Take a chance on Woody’s Coup de Chance

Longtime directors never die, they just seem to stop appearing in their own films.
Like 93-year-old Clint Eastwood, Woody Allen is still directing feature films more than a half-century after his Take the Money and Run in 1969. His latest, Coup de Chance, was filmed on location in Paris in the weeks leading up to his 87th birthday in fall 2022. After a showing during the Venice International Film Festival and a theatrical release in France last fall, Coup de Chance opens in U.S. theaters in a half-dozen states Friday, April 5, via distributor MPI International (listings below), before a digital on-demand release a week later, April 12.

The now 88-year-old Allen is still challenging himself with this entirely French-language romantic thriller that is also completely devoid of the kind of humor we’ve come to expect in most Allen movies – even when he doesn’t cast himself, he usually has an actor playing a typically Woody character role. But that lack of comedy works just fine here.
The first half of the film that has English subtitles throughout its 96-minutes feels as light and airy as a soufflé, almost like a Hallmark Channel romance movie, and maybe even one from the 1970s since the social situations and familial interactions here feel of that mid-20th century era. Love is rekindled with an attractive young woman called Fanny (Lou de Laâge) who is living the good life of French high society when she has a chance meeting with her care-free, charming, artistic high school classmate called Alain (Niels Schneider).

But maybe it’s a little more like a Lifetime network version since Fanny is currently married while carrying on her new passionate fling with increasing regularity and exuberance. She only has a little guilt conflict about cheating on her doting but rather boring provider with whom she shares few interests.

The second half turns into a mildly enticing murder mystery when husband Jean (Melvil Poupaud), whose source of wealth is unknown, even by his wife, turns out to be the vengeful jealous type. And Jean’s friends are already whispering behind his back about the suspicious disappearance of Jean’s former business partner when Alain seemingly suddenly ghosts Fanny.
Fanny’s mother Camille (Valérie Lemercier), who adores her son-in-law to the point of annoying Fanny about how wonderful Jean is for her, suddenly becomes the most appealing character of the movie once the mystery thriller element of the story kicks in. Over-hearing a speculative conversation about Jean’s questionable past, Camille surreptitiously initiates her own sleuthing that leads to putting herself in jeopardy.

One thing Allen does in his usual admirable style is fill the movie with an excellent blend of vintage jazz music, this time including the likes of Herbie Hancock’s Cantaloupe Island, Nat Adderly’s Fortune’s Child and In the Bag, and Milt Jackson’s Bag’s Groove.

Coup de Chance is touted as Allen’s 50th feature film but that must not include films like his first release, the comedically-dubbed Japanese spy movie What’s Up Tiger Lilly, and probably not his somewhat trail-blazing project with Amazon for high-profile filmmakers in 2016 (before the term Prime became so prevalent for Amazon’s video streaming) Crisis in Six Scenes, which seemed more like a 2-hour and 20-minute movie that hadn’t been trimmed for release but was instead broken into six 23-min streaming segments. Allen has also directed segments of films along with other directors such as New York Stories in 1989, and of course written and directed short films, TV movies, and plays. And he’s also starred as an actor in projects he didn’t write or direct, such as Play it Again, Sam.
Other than Crisis in Six Scenes, it’s been more than a decade since Allen was seen in a film he directed and write, To Rome with Love in 2012 and the little-seen Fading Gigolo in 2013 (he was only heard as the narrator in his 2016 Café Society).
Allen decades ago left behind his comedic gems like Love and Death and his brilliant artistic romantic comedies like Annie Hall and Manhattan, but Coup de Chance fits in with Allen’s most enjoyable films of this century.
— By Scott Hettrick
A list of most of the theaters presenting Coup de Chance on April 5 (complete and updated list of theaters: https://www.coupdechancefilm.com/ )
New York City – The Quad
Los Angeles – Laemmle Santa Monica Film Center
Huntington, NY – Cinema Arts Centre
Arlington, MA – Capitol Theatre
Malverne, NY – Malverne Cinemas
Skillman, NJ – Montgomery Cinemas
Bonita Springs, FL – Prado Stadium 12
Kew Gardens, NY – Kew Gardens Cinemas
Mamaroneck, NY – Mamaroneck Cinemas
Cincinnati, OH – Esquire Theater
Screening May 2:
Cleveland, OH – Cleveland Institute of Art Cinemateque