Cannes: Woody Allen’s “You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger”

Sat, 15 May 2010 23:01:00 +0000

CANNES, France -- It's tough to illustrate, let alone explain, the immense reverence many educated Europeans still hold for Woody Allen, even with his best films 20 to 30 years in the past. Saturday morning's press preview of Allen's new movie, "You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger," provoked a near-panicked mob scene at the gates of the Grand Théâtre Lumière, the largest Cannes theater. I struggled to keep my balance as a pair of burly Italian journalists used their combined girth to bull past me in the swirling human tide and get to the security barrier first. An elderly gentleman next to me swayed, but did not go down. (He might well have been killed, which would have matched the tone of the film.) Ticket-holders denied admittance were left on the pavement, howling at the impassive guards.

It was much more difficult to get into "Tall Dark Stranger" than into Oliver Stone's "Wall Street" sequel -- and the press screening of "Robin Hood" I attended was perhaps one-third full, in a smaller venue. All of that to see a slight, morbid, misanthropic 2010 Woody Allen film. At 8:30 in the morning.

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Cannes: Woody Allen’s “You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger”