Although Woody Allen’s filmography is unquestionably associated with New York City, Paris has always had a special place in the filmmaker’s heart. After filming Everybody Says I Love You in Paris and making the French capital into a character in its own right in Midnight In Paris, he returns to the City of Light for Coup De Chance, entirely shot in French. “I don’t speak French and I understand even less, but as I finished the script, I thought it would be a great experience to make it in French,” says Allen. “I’ve always been in love with the European and French cinema very strongly.”
REVIEW: Directed by Woody Allen, the film carries his distinctive style and wit, blending elements of comedy, drama, and thriller. The storyline, revolving around a young woman’s unexpected rekindling of an old high school friendship and subsequent affair, intricately explores themes of love, betrayal, and manipulation. This complex narrative keeps audiences intrigued and invested. Characters like Fanny, played by Lou de Laâge, and Jean, played by Melvil Poupaud, are richly developed, showcasing a range of emotions and morally grey areas. These multidimensional characters add depth to the story. The collaboration with cinematographer Vittorio Storaro ensures that the film is visually stunning, with elegant and meticulously crafted scenes that enhance the storytelling. The film premiered at the Venice International Film Festival and received positive reviews, highlighting its artistic merit and impact.
In Coup De Chance we meet Paris-based Jean (Melvil Poupaud) and Fanny (Lou de Laâge), a glamorous and wealthy couple living in a splendid, typical Haussmannian building in the west end of the city. Jean is a charismatic, highly successful businessman – even though some of his friends hint, jokingly or out of jealousy, that he has benefited from his partner’s sudden passing. Not only is Jean a charming character, but he most importantly likes to feel in control of things, sometimes even making his luck. “Many successful businessmen feel that they make their luck and that they’re not at the mercy of chance,” the director continues. “Luck is not the whole thing by any means, but Jean is the controlling kind so much so that, as we find out early on, he may have extended himself into illegality to get rid of his partner.”
After she had a painful marriage and eventually broke up with her first husband, Fanny, unnerved by her failed marriage, was attracted to Jean who appeared as stable and reliable. “This attractive, wealthy man came along at a good time in her life, just as she felt confused and needed to be comforted,” says Allen. “She let him take over her life in a way that was generous and comforting to her. She liked it but if she had met him under less stressful circumstances, perhaps she would not have necessarily married him.”
Fanny gradually realizes she’s not at home with her husband’s shallow crowd of people and that it’s boring for her to spend weekends at his country estate, hunting and playing golf. “She’s a bright, cultivated young woman who’s always had an artistic leaning and thought of herself as marrying a musician, a painter or a writer,” adds the filmmaker. “Actually, she married one and he turned out to be artistically stimulating – and If her first husband hadn’t been a druggie, she would have remained in the world of art.”
When she accidentally bumps into Alain (Niels Schneider), a former classmate turned writer, in the street, Fanny is swept off her feet. Not only does it rekindle his attraction to her, but she realizes even more acutely that she’s not living the life she was intended for and that she has become, to Jean, a kind of trophy wife he’s proud to show off to his friend circle. “Alain has very little money, so he lives in an inexpensive attic apartment of sorts, but his lifestyle resonates with Fanny’s Bohemian spirit,” says Allen.
“Alain appreciates the influence of chance and luck in life – he has observed it and has lived it, unlike Jean who is a much more controlling, rigid personality,” adds the director. “My feeling is that luck and chance play a much greater role than people care to admit – they like to think that if they work hard if they apply themselves and discipline themselves, they will be able to control their lives. But it is only partly true, even if it is a slightly unnerving thought.”
Fanny (Lou de Laâge) and Jean (Melvil Poupaud) look like the ideal married couple – they’re both professionally accomplished, they live in a gorgeous apartment in an exclusive neighborhood of Paris, and they seem to be in love just as much as they were when they first met. But when Fanny accidentally bumps into Alain (Niels Schneider), a former high school classmate, she’s swept off her feet. They soon see each other again and get closer and closer…
While the romantic plot and the themes are deeply felt, working with actors in a different language than English was a dramatically new experience for Woody Allen
“I speak only English, so I never thought I’d get a chance to work in another language, but I found that it was fine because you can tell if a person is acting believably or acting not believably,” says Allen. “And I wrote the script, so I know what they’re saying in every scene. So, if I feel somebody made a mistake, I can ask the script supervisor and the cameramen that do speak the language.”
