The meeting takes place at the Bristol Paris, a stone’s throw from the Elysée. At the beginning of September, at the Venice Film Festival, Woody Allen, invited along with Roman Polanski and Luc Besson, to present his film, was heckled by a group of demonstrators with the angry slogan: “Mostra, awful, dirty and nasty”. For the legendary director ofAnnie Hall, this is an accusation by his adopted daughter Dylan Farrow of sexual assault (the facts date back to 1992) from which he was exonerated by the American justice system. No banners or slogans here, the hall of the Parisian palace is very calm. And there is no question of bringing up the subject, the instructions from Woody Allen’s agent are clear: “The questions must relate only to his book and/or his film.” Including, the menu being full, with a film, its 50th, Stroke of lucka sort of vaudeville thriller set in Paris, in theaters on September 27, and a collection of deliciously extravagant, very Woodyallenian short stories, Zero gravity, all in thirty-five minutes, watch in hand, not one more. Meeting, therefore, with a Woody Allen who is very fit for his age (87 years old, one year older than the Pope), except for a slightly deficient hearing, which did not prevent him from performing, the evening before, clarinet in hand, on the stage of the Grand Rex with his New Orleans Jazz Band.
L’Express: Did the concert go well?
Woody Allen: Yes, the atmosphere was very nice, the band had a good time, the spectators, warm and expansive, were there. We played for a little over an hour, and with the encores, another good quarter of an hour.
King Charles III, Pope Francis, rugby players from around the world, and you, all in the same week. Is France such a welcoming country?
I don’t know about the king, but for me, France has always been hospitable and delightful, ever since my first film, fifty years ago. The French have always been welcoming and friendly. I have come to your country many times. So I stayed 23 times in this Bristol hotel alone. Previously and for many years I went to the Ritz, until they closed it.
You say that you speak French better than you understand it, that’s original, because, in general, it’s the opposite that happens with a foreign language…
Actually, I can say a few words if I need something, or if I need to speak to an actor, but all the actors speak English here. On the other hand, I don’t understand French, not at all.
You film Paris but you do not set any of your stories in the French capital. Is it easier to film it than to write about it?
That’s a good question: it’s more fun for me to film Paris because the city is very, very photogenic. It is similar to New York in many ways, but it is more beautiful, especially because of its beautiful gardens and parks. This is why, in my eyes, images are stronger than writings. It is also true that I am only familiar with a few areas of Paris, I am mainly attached to romantic Paris.
You chose autumn as the time to shoot Stroke of luck : Is this your favorite season?
Yes, my wife prefers spring, but I love autumn, and I don’t like summer – the only place I like summer is in London and San Francisco, it’s cold. So I love Paris when autumn arrives and when, at the end of the afternoon, the sun disappears and the cloudy sky becomes superb.
Stroke of luck deals with the idea of possessive jealousy, the one that makes Jean, the husband, played by Melvil Poupaud, commit many misdeeds, such as spying on his wife’s cell phone and having her followed by a private detective. Is this jealousy the worst pitfall of marriage?
When the chemistry of the couple is good, life together is wonderful, better than being single, at least in my opinion. But the chemistry has to be there. My character loves his wife and if she hadn’t met his old college friend and if he hadn’t been pinched when he eliminated this person, he would have stayed with her forever. Lots of people do terrible things and get away with it. I am thinking especially of men, who commit more crimes; women are not generally violent, they use other means, try to divorce…
The same idea runs through your film and your short stories, that of chance and luck which makes you meet this or that person and who can change your life…
It is essential to be lucky in life. I would even say that it is the most important. There are many things you don’t control. You can get out of here, and by some bad chance you get knocked down; or you may meet someone on the street, who will turn your life upside down…
“I could have been born in Poland, and I would have died, I’m Jewish”
Can you say you were lucky?
Yes, I am very lucky. I have a good family, a wonderful life, great children, I’m in good health… It’s all luck. I was born in 1935 in New York, but I could have been born in Poland, and I would have died, I’m Jewish.
Will your film be distributed in the United States?
Oh yes, Americans will be able to see it. We have received proposals from a few distributors who want the film and we are going to choose the best one. The problem is that most of the time, distributors only let the film live for two weeks or a little more. No one is satisfied, me or the other directors with whom I talk about it. Unfortunately, the time when a film remained on display for a long time is over, before it could remain in a theater for months, hundreds of people would come and watch it together. Now you push a button and you see it at home, in your bedroom.
Eight of the 19 short stories Zero Severity were released about ten years ago in the New Yorker. Why didn’t the magazine publish the others?
