Which of the beautiful Parisians in the cast will enjoy that “stroke of luck” promised in the title of Woody Allen’s milestone 50th movie, Coup de Chance?
Unfolding in the wealthier spheres of French society, the story is an elegant, enjoyable mixture of drama, comedy and romance. All told, this is one of the 87-year-old filmmaker’s better recent efforts, though it lacks the literary punch and incisive wit of his golden period.
And although Allen is the New York director par excellence, the film actually gains something by having been shot in French, a language surprisingly in tune with the screenplay’s ironically stylized dialogue. At the Venice out of competition screening where it world premiered, the film was met with generally pleased surprise.
The role luck plays in a person’s life was previously examined in one of the director’s most successful films, Match Point, which was set among English high society. The story of Coup de Chance is considerably more streamlined than that, tracing a happy bourgeois marriage disrupted by the sudden appearance of an old acquaintance, who lights the fuse of passionate infidelity, followed by ghastly retribution. The final twist caps this bottle of froth with satisfying finality and voilà.
One day while walking down the street to her office, the charming Fanny Fournier (Lou de Laage) bumps into Alain (Niels Schneider), who went to the same high school when their families were living in New York. It doesn’t take much for passion to bloom between the two 30-year-olds, particularly since Alain is a romantic, carefree writer and Fanny is a bit fed up with her second husband Jean (Melvil Poupaud). Jean is a rich businessman who has never clarified to Fanny what exactly it is that he does. He is certainly very possessive and controlling, always phoning her at work and asking where she is and who she’s with. And he has a thing for toy trains, which occupy an entire room of their gorgeous Parisian apartment.
When Alain gives Fanny a lottery ticket, Jean mocks her naïve belief in fortune. He has always created his own luck, which is why he’s so extremely rich. Yet as her writer-lover Alain would have it, every person alive has had to beat tremendous odds just to be born and we’re all lucky by definition.
When they’re not at posh parties or evenings out, Jean and Fanny spend weekends at his rambling country house with a dozen of his friends, trekking and hunting in the surrounding woods. And that is where the final drama transpires, shades of Agatha Christie.
Eventually, Fanny’s mother (Valérie Lemercier) comes to visit. She adores Jean and appreciates the luxurious lifestyle he has given her daughter. But Alain has disappeared and she feels compelled to investigate, in the best tradition of amateur lady detectives. To tell more would be unfair.
Like the caviar and champagne that Jean offers and Fanny snubs as “cholesterol and alcohol”, Coup de Chance can be a pretty rich treat, easy to like, easy to digest, leaving little behind it but the fading memory of a pleasant evening that ended well. Photographed by the legendary Vittorio Storaro with warm lights that bring a hedonistic sense of pleasure to the interiors, lavishly furnished by production designer Véronique Melery. And all is accompanied by a jazz score that links New York and Paris.
Director, screenplay: Woody Allen
Cast: Lou de Laage, Valerie Lemercier, Melvil Poupaud, Niels Schneider
Producers: Letty Aronson, Erika Aronson
Cinematography: Vittorio Storaro
Editing: Alisa Lepselter
Production design: Veronique Melery
Costume design: Sonia Grande
Sound: Jean-Marie Blondel
Production company: Gravier Productions
World Sales: West End Films, DareSay Films
Venue: Venice Film Festival (out of competition)
In French
96 minutes