Allen admits that he didn’t know any of the actors playing in Coup De Chance, but that all the cast members he picked from videotapes were first-rate actors and appropriately correct for the parts. He was introduced to them briefly before the shoot and, as with all of his collaborators, he let them have an enormous amount of creative freedom. “I wanted them to be able to put things in their own words and speak as regular French citizens,” adds the director. “They didn’t have to obey my script rigidly – they could relax and improvise and speak as they would speak under similar circumstances. When you give them such freedom, you get fine performances.”
The Actors
“I grew up watching Woody Allen’s films and he’s a filmmaker that has always been a part of my inner world ever since I was a teenager. When you look at his filmography, you can see his evolution as a director, as an actor and as a human being,” says Lou de Laâge. “I’d never have possibly imagined that I would be offered to play in a Woody Allen film. Being a part of his journey as an artist, at one particular moment in time, felt amazing. When I got the script, it came with a note where Woody told me that he offered me the part but that if I didn’t like it, I could just say so. Such elegance is rare.”
“Most importantly, the writing was superb. I read it in one go, just as you read a novel. Scripts are often burdened by unnecessary scenes and lengthy parts, but in this case you could tell the writer was so experienced. The writing was so accomplished. I didn’t feel like I had to come up with a backstory as you just understood this young woman tended to dive into whatever came her way,” says Lou de Laâge.
“The script was perfectly balanced between tragedy and comedy – and it was all brought to a climax that is typical of Woody Allen’s genius. In this film, every frame, every creative decision – whether it has to do with editing or music – bears a constant balance between pathos and humour, between a sense of threat and of light-heartedness – so you laugh and experience thrills all at once thanks to this amazing ambivalence. The vaudeville-farcical element connected the film to a tradition of French drama, but it was imbued with a darker, more ambiguous dimension through my character, both monstrous and charming,” says Melvil Poupaud who plays Jean.
“I was surprised by the ending which expresses Woody Allen’s vision of existence – life is a roll of the dice and we’re all at the mercy of destiny. The structure of the script, which is unrelenting despite its tale-like quality, reminded me of Éric Rohmer.”
“From the outset, Woody said to me, ‘It’s a complex, charming, unnerving, threatening, gentle role’ and he added, ‘I’ll be there to help you.’ Through his words I could feel that he was somewhat close to the character and that he related to him from the inside. I think Jean felt like running away from the world – he suffered as a child and was afraid things would escape him. This childlike, fragile quality makes him relatable – to a certain extent. It was a wonderful part to play as, within the same scene, he can be charming and win everybody over with his charisma, and in the blink of an eye, he can reveal a much darker side.”
“I was told he didn’t speak much and remained behind the monitor. When we first met, he actually was quite taciturn but on our second meeting, he was much more talkative. On set, after three or four takes, he’d ask us if we wanted to try something different. He paid great attention to our acting, to our desire to suggest things. He was very much into directing his cast and you could feel he very much enjoyed himself like someone being energized and exhilarated by the production. As we moved forward, I felt he was getting even happier and in top form as the film meant a great deal to him.”
Says Niels Schneider, who plays Alain. “I grew up with Woody Allen’s films ever since Husbands And Wives and he’s one of the few filmmakers like Martin Scorsese, Ingmar Bergman and Francis Ford Coppola whose movies I can watch over and over again with equal enjoyment. During lockdown, I watched Woody’s entire filmography all over again – and he’s to me one of the greatest writers, directors and auteurs alive. So it was a an obvious choice when I was offered the part – even though it felt unbelievable that I was going to appear in a Woody Allen film! Along with John Cassavetes, Woody Allen is also the most independent filmmaker there ever was. He always found financing to keep full creative control on his fims and not be influenced by Hollywood.”
I played Coltrane at home to get in the mood right off and I realized it was all about the writing – the lightheartedness, pace and musical quality of the dialogue; the soulful characters that each had beliefs and a natural banter; and themes that cut across his filmography. You can find, just as in Match Point, life’s irony, the fact that no matter how much you struggle and believe you have some control over your existence – in the end, you’re quite insignificant and you hardly have any control over your life. I was awestruck by the script as it conveyed beautifully this feeling on existence in a profound and light-hearted way, without any contrived humor and comical effects.”
