CANNES (Dagsavisen): glamorous flanked by his much younger stars Kristen Stewart and Blake Lively, says Woody Allen in words and deeds vital miles away from many of their peers. Still, one can annually adjust the clock for a new movie from his head. With this year’s romantic comedy drama “Café Society” he has created his probably best film since “Midnight In Paris” and again it concerns a period drama, now based in Hollywood’s glamorous, cynical studio’s golden age in the 1930s and high society in Manhattan, well interspersed with some good old-fashioned gangster comedy. In other words, an extremely obvious 80-year-old who opens this year’s Cannes festival.
– I got the jackpot. Both my parents were old, my father was over a hundred, and my mother was almost a hundred years, so I hope I’ve got the good genes that allow me to continue making films while yet. I do not feel old, but one day I wake up enough and has been kind, and I’ll be one of the ones you see sitting in a wheelchair that people point to and say “see, he there used to be Woody Allen,” beats Allen fixed, as assumed pessimistic and neurotic as ever in the face of the press.
Romantic entanglements
“Café Society” is an excess film with Jesse Eisenberg starring as Bobby. He comes to Hollywood from growing up in the Bronx, and seek his uncle (Steve Carell) who are in high places in the agent system. Soon he falls in love uncle secretary, played by Stewart, but it turns out quickly that he is not the only one with warm feelings for the little naive young girl who, like legions of young beautiful people flock to contemporary Hollywood to try his luck.
– When Kristen Stewart’s name came up everything fell into place. I needed someone who could be credible as both the sweet secretary of Nebraska, and the juvelbehengte sophisticated woman in upper Manhattan, said Allen about the election of the double Cannes current actor who in record time has gone from being “Twilight” star to heavy roles in “Sils Maria” and “Personal Shopper” film shown in Cannes later in the festival.
in addition, playing the former “Gossip Girl” star Blake Lively plays a central role in Bobby’s later life, when he becomes a nightclub king of New York – far away from the harsh upbringing in the Bronx.
– I write about what I know. I grew up in a Jewish family, and her mother and father to Bobby in the movie is probably the closest I get my own childhood, a couple who nagger at each other and burst into Yiddish. In this case I can say that what I tell is authentic because it was so when I grew up, says Woody Allen, that allows Jewish humor sparkling in the film while the romantic aspects of the story oscillates between Hollywood and New York’s Bronx and Manhattan.
– I’ve always seen myself as a romantic, though not the women in my life necessarily agreeing that, he said to general laughter, before he continues: – I’m not a Clark Gable – or Cary Grant-type romantic, rather a romantic fool. Many will say that I romanticize such as New York, the romantic and love. I grew up on Hollywood movies and the films have probably had a lasting effect on me. Therefore, I try to make romantic films, and this is a romantic film, but not to say that all my films there, says Allen.
Sadistic
He has as usual signed script even, and especially one remark attracts attention: “Life is a tragedy, written by a sadistic comedian.”
– Yes, here is a man who is cheating and who is trying to sneak meetings and telephone calls without getting caught. It has an element of comedy and farce in itself, but it is also sad it all, where some affected and destroyed. People want to be entertained, but little in the same way as when someone says that everything is so tragic that it is no use other than to laugh, option is to kill himself, says Allen, adding that comedy is a way to survive all that horrible happens.
His version of Hollywood in the movie is not something glossy picture, rather a cynical race where superficial weigh heaviest. Kristen Stewart says that there is not much different today.
– There is undoubtedly much opportunism and overt hunger drives people in today’s film community as well. It is very obvious when people do not care about other than making money. People have always climbed on each other to reach the top, and there is little doubt that Hollywood is a place where this is happening openly, says Stewart, while Blake Lively adds that while the 1930 figures were studios that dominated, it is in today the media which stands for the Woody Allen called “Dog Eat Dog” condition, a ruthless rat race to be first and best.
– the studios in Hollywood at that time stood for the pure carnage, in which all bets everyone. Reads one S. Scott Fitzgerald books you get a good idea of how Hollywood worked in the 1930s, when the film industry was totally devoid of ethics, says Allen.
A novel
His reference to F. Scott Fitzgerald is hardly a coincidence, given that the author’s novels, among them “the great Gatsby”, has shaped for future perception of the sweet life in the United States in the interwar period. Also “Café Society” is about using the cards you’re dealt, whether in love or career.
– I would structure the film like a novel, with but a whole family, mother, father, siblings and others that we follow in retrospect and for a long time. I wanted “Café Society” would have the size of a novel and it should also have the author’s voice with. Since I have written it, it was natural that I also took the role of the narrator in the film, says Allen, who admittedly have not given themselves a visible role this time either.
– Had it not been for a few years ago, I would definitely played the role of Bobby himself. But Jesse is perfect. I’m no actor, I’m a comedian and would play the role of a much more dimensional way, while Jesse is a more complex actor. Many say that he is similar to me, and he reminds me actually about myself, but he plays this role with a depth I never had the opportunity to give it, says Allen.
“Café Society” is the starting on a 12-day long competition festival in Cannes, but even refuses Woody Allen to join the battle for the Palme d’Or.
– I do not believe it to compete in art. It is brilliant with competition in the sport, but to judge others’ artistic work, I would not dream of doing myself. Who can say that Matisse is better than a Picasso. One can tell which favorite movie you have, but not what objectively is the best film. I love Cannes for the atmosphere, the energy and all the people watching and talking movie definitely all the time, but to be part of a competition film I see no reason, says Woody Allen.
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