Woody Allen Talks Threesomes And Spain In Cannes

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CANNES, France (AP) _ Woody Allen's latest film touches on that classic male fantasy, a romantic threesome with two women. Has Allen ever entertained the notion himself?

"You know, it's hard enough to get one person," Allen told reporters Saturday at the Cannes Film Festival, hours before the premier of his romantic comedy "Vicky Cristina Barcelona," starring Scarlett Johansson, Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem.

"In trying to figure out solutions in life, two actually tends to make it more complicated than one. The characters in this movie are able, the chemistry was right, and they're able to handle the situation," Allen said. "But in real life, most of us petty people could never handle anything like that. It's hard enough to get a relationship that can work out with one person, but with two, it becomes geometrically more fatal."

Due in U.S. theaters Aug. 29, "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" stars Johansson, who has appeared in three of Allen's last four films, and Rebecca Hall as American friends spending a summer in Spain.

Both women have separate relationships with a passionate painter (Bardem), whose volatile ex-wife (Cruz) later forges a three-way romance with him and Johansson's character.

It was the fourth film in a row shot in Europe by Allen, whose beloved Manhattan has been the backdrop for most of his movies. Allen is nearly finished shooting his next film, which has him back in New York for a comedy starring Larry David, Evan Rachel Wood and Patricia Clarkson, who also appears in "Vicky Cristina Barcelona."

"It's about a group of also highly neurotic characters that interact in ways that I'm hoping you'll think is funny," Allen said. "When it's over you may or may not. If you don't then I will have failed, but I'm giving it my best shot."

Allen, 72, did three movies in London, "Match Point," "Scoop" and "Cassandra's Dream," then was approached about shooting in Spain.

"People from Barcelona called and said if I was interested in making a film there, they would finance it, so I said, 'Sure,'" Allen said. "If someone had called me from Rome or Venice or Stockholm or God knows where, I probably would have agreed to it just as readily.

"But this was a golden opportunity for me, because I happen to have a particular fondness for a number of cities in Spain, and Barcelona certainly is one of my favorites."

One place Allen is not likely to shoot is Russia or its environs. When an Uzbek reporter asked if he had any such plans, Allen said no, recollecting a family trip to Leningrad, now St. Petersburg, years ago.

"I was planning on being there for five days, and I was there for about two hours, and I went to the travel agent in town and I said, 'Get me the first reservation out of here. I don't care where it goes,'" Allen said.

"I had a terrible, terrible time there, and I haven't been back since then. And I'm told that it's greatly changed since then, but it would take a lot, because I'm a fearful traveler, and it would take a lot to get me back to Russia."

Comments

[Agentlady007]

Honestly it took me years to see his first Scarlett Johanson film. Then I saw it and I was very pleased with Johanson. She was feminine in a way I think Woody brings out in women.
Yet no matter how hard I tried, the Mia movies always spooked me somewhat. At any rate, Diane Keston is always going to be my favorite future girl, thanks to Woody Allen. 00L:)

[NicoleAnonymous]

I saw Match Point and thought it was excellent - in fact I was surprsed he made it. But even in that movie the female characters were kind of pathetic.

[NicoleAnonymous]

Does Woody Allen ever make movies without having Scarlet Johansen type twentysomething actresses in them? Usually they're surrounded by older men. And every young actress in Hollywood has to be in a Woody Allen movie because they think it brings prestiege.

Let me guess - his new movie he is making doesn't have any actressed over a certain age. There is just something about him that is really repulsive. The relationship with his former wife's daughter is just disgusting and as usualy Hollywood has to make all these excuses for him because...he is brilliant! And we don't have many brilliant men making movies! And he is Jewish! We all know Jewish men have their little quirks! He isn't a disgusting jerk - he is an artist!

[neocon666]

Maybe he can make a movie with Roman Polanski (starring R. Kelly).

[Agentlady007]

Honestly it took me years to see his first Scarlett Johanson film. Then I saw it and I was very pleased with Johanson. She was feminine in a way I think Woody brings out in women.
Yet no matter how hard i tried, the Mia movies always spooked me somewhat.

