Despite cries of “but think of his career,” the #MeToo movement has not slowed down Woody Allen’s career in the slightest. While Amazon shelved his film A Rainy Day in New York, European distributors have begun setting up release dates for the film. He’s about to begin work on a new project that will be shot at the San Sebastian Film Festival in Spain, where he gave a press conference about the project yesterday; he spoke about his plans to retire, or rather, the lack thereof.
“I have never thought of retiring,” he said to press in attendance at the festival, as reported by Deadline. “Since I started, I’ve always tried to focus on my work, no matter what happens in my family or with politics. I don’t think about social movements, for example. My cinema is about human relationships, about people. And I try to have humor in them. If I were to die, I would probably die on a film set, which may well happen.”
So Allen won’t retire. That would require probably a modicum more self awareness than he possesses. However, we can, as a collective, decide that, hey, maybe watching the movies of a man who’s an alleged child abuser isn’t the best option. Or maybe studios can stop financing these films, or actors can stop starring in them.
It’s always been clear that Allen hasn’t thought about politics with his work. Manhattan features his character lusting after a high school student, after all, but the politics of the real world have always impacted cinema. We can’t divorce the allegations against Allen from his work, because unfortunately, the real-world allegations against him don’t go away because of his work in cinema’s canon.
We also have to consider who’s funding this project and why anyone would choose to star in this film knowing what they know about Allen? Some actors have donated their salaries from films they’ve worked on with him to charities, while others have remained his defenders. At this point in time, making a claim that you didn’t know about the allegations won’t fly, so there is no real excuse to work with him unless you don’t believe Dylan Farrow.
It doesn’t matter if you consider Allen to be one of the great directors of our time, or if you’re dying to work with him. At some point, you have to believe women. It’s a shame that Mediapro, the studio financing this film, and the cast themselves, opted to work with Allen, and that Allen displays such a stunning lack of self-awareness. Maybe, if audiences choose not to see the film, studios will stop financing his projects and Allen can slink into obscurity.
(via Deadline, image: Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
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