CANNES, France - Woody Allen won rave reviews at the Cannes film festival Thursday for a dark, London-based drama fueled by sex and violence that is a distant departure from his New York comedies.
"Match Point", starring Scarlett Johansson and Jonathan Rhys Meyers, tells the story of an Irishman whose rapid ascent in English high society nearly becomes derailed by his passion for his brother-in-law's fiancee.
The object of his lust, an American played by Johansson, has ambitions of her own which eventually lead to a brutal clash.
The quintessential New York director, who won warm applause for one of his best pictures in years at a morning press screening in Cannes, said working in Britain had gotten his creative juices flowing.
"The story would have worked in New York or San Francisco or Paris or London. I made the film in London because the atmosphere was very good for me creatively," Allen told reporters.
"To an American ear, an English voice is very, very wonderful. They all sound great to us. In the picture, perhaps another Englishman could detect some false moment or something but I couldn't.
"I was thrilled with the whole experience. So it was a foolproof situation for me -- I had Scarlett and I had this gifted group of English people."
Allen said he had not abandoned Manhattan forever but said the British film system -- BBC Film produced "Match Point" -- was much less interventionist than Hollywood studios, which demand creative control in exchange for financing.
"I have never worked that way in my life and couldn't work that way. So I don't let people read the script and I don't let them talk to me about casting or suggest people or see anything. I want the money in a brown paper bag, and I'll give them the film a few months later and that's it.
"In London the financing was such that I could work exactly that way. I didn't have to go through any kind of rigamarole with American people who wanted to participate."
Allan said London -- where he will be making comedy this summer -- also suited his legendary gloomy demeanor.
"The weather in London is cool and the skies were gray every day -- perfect for me. So I couldn't wait to get back there again," he said.
Asked whether "Match Point" -- in which a lead character literally gets away with murder -- reflected his own cynicism, Allen denied the film was overly dark.
"I never think that I feel cynical in general. I always feel cynicism is reality with maybe an alternate spelling or something," he said.
"I feel that it's clear to every thinking person that there's a gigantic amount of injustice and overt crimes that are perpetrated in all walks of life, every day, from emotional crimes to physical crimes to international crimes that go absolutely unpunished and often very lavishly rewarded."
Allen said that even when dealing with a meaty drama, filmmaking still helped calm his famously jangled nerves.
"You know, my whole life I'm constantly fighting all kinds of depressions and terror and anxiety and I find that like a mental patient in an institution, if they keep the patient busy with finger-painting and basket-weaving, then they're more relaxed," he said.
"And so if I'm constantly doing something -- if I'm writing and acting and directing and editing and adding music and then doing it again, it's therapeutic for me."
"Match Point" is appearing out of competition at the 58th Cannes film festival, which runs through May 22.
05/12/2005 13:28 GMT