Woody Allen: Have I mentioned I love Paris?
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Woody Allen has been saying for years that he’s happy to explore new means of financing -- er, urban backdrops -- and has pretty much backed up that promise/flexibility by jumping between England and Spain for his past half-dozen films (including one detour to his native New York).
The director hasn’t stopped off in Paris yet, but that will change with the movie he’s getting ready to make, whose title he revealed Thursday as ‘Midnight In Paris’ and which he’ll shoot in the city this summer. He also confirmed that French actress/model and First Lady Carla Bruni will play a supporting role in the picture.
That’s all well and good for those who want to see Allen take on the City of Light. But could it be a coincidence that Allen made the announcement just several weeks before he’s about to premiere another movie in France, the England-set ‘You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger,’ which will play Cannes?
Allen is famously terse about his upcoming releases, and yet on Thursday he not only revealed these details about ‘Paris’ but also made a comment in which he pays homage to the French capital. ‘The film celebrates a young man’s great love for Paris, and simultaneously explores the illusion people have that a life different from their own is better,’ he said.
As fans of the excellent Allen documentary ‘Wild Man Blues’ know, the French adore Woody; the lovechild of Jerry Lewis and Michael Moore could walk down a Paris street and not generate as much excitement.
But Allen’s last few stints at Cannes have been air kisses to other European hot spots, including Barcelona (‘Vicky Cristina Barcelona’) and London (‘Match Point.’) And with ‘Stranger’ again shot in the land of fish ‘n’ chips, it probably doesn’t hurt Woody to remind the French audience about to judge his new effort that he’ll sometimes have Paris, too.
-- Steven Zeitchik
