Woody Allen’s latest film, Midnight in Paris, is set to open this year’s Cannes Film Festival in May and will then be released by Sony Pictures Classics later in the year. For his next film we will continue his work abroad and move the setting to Rome. “I love these sophisticated cities,” Allen said. “It’s fantastic to have the possibility to work there, like when I shot Manhattan in New York, Match Point in London and Vicky Cristina Barcelona in Barcelona.”
Allen’s films, for the longest time, were predominantly New York set dramedies, but in recent years he has taken things elsewhere as he noted in that previous quote. “Each time, it’s like a declaration of love for certain places,” he said of his decision to shoot in Rome. “I project onto the big screen my feelings for places which count a lot in my life.”
No cast is yet to be attached as he says he’s “still at the screenplay stage,” but the film is expected to shoot this summer.
So, while Midnight in Paris will debut at Cannes it seems like it’s only proper speculation to assume the Venice Film Festival will be seeing Allen’s next film in 2012, which is where Allen’s Cassandra’s Dream premiered in 2007.
Personally, the setting is one of the reasons Vicky Cristina Barcelona was my favorite film of 2008. So many people talk about wanting to be transported someplace when they watch a movie and that was an example of just that taking place for me. I hope for the same with Midnight in Paris (a title that in itself inspires visions) and now moving things to Rome for Allen’s own “Roman holiday” is quite enticing.
