Woody does Paris

Woody Allen is 87 years old and still making films. 

Fair Play.

Along with some of his contemporaries; Martin Scorsese (81) The Killers of the Flower Moon (2023), Ridley Scott (86) Napoleon (2023), Francis Ford Coppola (84) Megalopolis (2024), Ken Loach (87) The Old Oak (2023) and Hayao Miyazaki (82) The Boy and the Heron (2023).

These octogenarian directors show little signs of giving up, although Miyazaki has been threatening retirement since Princess Mononoke in 1997.

Fair play to them all, whether you dig their films or not, my hat is tipped towards them for their creative output and their refusal to stop making films.

Lou de Laâge, Woody Allen and Niels Schneider filming Coup de Chance

Many people may find Coup De Chance (Stroke of Luck) very enjoyable. It is a light entertainment film that will appeal to the older or less demanding audience. I didn’t hate it but equally, I didn’t love it. It was a tepid, lukewarm comedy, that the olds will dig.

After the screening, a very sweet older lady said that she loved it, at least that was her initial feeling. 
I felt it was too quirky at times, in performance and story without any depth or grounding. 

I know.
It’s a Woody Allen film.
What did I expect?

The actors were all great for the most part and they can all do their jobs but at times their performances became cartoonesque and this was a Woody problem, in this case, rather than an actor problem.

There is a tone that works well in his New York style but moved to France there is a whole other sensibility and the two didn’t quite gel for me.
Woody meeting Paris lacks a sizzle that could have been special and may have been 30 years ago.

A renewal of vows in Coup de Chance

There were a few scenes at a couple of the parties featured in the film where a group of characters were sitting around talking and giving us clever, entertaining exposition and it felt like an old-school Allen film and worked brilliantly. I wanted more of that. Instead the characters, especially the lead Lou De Laâge who plays our protagonist, Fanny Fournier, sometimes fell into caricature. She is charming and delightful for the most part, but when the stakes get a bit higher, the emotionality becomes slightly forced. Again, it is a direction problem rather than a performance one.

The last Allen film I saw was the award-winning Blue Jasmine, which I wasn’t overly enamoured by and before that Midnight in Paris, which I thoroughly enjoyed at the time. I loved his earlier work, like many but haven’t been in a rush to see his latest offerings.

Lou De Laâge in Coup de Chance

Fanny bumps into an old school friend, Alain played sturdily and consistently by Niels Schneider, who confesses to her that he used to have a huge crush on her at school. They meet for lunches and develop feelings. 

This is where the best parts of the film are, the meetings in the park, the lunches and the generally getting reacquainted, it’s light, romantique and naturelle. 

Niels Schneider et Lou De Laâge in Coup de Chance

This is a problem as Fanny is ‘happily’ married to Jean played by Melvin Poupaud, who suffers a bit from caracature fatigue but is very clearly, a capable actor, the script doesn’t really give him much more than a couple of dimensions to work with and again we have a tonal problem. Jean is a rich businessman who no one seems to know exactly what he does, he makes rich people richer.

Back to the tone, it keeps jumping around. What should be a lighthearted murder mystery becomes at times more serious and the two tones don’t seem to match up.

Back in the 1970s and 1980s Woody Allen’s characters, for the most part, were placed in unconvincing situations but the acting, the script, and the direction all worked and it was magic.

This is a film for the Poirot/Marple lovers, the Sunday night tv drama posse.
If you like that kind of style, you will probably love this.
The best part of this film is the fact that it takes place in Paris and is shot beautifully by legendary cinematographer, Vittorio Storaro who is also in his 80s.

Vittorio Storario shooting Coup de Chance

The music is jazzy and quirky enough although the overuse of Canteloupe feels a little uninspired but the rest of the music is on point and perfectly suited to Allen’s style.

I will say that it sounds like I’m being harsh and really I am, this is a harmless, middle of the road, comedy film that seems to be made for the blue rinse brigade and fair play, I’m glad it’s out there and I’m glad the Woodster is still working in his twilight years.
It’s just not really for me.

Released in Australia on Boxing Day, 26th December 2023
93 minutes