I watched Woody Allen's latest film, localized as Coup de Chance, 2023. This is, of course, a typical Woodyallen film from the category I place in his category of “crime and punishment” (he also has films from the category of “crime without punishment”, for example, “Match Point”). It all begins with an unexpected meeting on the street of the main character Fanny (Lou de Laage) with a former classmate Alain (Niels Schneider), he is very happy to meet and tells her that he, it turns out, at school was very in love with her, but did not dare to declare it, since she was a very popular girl, and he, apparently, was a rather modest boy. Now he is a writer, married but divorced, and came to Paris for a while to write a book. Fanny works in an auction house, happily married to a very rich man Jean (Melville Poupot) and seemingly does not want to change anything in her life, however, her husband’s lifestyle is not entirely satisfied, she is bored, she wants something else, but she is not looking for good, and she puts up with her rich life. However, the sincere joy of Alena about their meeting still stirred something in her soul, little by little they begin to meet, and then become lovers. She even wants to tell her husband, but she can’t. Jean is very jealous, so he quickly sees that something went wrong, hires private detectives who find out that the lover really has. And then Jean makes an act, and not the first in his life, when he stops it, and arranges it so that Fanny decides that Allen just left her, leaving without warning. We observe the luxurious lives of rich people, among whom revolves Jean, who earns money to “make rich people even richer”, i.e., or advises them on how to circumvent taxes, or how to do it through fraud, and on the sidelines this audience is very fond of discussing the mysterious disappearance of Jean’s once partner, whose corpse was later found in the sea and declared suicide, but the suspicion remains. And then Alain disappears, Fanny is completely broken at first, the news just stunned her. Gradually, the relationship between Fanny and Jean seems to settle down until Fanny’s mother comes to them, who treats this story quite differently – not immediately, but after hearing just talk about the disappearance of Jean’s partner. She tries to warn Fanny about this, but at first she does not want to hear anything, but then she is convinced of her rightness. In the end, Jean is overtaken by retribution – not from law enforcement, but from a life in which there is always room for surprises. I can’t say that the film is striking in its depth or novelty, but fans of Woody Allen’s films can see, he is true to himself.
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