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Woody Allen has described his new film, Coup de Chance, as a “poisonous romantic thriller.” It debuted on Monday at the Venice International Film Festival and will be released on September 27. However, American viewers won’t be able to see it in theaters unless they visit, for example, Paris or Marseille.
Similar to his last two films, Coup de Chance – a French production, in French, with a French cast – will not be distributed in US cinemas. Allen’s last agreement with an American company ended in 2018 when Amazon cut ties with the filmmaker amidst renewed interest in allegations that he had abused his adopted daughter, Dylan Farrow.
Allen has repeatedly denied these accusations and continues to work. He filmed Coup de Chance in Paris and its surroundings, where he found an important producer willing to work with him.
For a long time, France has been a refuge for American artists fleeing racism or political persecution, such as Josephine Baker, who was embraced by the Parisian public in the 1920s, and filmmaker Jules Dassin, who found work in the French film industry after being blacklisted in Hollywood during the McCarthy era in the 1950s.
But lately, France has warmly welcomed individuals from a completely different category: men who have been accused of sexual abuse, inappropriate sexual behavior, or domestic violence.
In 2018, Louis C.K. performed live comedy in Paris amidst laughter, months after several women said he had masturbated in front of them (“Those accusations are true,” he said in response to the women’s claims). He even appeared in a French television series, La meilleure version de moi-même (The Best Version of Myself), directed by Blanche Gardin, a French comedian and filmmaker who became his girlfriend. Louis C.K. and Gardin, who are no longer together, also hosted a podcast about their relationship.
In the United States, Louis C.K. has not appeared on talk shows or made movies or TV shows for major entertainment companies since the allegations against him surfaced. However, he continues to receive support from his staunch supporters. In January, he sold out tickets for his performance at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Johnny Depp has been more or less unemployed in major Hollywood studios since his ex-wife, Amber Heard, accused him of physical and sexual abuse in a 2018 op-ed in The Washington Post. Disney canceled a $22.5 million agreement for Depp to appear in a new installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, according to his representative. However, a French company, Why Not Productions, hired him to star in a period drama, Jeanne du Barry.
In the film, Depp portrays Louis XV, the 18th-century French leader known as “Louis the Beloved,” his first major role in three years. When the film screened at the Cannes Film Festival in May, the actor received a standing ovation lasting seven minutes. Jeanne du Barry performed well at the box office in France. Variety noted that its success in theaters demonstrated that Depp remained a profitable star and added, “At least in France.”
Allen is the latest male artist to turn to France to rehabilitate his career or simply to continue making movies. In the United States, several top stars, such as Greta Gerwig and Timothée Chalamet, have expressed regret over having worked with him. In France, the 87-year-old director was able to hire a top-notch French cast.
The French audience’s response to Coup de Chance is unknown. The initial reviews range from ambivalence to ecstasy. Le Monde described the direction as “laborious” on Tuesday.
Graham Robb, a British historian and author of several books on French culture, including The Discovery of France, says the divergence in the treatment of these male artists is largely due to cultural differences between France and the United States.
In France, Robb said, “artists have the right to be criminals, ill-tempered, to be imaginative, and not to be like everyone else.” He cited Arthur Rimbaud, the 19th-century French poet, hedonist, and opium smoker, whose writings are part of the high school curriculum in France. “Schoolchildren are forced to read Rimbaud’s demented and drug-addicted fantasies,” Robb said. “Breaking the rules is considered a sine qua non condition of artistic life.”
The scandals involving Allen, Depp, and Louis C.K. emerged in the wake of the #MeToo movement. That movement has also had some impact on French cultural life. Lawmakers have passed laws penalizing street harassment and set the age of sexual consent at 15. Some French artists, including actor Gérard Depardieu, have faced criticism over allegations of inappropriate sexual behavior.
However, Hélène Frappat, a French film critic and novelist, claims that the #MeToo movement has not had as much of an impact in her country as it has in the United States. “I don’t think the #MeToo movement has been the revolution that was expected in France,” she wrote in an email interview.
She added that while there has been a “revolution” in France among the younger generation and “many women,” the creative community has largely been immune to change. “The artistic community, like the French elite, is caught up in the moral panic of old white men terrified of losing a crumb of power,” Frappat wrote.
Allen and Depp also have long-standing connections to France. From 1998 to 2012, Depp was in a relationship with French singer and model Vanessa Paradis; the couple has two children, and Depp owns a villa in France.
Allen has a specific place within the French audience, Frappat said. French cinephiles “remain emotionally attached to the memory of his films, which the French public used to expect to see every year,” she said, adding that she herself falls into that category.
And while Frappat said she had “never questioned” Farrow’s sexual abuse allegations against Allen, she noted, “I still love his work, in a kind of conscious and difficult split.”
This ambivalence was evident in Venice: Allen received a standing ovation for Coup de Chance, while outside the venue, protesters held signs calling on the festival programmers to “drown out the rapists from the spotlight.”
As for Louis C.K., his comedian colleague and ex-girlfriend, Gardin, considered him an expert at turning one’s lowest instincts into art, just like Rimbaud. According to Gardin, in his live comedy, Louis C.K. “explored his dark side, his perversions, and deciphered the darkness of the human soul.”
Perhaps there is another factor that continues to make these men attractive to the French audience: they come from a land that some may find somewhat unreal.
“For many Europeans, the United States is an almost fictitious place,” Robb said. “That influences the comparatively welcoming treatment that people like Johnny Depp receive. An actor’s actions are, to some extent, things that happen in a half-fictitious world.”
Steven Kurutz joined The Times in 2011 and, before joining the Style section, wrote for the City and Home sections. He was previously a reporter for The Wall Street Journal and Details. More from Steven Kurutz.
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