Now Playing

Sponsored by Heather & Dr Boyd Smith

Coup de Chance

MAY 3-8

Given his tarnished reputation, it would be tough to assess a new comedy from Woody Allen. But his films have gradually veered from breezy, sophisticated humor, moving toward darker, more contemplative Dostoevskyan territory. Crimes and Misdemeanors might’ve been an early test for Allen’s interest in how “ordinary” people can so easily convince themselves to commit terrible acts. Coup de Chance is the pinnacle of Allen’s dramatic, philosophical mode; a twisty, engrossing film about infidelity, murder, and amour fou. Filmed in Paris with a French cast, it feels like a lost classic from Claude Chabrol (the “Alfred Hitchcock” of France). The laid-back Parisienne setting liberates Allen of his neurotic obsessions with guilt and death, and the jazzy score wittily underlines the movie’s theme of deception: everyone wears a mask, everyone has something to hide. Especially Alain (Niels Schneider) and Fanny (Lou de Laâge), whose affair is soon uncovered by her husband, Jean (Melvil Poupaud), a dubious businessman who decides to use his underworld connections to make Alain disappear. But will murder really give him the satisfaction he wants? Amorality has its own subversive kick (author Patricia Highsmith’s “Tom Ripley” series is a case in point), but Coup de Chance is fascinating in how it posits that conscience and sociopathy co-exist within the same person—maybe within all of us. The result is an engaging, smartly-scripted drama with stylistic nods to classic thrillers, perfectly balancing deep moral questions with old-fashioned suspense. It’s the most relaxed that Allen’s been in years, and perhaps his purest love letter to the primal joys of cinema.      

(Rated PG-13 for mature themes, some violence, and suggestive material. In French with English subtitles.)