Gone are the days when there were at least two or three short stories in each issue of the New Yorker signed by JD Salinger, Philip Roth, John Updike… Before, the newspaper published stories on three or four pages, I took advantage of that, now it only reserves a ridiculous place for these stories, a small page. What do you want to do with this? It’s too short… And no magazine has taken over. Still, I don’t stop writing when I have nothing to do, that is to say when I have finished a script or when I am not filming. When I see information in the press that amuses me, for example, or when something intrigues me during a conversation, I write it down straight away. It’s a pleasure for me.
Yesterday you featured yourself in your films, today it’s in your news. So randomly on the pages, we recognize you in the guise of this or that director or playwright. And this, in a very uncomplimentary way. Here you mention this “kind of little guy built like a maggot, short-sighted behind black-framed glasses, and dressed like a hillbilly”, there, you describe your character as “a chronic depressive, misanthrope, taciturn, obsessed with sex”… Is it because you have a great sense of self-deprecation or is it for comic effect?
Ah yes, you are talking about the short story titled A campaign game: from bad to worse. Indeed, in this story, I make an explicit reference to myself. And this mainly to amuse the reader. Just like in the first story in the collection, Growing up in Manhattan, which would be, let’s say, an excessive autobiography. Because, in life, I am like a bourgeois, very middle class. My daily life has nothing artistic or dramatic, I get up, I work, I dine with my wife in a restaurant, it’s totally uninteresting, but when I write, obviously, I exaggerate the line, I make life more fun.
There are a lot of animals in these stories, whimsical animals, like this cow that makes an attempted murder, chickens that need to be entertained, Madoff victims reincarnated as lobsters, a horse painter, a gang of mice… Do animals fascinate you that much?
No, not at all, it’s a coincidence. One day, I wrote one of these “animal” stories for the New Yorker, and then, five years later, I wrote another, and five years later, another… and then here they are together. It’s due to chance. I actually have no particular relationship with animals, I don’t own a dog, cat, goldfish or bird.
“Today I say that no computer will ever write a good novel, but I could be wrong, as I was wrong with chess and Kasparov.”
On the other hand, you know the world of cinema and theater very well, which you feature extensively in your collection. And not always in a good light…
I know this world well and it is very easy to be funny while barely exaggerating because the actors are very vain and serious about their art, the producers only think about money and profit, as for the filmmakers, they’re all trying to be great. Hollywood is a very funny place because everyone is so serious, so ambitious, so stupid… I know them by heart, I know how they think, how they talk.
In the news Diary of a smart car, you imagine a car that had a brain and could therefore decide who to avoid and who to overturn. Do technological advances, more or less crazy, scare you?
I read somewhere that we could soon build cars that could make decisions. Exaggerating a little, of course, I imagined that there would be no limit to their intelligence and that they could therefore act based on moral data and choose their victims. Still, I don’t really fear all these technological advances, because I’m 87, soon to be 88, and I’ll be dead when all this is really scary. I don’t know what the future holds, but I’ve often said that no computer could beat Kasparov at chess. And a computer beat Kasparov! So I was wrong. Today I say that no computer will ever write a good novel, but I could be wrong, as I was wrong with chess. Who knows what will happen in five, ten or fifteen years… The writers are fighting, the actors are demonstrating in California, they don’t want computers to duplicate their faces, their voices… They are right, there should be a law prohibiting this type of practice.
Zero gravity was published in the United States a year ago. With success ?
Yes I can imagine. Actually, I don’t care about it. All I know is that my publisher sends my agent a check twice a year. It was the same for my Memoirs, so I have absolutely no idea how many copies of By the way were sold, for example.
But you rejoice, right, when you have good sales and/or good reviews?
Fifty years ago, I stopped reading all the reviews about me and all my interviews. Even when people say to me, “Oh, there’s a wonderful review of your film, you should read it.” No, it’s over, I haven’t read anything about myself or my work in five decades. When I started in this profession, for the purposes of advertising, I was asked to read all the press in order to select the best reviews. And they brought me a box with 200 newspapers from Boston, Chicago, California… I didn’t know what to do, so I said stop. Especially since when it is written that you are a genius, you begin to believe it, and, conversely, any descent destabilizes you.
Stroke of luckwritten and directed by Woody Allen, with Lou de Laage, Valérie Lemercier, Melvil Poupaud and Niels Schneider. Duration: 1h36. National release: September 27.
Zero gravity, by Woody Allen, trans. from English (United States) by Nicolas Richard. Stock, 256 p., €22.