The first trailer for Woody Allen's romantic thriller "Happy Accident" has been released online. The director traditionally worked on the script of his future picture. The film was shot in French with the participation of French actors. The central roles in it were played by Lou de Laage ("Time Traveler", "Black Box"), Melville Poupaud ("By the Will of God", "And yet Laurence"), Niels Schneider ("Imaginary Love", "What We Say, What We Do") and Sarah Martins ("Citadel", "Death in Paradise").
The plot of the film revolves around a married couple - Fanny and Jean. They have everything you can dream of: they are in love with each other, live in a luxurious apartment in a beautiful area of Paris, while both are independent and professionally held people. One day, Fanny meets a school friend. A romantic relationship is established between them, which leads to tragic consequences.
According to the director himself, this is a film about "love, passion and violence", about an affair that develops first into adultery, and then murder. He also noted that this is a serious story about "crime and punishment", which is not devoid of romance.
The cinematographer of the film was Vittorio Storaro, who worked with Allen on the films "High Life", "Wheel of Miracles", "Rainy Day in New York", "Rifkin Festival" and "New York Stories". In addition, Storaro collaborated with filmmakers such as Bernardo Bertolucci and Francis Ford Coppola.
"Happy Accident" was presented at the European Film Market in Berlin in February, as well as at a private screening in New York in March. Critics warmly received the tape. The author of the portal Showbiz411.com Roger Friedman called it one of the best works of the director and predicted the Oscar for the best international feature film. The reviewer noted the cast, the tense plot and the visual component of the picture.
Allen himself compared the plot outline of "Happy Accident" with the 2005 thriller "Match Point", which was nominated for an Oscar and a Golden Eagle.
Filming of the film, tentatively titled Wasp 22, began in Paris and the suburbs in the fall of 22. Subsequently, the tape was renamed Coup de Chance - "Happy Accident". The French premiere of the film is scheduled for September 2022, the release in other countries has not yet been reported.
It is noteworthy that despite the expectations of some experts, it was not selected for the program of the Cannes Film Festival, held from 16 to 27 May. Although in previous years the show was often opened with the director's films - among them were "Hollywood Finale", "Midnight in Paris" and "High Life" - in 2023 his work was not considered for selection due to the scandal associated with allegations of harassment. The program director of the show, Thierry Frémault, said that the situation with the director is "special", and the show would cause controversy both around the tape of Allen himself and other participants.
Accusations of harassment by Dylan Farrow's adopted daughter were published in The New York Times in February 2014. She wrote about an alleged traumatic experience that happened when she was seven years old.
Allen called the statement of his adopted daughter "false and shameful" and in response wrote a letter stating that Dylan Farrow was acting on the instructions of his mother and his former lover Mia Farrow: she allegedly invented a story of violence out of revenge. The story began in 1992, when Allen's ex-partner took the girl to the pediatrician after she told her about her father's molestation in the attic of their house. The director's guilt has not been proven.
Farrow later repeated her accusations in a column for The Los Angeles Times. She stated that the system spares Allen in the same way that it once spared Harvey Weinstein.
Despite the fact that the court did not find the director guilty, the situation affected his activities. In 2018, Amazon refused to release the romantic comedy Rainy Day in New York in the United States and broke off cooperation with Allen. Some artists who worked with him admitted that they regret it. The film was released in 2019, when it was distributed by the Italian film company Lucky Red. Subsequently, the tape was shown in many countries of the world, including Russia.