From Page To Screen
The cinematography and the various colors, from warm and golden hues to colder tones, enhance the city’s beauty and express the characters’ emotional journey. Coup De Chance marks the fifth time that Allen has collaborated with cinematographer Vittorio Storaro, after Café Society, Wonder Wheel, A Rainy Day In New York and Rifkin’s Festival. “Most of the trick to make a good picture is to surround yourself with first-rate collaborators,” continues Allen. “You need to pick them out appropriately and then don’t sit on top of them – let them express themselves artistically. With Vittorio, we always work the same way. He reads the script, we have a conversation about what the feeling of the picture should be, and as with all of my collaborators, I give him an enormous amount of freedom. He’s a great artist and almost everything he does naturally is beautiful.”
Just as he usually does, Storaro sought to emphasize visually the opposition between the two protagonists. “I connected warm tonalities with Fanny, using the beautiful midday light or the warm light of the sunset as these are the moments when she meets with Alain,” the director of photography explains. “To enhance Fanny’s sense of freedom, I mostly filmed her with a Steadicam and went with a longer lens connected to her. It was quite the opposite with Jean as he’s associated with the moonlight and so I filmed him with a very wide angle, showing that he practically moved in a very straight line.” Likewise, he wished to give the gorgeous Parisian apartment – Jean’s ultimate territory – a bluish tone that intensifies as the tension builds. “In fact, the walls of the apartment were white,” adds Storaro. “But I realized that if I let the natural light filter through the windows and if I set the camera in ‘artificial mode’, the walls came out bluish. Woody was sold by the idea even if he wanted a very light blue at the beginning and a darker blue at a later juncture. I showed him he needn’t worry as you could increase the bluish tonality by increments.”
Just like Storaro’s cinematography, the places and neighborhoods of Paris visited by the characters offer an idealized vision of the city – that of Woody Allen’s. Once again, the director gave much leeway to production designer Véronique Mélery who had never worked with him before and did not give her specific references.
“We mostly had a conversation about the characters and their psyche, but I quickly realized that he wished to showcase the Paris he loves and film the city in all its glory,” says Mélery. The Luxembourg Garden, the classically beautiful grand avenues of the West End, the Montmartre neighborhood already featured in Midnight in Paris all relate to the director’s memories. The country house turned out to be slightly more challenging. “We’d visited the house on the first day of scouting”, she continues. “The place’s obvious charm and soul, and the surroundings were perfect. But Woody wanted to find a place closer to Paris. So, we went back to scouting but never found the ideal location and after weeks of research, we happily came back to our initial choice.”
Just like the locations and the production design, the costumes, in their own way, help tell the story and emphasize the moments of tension and emotion. As a six-time collaborator with Woody Allen, costume designer Sonia Grande has developed a professional shorthand with the director, so that she knows instinctively what he likes. “There are certain colors he doesn’t like, and the wardrobe must have a light, drawn appearance,” she says. “He doesn’t like excessive layers of clothing over the actors’ bodies, covering or sheltering them too much.”
As for the director, he trusts Grande totally. “I’ve worked on a number of pictures with Sonia and I let her express herself artistically,” he notes. “If an actor or actress comes in wearing something that I feel is wrong, I’ll tell Sonia, but that’s rare. If you let a collaborator such as her do what she wants to do, because she understands the script so well, nine out of ten times what she wants to do instinctively is correct.”
Woody Allen had a wonderful experience shooting a film in Paris in French and he’d be happy doing it again. While he kept the same methods that he uses when he shoots in the US and has worked with many of his long-standing collaborators, he made an exception for the soundtrack.
“Usually in all my pictures I have much older jazz music which is the music that I like,” he concludes. “But since I was making a French picture, I paid homage to the French cinema of the 1950s and 1960s, like Louis Malle’s Elevator To The Gallows I discovered when I first became aware of the French cinema. French filmmakers at the time used Miles Davis and the Modern Jazz Quartet and a kind of modern jazz in general. So, that’s the style I used for Coup de Chance and it worked out very well.”
Writer-director Woody Allen’s Filmography
