I TOLD YOU IN FEBRUARY THAT WOODY ALLEN’S “RAINY DAY IN NEW YORK” WAS GOING TO OPEN IN FRANCE THIS FALL.
Stephanie Celery, or whatever his name is, refused to answer phone calls or emails. He’s the head of MARS Distribution, and he knew our scoop was true. But he wanted to wait until Cannes to announce it. He belongs where he is, on Mars!
This is the second country to announce the opening “Rainy Day in New York” in defiance of Amazon Studios, which has refused to release Woody’s movie. Allen is suing them, and he is right to do it.
Now other countries will do the same, I am sure. Why not? The movie has an all star cast that includes Timothee Chalamet, Elle Fanning, Selena Gomez and Jude Law.
MARS has set September 18th for the French opening. If Woody’s people are smart they’ll show it a week before, at the Toronto Film Festival. Or maybe they’ll unveil in Venice. My advice: don’t do that, wait til the last minute. But I’m sure they won’t take my advice.
Last year, Celerier (that’s his name I guess) wrote a long essay in a French magazine supporting Allen.
He wrote: “I have been shocked by the wave of hate provoked by the Woody Allen affair, particularly in the United States and on the social networks, and by the lack of rigor by certain media outlets and the pack which condemns without looking into the full facts.”
Célérier said it was time “to examine the facts with attention…That is the approach I have decided to take. Simply to get to the bottom of the truth, to understand whether I’ve been working closely with a paedophile all these years.”
“He has always in my eyes been a man of incredible intelligence as well as discreet and courteous. But his talent and his effervescent creativity don’t make a saint. The admiration I have for the man and the cineaste is real but have not influenced the steps I have taken to ask questions.”
“It seems clear to me that Woody Allen should not be classified in the same category as the sexual predators recently denounced by Hollywood and end his days as a pariah whose work should be burned,” he wrote.
“But it seems complicated today, impossible even, to stand-up for Woody Allen’s innocence without prompting violent reactions and accusations that I am sacrificing the rights of women for economic gain.”
