Filming for Woody Allen’s first-ever all-French film begins in Paris

Woody Allen has begun making his 50th film, which is being shot in Paris and – unique for the veteran American film director – will be entirely in French.

The filming began on Monday (October 3).

It will be called Wasp 22, a film Mr Allen has described as “a sort of poisonous romantic thriller”, according to various publications. He compared it to his 2005 psychological thriller Match Point.

Read more: Woody Allen’s new film to be ‘entirely in French’ and filmed in Paris

Mr Allen told French television network TF1 in July that filming in French “will be fun”.

“I’ve always wanted to be a French director,” he said, adding that he himself only spoke a few words of French.

The film will star French actors Lou de Laâge, Melvil Poupaud, Valérie Lemercier et Niels Schneider amongst others.

This is not the first film directed by Mr Allen to be shot in France. His 2011 comedy Midnight in Paris, starring Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Marion Cotillard and Tom Hiddleston, was also shot in the City of Light.

Mr Allen has won many awards in a career spanning over 60 years. These include the most ever nominations for the Academy Award for best original screenplay, with 16. He won three times.

He also won another Academy Award for best director and has claimed nine British Academy Film Awards, known as Baftas.

Mr Allen’s career, though, has been significantly damaged in recent years after allegations that he sexually abused his adopted daughter Dylan Farrow in 1992 when she was seven years old.

Publishing house Hachette cancelled the release of his autobiography in 2020 and Amazon shelved the release of his film A Rainy Day In New York in 2018.

It was eventually released a year later in several countries around the world, including France, and then in the US and the UK in 2020.

Mr Allen has recently mentioned thinking about giving up directing to work on writing a book, but has not confirmed any plans to retire from the cinema business yet.

In a September interview with La Vanguardia, a Spanish newspaper, he said: “My idea, in principle, is not to make more movies and focus on writing.”

However, he later released a statement which read: “Woody Allen never said he was retiring, nor did he say he was writing another novel.

“He said he was thinking about not making films as making films that go straight or very quickly to streaming platforms is not so enjoyable for him, as he is a great lover of the cinema experience.

“Currently, he has no intention of retiring and is very excited to be in Paris shooting his new movie, which will be the 50th.”

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