[260Parkway]

That statement has to be a joke. Who else would sleep with this man but Mia and his daughter! YUCK.

[Agentlady007]

Well, Sun yi really isn't his daughter biologically. Her step mother ( MIa) was in Rosemary's Baby' Maybe shoe found out. Scary movie.

[Agentlady007]

Oh I just loved you Woody in Sleeper. When you were running from the bananas and then you stole that nose? Then when you got all caught up in the recording tape. So funny. I especially enjoyed the part when you joined the missionaries and the love machine. Ha ha ha. Of course when you started up the VW in the cave, the scene is of course part of history now, as you are.

[amanda85]

Woody Allen, one of America's greatest movie directors, is revered all over the world and yet considered nothing more than a pervert by the average American. But then again, jazz, the only truly American and American-invented art form, only survives through the patronage of foreigners...

Sad times to be an artist in the US...

[TASutpen]

I think the view of Woody Allen as a dirty old man was largely fueled by him, and not just as a result of that mess he got into back in the early 90s. For years . . . far longer than, I think, any other halfway conscious director would have permitted himself the indulgence . . . Allen kept making film after film in which his unambiguously aged carcass played characters who routinely had romantic relationships with women young enough to be his daughter; and, I might add, without any suggestion of how miraculous a circumstance this would be in the real world. These were fantasies that transcended border, and no matter what tounge one speaks or what nation one hails from it was at least a little bit off-putting (he did, after all, ditch this storytelling template eventually).

I think he's been a truly brilliant film artist at times, but (all off-screen scandal aside) he bought and paid for the Dirty Old Man tag with his own (genuine) talent.

[definitelyNOTmisterRIGHT]

they were comedies, not documentaries! who cares if the female is younger? as long as the acting (chemistry) works in the film, it doesn't matter. bogart, gable, grant, beatty, ford, etc. have been doing it for decades!

[amanda85]

Let me guess, Federico Fellini was also a "dirty old man"? You look at his movies, and you think this guy had major mental problems. And yet he was a very well adjusted guy (albeit just a tad shy), happily married to the same woman (of about his age) until he died...
I wouldn't even dare to ask you about Catherine Breillat, because I'm sure you'd consider her a pornographer...

Art transcends life, that's why it's called art...

[mergina]

I hope you get to make a movie in all of those countries.

[nick1936]

Having had several 3 somes i say go for it

[luckyoldson]

WOW, what a stud!

But were any of your partners women?

[Mort]

What... you and both your hands?

[GeorgeKaplan]

Woody Allen - COMIC GENIUS!

And one of our greatest writer/directors in film history.

[elcojonu]

The American Bergman.
Woody Ingmar Allen.
Small time pedophile; big time movie director.

[TASutpen]

I'm not sure either tag fits (that is, if you're using box-office performance as the standard for 'Big time')

Woody Allen is, I'm pretty sure, not a pedophile; nor is he as good a filmmaker as Ingmar Bergman was (few filmmakers have been). His offscreen behavior in that whole mess back in '92, even in the most charitable light, wasn't half-mendacious and half-stupid. I'd like to know of an artist, however, who hasn't allowed their general displacement from the real world to lead them into some pretty foul deeds by our standards.

The guy is 72 years old now; fading out in dignity. Let's let his journey through this life play out quietly.

[GeorgeKaplan]

Very complex. Pedophile, no. Strange, yes. There was I believe a charge that he molested his own child who was two, but that was never proven and those charges were dropped. As to Woody and his present wife; it is a very strange relationship, but not pedophilia.

He's the most respected filmmaker of our age. Woody could get the Pope to work for scale. Why? Because, his writing is so good. He's the most original screenwriter of today or any other day. Today, only the Coen Brothers come close in my mind to what Woody has done. In a world of phony explosions and cartoon characters Woody gives us characters of depth and substance. If he was writing for the stage he would be thought of as the leading playwright of our age. I would not compare him to Ingmar Bergman, but I would say he's heavily influenced by him. His comic persona is more influence by Bod Hope than anything else. Woody is also the very funny.

