A regular on the Croisette, Woody Allen presented his new film, out of competition, on Saturday, May 15, 2010.You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger“A comedy about the value of keeping the illusion of living as long as possible. The great director returns to his habits and his narrative tics by telling the tangle of romantic intrigues and broken dreams of a London family, navigating between the neuroses of his characters. We find his taste for choral films with a film title that is reminiscent of “Meeting Joe Black“already starring Anthony Hopkins. Asked about the title, Woody Allen emphasized its ambiguity: it could refer to the handsome stranger, of course, but “the stranger we’re all going to meet and don’t want to meet“. This film is also the director’s fourth London film.
Woody Allen, whose real name is Allen Steward Königsberg, is an American director, screenwriter and actor born in the 1930s in Brooklyn. He is also a renowned jazz clarinetist. He has won numerous film awards including three Oscars (two for Annie Hall in 1978 and one for Hannah and Her Sisters in 1987) and 18 nominations. A prolific director, he has made over forty films to date.
As a director, Woody Allen first opted for a satirical style, and the general public saw him as a small man with glasses and neurotic and appallingly awkward with women. However, he will impose himself thanks to more personal works, tinged with melancholy, but always full of self-mockery, such as Annie Hall (1978) and Manhattan (1979), films in which his first muse Diane Keaton plays.
The “Allenian” style is a rather comic style narrating the neuroses of its characters and their interactions in a fetish city, in this case New York. He multiplies the daring dialogues and the scenes of verbal ping-pong between men and women. The director has a certain taste for the muses, or rather for the actress-fetishes that he finds from film to film. Among the most famous, we can find Diane Keaton, Mia Farrow, or more recently Scarlett Johansson. During the 2000s, the filmmaker abandoned New York to make three consecutive films in London and another in Barcelona, although he returned to New York for Whatever Works, a portrait of a depressed 50-year-old.
The famous director was able to walk the famous red carpet again accompanied by part of the film crew. Naomi Watts looked simply majestic in a pale pink strapless Gucci Premiere sequined geometric gown, which she accented with a fabulous Chopard platinum and diamond bracelet, ruby briolette and diamond earrings from Chopard’s Copacabana collection and a white gold LadyBird ring set with rubies and white and black diamonds from Chopard’s Animal collection. Josh Brolin, actor of the film, and his lovely wife Diane Lane, divine in her asymmetrical midnight blue dress also climbed the markets of the Palais des Festivals. Lucy Punch showcased her retro charm in a nude satin dress that she adorned with a platinum cuff bracelet set with Chopard diamonds and a pair of platinum and Chopard diamond earrings. Antonio Banderas and Anthony Hopkins unfortunately did not make the trip.
After the screening of the film, everyone gathered at the Hotel Martinez for a cocktail reception at the invitation of Caroline Gruosi-Scheufele, President of Chopard, and Warner Bros. The love affair between Chopard and Woody Allen began in 2002. Caroline Gruosi-Scheufele met Woody Allen in 2002. A great admirer of the director of Manhattan, she has since established both friendly and professional ties with him. The latter has often called on Chopard to adorn the actresses in his films, such as Scoop, in 2006, with Scarlett Johansson, or Vicky Cristina Barcelona, in 2008, with Scarlett Johansson, Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem, or to accompany him to previews, as in 2005, for the presentation of Match Point, in Cannes.
The 200 guests enjoyed spending a privileged moment in the company of this usually discreet director, who was accompanied by his wife Soon Yi, resplendent in her platinum and diamond Chopard bracelet, her white gold and sapphire, topaz and diamond Chopard earrings and her Chopard diamond ring.
Photo credits: © with the courtesy of Chopard Jewellery
Marie-Odile Radom
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