Venice Film Festival 2023 reviews: Woody Allen’s ‘Coup de Chance’ has ‘charm and sparkle,’ ‘a jaunty tone of deadpan glee’ and his ‘zestiest dialogue in years’
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“Coup de Chance” bowed at the 2023 Venice Film Festival on Monday, September 4. Written and directed by Woody Allen, it’s the filmmaker’s 50th feature and the first shot entirely in the French language with English subtitles. The 87-year-old Allen was controversially on hand to attend the screening in person, drawing a small group of protestors on site due to longstanding but never substantiated child sexual abuse allegations made by his daughter Dylan Farrow. The audience in attendance at the world premiere warmly embraced the feature and its writer-director with a reported three-minute ovation upon its conclusion.
Premiering out of competition at the festival, the film was shot in Paris and features an all-French cast. A twisty tale of murder, “Coup de Chance” (or in English, “Stroke of Luck”) stars Lou de Laage and Melvil Poupaud as Fanny and Jean, described as “an ideal couple who have everything. Fulfilled in their professional life, they live in a magnificent apartment in the beautiful districts of Paris and seem to be as in love as on the first day. But when Fanny crosses, by chance, Alain (Niels Schneider), a former high school friend, she is immediately capsized. They see each other again very quickly and get closer and closer.” It also stars Valerie Lemercier.
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The reviews on Monday were radically split between critics who think “Coup de Chance” is Allen’s best film in at least a decade and those who found it wholly unsatisfying. The negatives included “lazy writing,” “competent but forgettable,” “Coup de Snooze” and “seems written by ChatGPT.” However, in eight reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, it rates 88% Fresh and included much high praise.
Owen Gleiberman writes in Variety, “The film has a jaunty tone of deadpan glee, abetted by its soundtrack of ’60s and ’70s jazz standards. It’s not a comedy, but as you watch it you can almost see Woody Allen standing off to the side, chuckling at the human folly he’s showing you…It’s a relief, and a pleasure, to see him write a script that isn’t rooted in ‘neurosis,’ that’s full of vibrant players who keep surprising us…Allen, writing his zestiest dialogue in years, makes (Jean) intelligent and romantic: a cad.” He concludes, “(Allen) has made what is easily his best movie since ‘Blue Jasmine’ (10 years ago), maybe since ‘Match Point’ (18 years ago). Should it be released in America? As a culture, I wouldn’t be too surprised if we found ourselves debating whether the time has come to give Woody Allen, as a filmmaker, another coup de chance.”
Chris Vognar, writing in Rolling Stone, says, “‘Coup de Chance’ moves briskly, which means two things: the film is well-paced, rendered in mostly short, crisp scenes; and it tends to skim over the surface, using its characters to make philosophical points within a larger scheme.” The critic also calls it “a pretty slight and minor film. But for an 87-year-old American working in a second language, it can’t help but seem impressive. It’s certainly as good as anything Allen has made since ‘Blue Jasmine’.”
Robbie Collin notes in the Daily Telegraph that while the film is more or less “a baroquely extended mother-in-law joke,” he thinks it Allen’s best since “Cafe Society” in 2016, “seasoned with details that may be conscious or unconscious swipes at his own late-life travails.” He wraps up, “Given his otherwise grim recent form, Allen himself may have simply got lucky with this one, but the charm and sparkle here are real.”
Meanwhile, Xan Brooks writes in The Guardian, “Closing in on his 88th birthday, Woody Allen appears to be running out of time. His creative juices have flatlined, scandal has made him a pariah and the Venice organizers drew fierce condemnation for even including him on the program. And yet, undeterred, he’s still rolling the dice of his musing tales about happenstance and happy accidents, relocating to Europe and working with French actors, like a failing gambler who hopes that a new casino might bring a change in his fortunes. The real shock, though, is the film. It turns out to be the best one he’s managed in a decade at least. If he were ever minded to collect his winnings and quit the table, his 50th feature night be a decent film to go out on.”
Despite his perpetual professed disdain for the Academy Awards, Allen has reaped 24 nominations over the years and won four of them, the last in 2012 for his screenplay for “Midnight in Paris.” But even if everything lined up exactly right for him, it would still require an unlikely falling of chips for “Coup de Chance” to contend as an international feature at next year’s Oscars. For one, France would need to choose it as its representative, a doubtful move, especially because he’s an American – forgetting any of his other baggage.
“Coup de Chance” currently has no U.S. distribution deal, as has been the case for all of Allen’s most recent films. It will release into theaters in France and Spain on September 27.
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