Woody Allen, speaking to the Spanish newspaper, La Vanguardia, has announced his retirement from filmmaking.
Allen, in Europe to work on his 50th film, said he intended to retire from making movies and to dedicate more time to writing. What now will his final film is set in Paris and will be shot entirely in French in a couple of weeks.
Allen described his upcoming film to be similar to “Match Point,” in that it would be “exciting, dramatic and also very sinister.” He recently wrote his fifth collection of humor pieces, “Zero Gravity,” which will be published Sept. 27 by Alianza in Spain. In the U.S., it was published by Arcade and distributed by Simon & Schuster.
Allen has been shooting more often in Europe ever since his support in the U.S. plunged after the child sex abuse accusations against him. In 2020, he opened the San Sebastian Film Festival with “Rifkin’s Festival,” shot in and around the chic city of San Sebastian. His relationship with the Basque provincial capital’s festival goes back to 2004 when he premiered “Melinda & Melinda” and in 2008 with the premiere of “Vicky Cristina Barcelona.”
Starring Elena Anaya, Louis Garrel and Gina Gershon, “Rifkin’s Festival” takes place during the festival, the most important in the Spanish-speaking world.
Surprisingly, it was at the beginning of the press conference marking the start of the film’s production that he announced that he “never thought of retiring.” “Rifkin’s Festival” was backed by Spanish media giant Mediapro, which also supported two of Allen’s more successful films “Vicky Cristina Barcelona,” which garnered Penelope Cruz her first Oscar, and “Midnight in Paris.”
Amazon Studios shelved his previous film “A Rainy Day in New York” after accusing Allen of “sabotaging” the future of the film by his comments on the abuse accusations of his daughter Dylan Farrow. He sued them for $68 million alleging a breach of contract. The dispute was later settled out of court.
Allen has had trouble with publishing houses as well. Hachette canceled the publication of his memoir “Apropos of Nothing” after staff protests, but it was picked up by another publisher, Arcade.
