Retirement for Woody Allen? His 50th film is likely to be his last

Disappointed by the times and the financing struggle, the director is not considering other projects for the moment.

Like Quentin Tarantino, Woody Allen has perhaps reached the end of his great career. The American director presented Stroke of luck at the Venice Film Festival this week. His 50th feature film and probably his last!

The 87-year-old filmmaker, in the turmoil of controversies and scandals for years, is no longer able to find financing in the United States and in Variety, he confides that this now limits his room for maneuver and his desire for more.

“I have so many ideas for films that I would be tempted to make another one, if it were easy to finance. But because of that, I don’t know if I have the same passion to seek financing or raise funds” he admits.

Stroke of luckproduced in France and in French, could therefore be the last Woody Allen. The director is deep in thought: “I have to decide if I want to make more films. There are two things: the first is that it is always very difficult to raise money for a film. And do I want to go through this again? Making a film is one thing, but raising the necessary funds is tedious and unglamorous. Now, if someone comes along and tells me that they’re going to give me money to make my film, then maybe I’ll change my mind… The second thing is the fate of movies today. I don’t like the idea – and I don’t know any director who does – of making a film that will be, after two weeks, either on television or streaming.”

In a general way, Woody Allen does not like the media era in which he currently lives, believing that it is not “very high culturally. There have been a lot of wonderful films made in the past, and you don’t see a lot of wonderful films made today. When I wanted to go to the movies, there were three or four films that I was dying for want to see. Every week, there was a Truffaut or a Fellini or an Ingmar Bergman or a Kurosawa. Today, very few European films are shown in the United States. I think we are not in an era wonderful culturally, certainly not in cinema!”

Stroke of luck will be released in cinemas in France on September 27.