was disappointed with modern practices.
“I’ll probably make one more movie, but a lot of the excitement has been lost because it doesn’t have the full cinematic effect,” he said. ‘When I started, you would make a movie and it would go to theaters all over the country and people would come.
“Now you make a movie and you spend a couple of weeks in a theater, maybe six or four weeks, and then you go straight to streaming or pay-per-view.”
He added: ‘People love to sit at home and watch on their big screens… and they have good sound and a clear picture. It’s not the same as when I got into the movie business. And that’s why I don’t find it so funny.’