[speakingtruth2power]

It's weird how the self-righteous haters despise Woody while the

more open minded appreciate his genius and his human foibles.

Well, maybe not weird but totally predictable. Haters like to hate!!

[yambartsumian]

open minded= marrying your adopted daughter and having a child with her?

yeah ok

i'd rather be on the "self-righteous" side, if that's your idea of "open minded"

[amanda85]

Just for the record, he did not adopt her, his wife did, at a time when she was married to someone else. And when they started their relationship, she was older than 18.

Only a christofascist could see a crime there and would want Allen's head on a platter. Right-wingers hate any kind of art, because it makes people THINK... They just love movies like Indiana Jones that reinforce their "goodies and baddies" mentality and xenophobic prejudice (Americans are the greatest people in the world, all foreigners are stupid/clumsy/evil...) and satisfy their underdeveloped minds...

[pkafin]

You have illustrated the typical mind fart that conservatives suffer from.

Listen closely, I beg of you. Doing something is not the same thing as refraining from being judgmental of someone else doing that thing.

For example, How many times have conservatives accused someone of being "pro-abortion" or "for abortions" or "in favor of abortions", when, in fact that person is pro-choice. Many people are personally opposed to abortions but think that it is a personal decision that the govt. has no right to restrict. Many pro-choice individuals would never themselves choose to have an abortion or lobby their partner into having one. That's why "pro-choice" and "anti-choice" are the correct terms. "Pro-abortion" is a meaningless term; "anti-abortion" is a personal not a political stance.

The same goes here. speakingtruth2power uses the term "open minded" here to refer to those who choose not to dismiss the value of Allen's work due to his foibles. Not to those who, themselves, have chosen to act as he has.

In an unrelated point, is also worth considering amanda85's point that Soon-Yi is not his "adopted daughter".

[MadFae]

Ok, Woody Allen in a threesome...NOOOOOO.

[lisakaz2]

Gives me a bad thought of Allen wanting Soon-Yi and Mia at the same time. YUCKKKK!!!!!

[GregSolo]

Woody Allen is awesome because he makes some of you uptight people so mad. Yeah, it was a little weird but he and Soon-Yi have been happily married for 16 years now. Oh, and the guy makes mostly brilliant films.

[stephenswain]

Neurotic? All his characters in all of his films are neurotic. He has built an enormous body of work on neurosis. "As long as he's a good boy and loves his mother, what's the problem?"

So what? People pay to feel better and laugh about others who are even weirder than they.

[Bibbo]

Woody is a brilliant film maker and a sensitive and intuitive individual. All those attributes have been given to him and he has earned fame and wealth in reward.His behavior in his personal life however is his and his alone and here he has been a miserable failure. He could have risen above a neurotic "needyness" thats made his film career so stellar and developed character...and say..no..certain things are wrong...I wont give in and hurt a child or partcipate in sex thats divorced from love.

[turkeyneck]

Hey, neurosis lacks the cachet it once enjoyed.

[Trueheart]

Oh, no, the mystique is still there. Napolean Dynamite was terrific, and all of its characters were neurotic.

[nyboomer]

Woody Allen is a child molester like GW Bush is an equal to Einstein. Those who refuse to understand simple facts are very much ignorant fools. The GOP depends on such people voting for their candidates..

[Trueheart]

Mia Farrow Previn's adopted daughter was about 10 or 11 when Woody Allen came into the picture. He watched the kid grow and blossom for 10 years and then he pounced. Or maybe he pounced well before she was of age, but we'll never know. It may have been legal, but it was not ethical.

I used to be the world's biggest Woody fan until I found out that the neurotic, obsessive, creepy, snivelling little creature with a thing for young girls who he plays in his films is not a character, but who he truly is.

[turkeyneck]

I'm alright with Woody's thing for young girls of legal age. It'd mainly shock & hurt if he turned out to have a thing for young BOYS.

[klandish]

homophobe.