SIFF Tribute to Masters Section to Screen Café Society—New Work of Wood Allen Don’t envy Cannes anym

On May 11 French time, the 69th Cannes Film Festival officially opened and the new film Café Society was premiered as the film for opening ceremony. As the new work of the “seul intellectuel du monde cinématographiqueaméricain (the only intellectual in American cinema)” recognized by the French press, it received unanimous “high praise” like his previous ones. Le Monde, the second biggest newspaper in France, said that “Cette fois, c’est comme avant.”(This time, it is (as great as) as usual.)

Café Society is a work that bears the mark of Woody Allen, reproducing the 1930s Hollywood and the social customs and the upper class of New York. How can a film fan miss such a wonderful film with such a cast and such enthusiastic responses from the media? But what can you do if you are not able to worship this masterpiece in Cannes?

Then just come to Shanghai in this June! Café Society, this new work of Woody Allen will make its appearance in SIFF Tribute to Masters Sections this year. Meanwhile, SIFF has prepared the set of the new works of the “Old boy at Cannes”. Apart from the latest film, Café Society, we have included the following films into the list: Midnight in Paris, To Rome With Love, Magic in the Moonlight and Irrational Man, which will be sure to satisfy you in this coming summer.

Woody Allen is the fourth master in our Tribute to Masters Section, following Visconti, Andrei Tarkovsky and Leslie Cheung. The films to be screened are the five works after 2010. In fact, the latest work, Café Society is the 46th feature film of 81-year-old Woody Allen. And it is also the third time that he has come to Cannes as the director of opening ceremony film, a new record of the film festival.

Born in 1935, Woody Allen is a productive director, writer and an hautbois player with remarkable achievements. He is praised as the “most outstanding comedian after Chaplin”. He has so far won 31 film awards including Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and Golden Lion Honorary Award at Venice Film Festival, and 74 nominations. Do not regard Woody Allen as an elder grandpa. He pretended to be very surprised when asked about his age problems at the press conference at Cannes Premiere and said that he felt incredibly young and vigorous and was confident to inherit his parents’ gene of living over 100 years. He also said if any “stupid investors” would still like to invest, he would keep on making films.

What a naughty little old man! Everything about him is just so funny and lively. Although he kept saying that if he was to start over, he would like to be Ernst Ingmar Bergman, there is no lack of serious directors like Ernst Ingmar Bergman. But a punster good at playing with American culture… oh, no, Woody Allen is the only great punster!

If we are to introduce Woody Allen through examples, we may well set up a new public account as there is too much to talk about: varied interesting dialogues and so many “goddess” level actresses in his 46 feature films, his amazingly accomplished skills, indifference to vanity and his awkwardness in socializing. He said when accepting the interview from THR that except The Purple Rose of Cairo，Match Point，Husbands and Wives, Zelig, Midnight in Paris and others, he wanted to destroy 41 of his films. AT the film festival every year, he always seems to say something amazing like this as if he will never stop his talk. Woody Allen, with a fantastic combination of self-denial and persisting, is exactly the talkative and neurotic chief actors in his films. You won’t find another director like him!

What is worth mentioning is that aged as Woody Allen is, he is extremely precise at “exploring” people. He is always able to dig out those “potential shares”. Apart from some sexy stars like Scarlett Johansson and Penélope Cruz who appeared as Muses in his films, he also has worked with Emma Stone for two times recently. When everyone thought he would continue to work with “Spider-woman”, he turned to “Twilight girl” to cooperate with him on this latest film. Moreover, his cooperation with “Curly haired” Jesse Eisenberg has also come to a more delightful stage. And Léa Seydoux, known as the charming “Bond girl” and the blue haired Emma in La vie d\'Adèle, already made her appearance in Midnight in Paris in as early as 2011, which makes his judgment quite convincing.

At an age of 81, Woody Allen still produces new work every year with new attempts besides the usual methods. He is not that ambitious but maintains fresh, sincere, humorous and satiric, instead. As long as Woody Allen makes film, let’s just watch it despite his “talkativeness”.

The 19th SIPP “Tribute to Masters”

Retrospective of Recent Works of Woody Allen

2016

Café Society

2015

Irrational Man

2014

Magic in the Moonlight

2012

To Rome With Love

2011

Midnight in Paris