Rifkin's Festival (Woody Allen, 2020)

[Dylan]

The Woody Allen Pages recently compiled a thorough wrap-up of what is currently known about Rifkin's Festival, including the quiet casting of Steve Guttenberg.

[therewillbeblus]

This already had my attention but now I'm beyond excited. The Bergman reference (not to mention who's playing Death!) is inspired and opens all kinds of doors as to how Allen will pay homage to his favorites. Also, Wallace Shawn and Gina Gershon may be the most ridiculous yet best casting of a couple ever.

[mfunk9786]

How long has it been since there's been a loud Steve Guttenberg casting?

[therewillbeblus]

Season 2 of Veronica Mars?

[soundchaser]

The Stonecutters must be at it again.

[Murdoch]

More medium volume, but the last I remember of him is Party Down.

[therewillbeblus]

I think the volume now is more of surprise since he’s been MIA for so long

[Roger Ryan]

Guttenberg played the lead in Allen's one-act portion of the anthology play Relatively Speaking on Broadway in 2012, so they have worked together before.

[Dylan]

Update on The Woody Allen Pages, including two new publicity stills and the announcement that the film will be distributed by Tripictures in Spain.

[Never Cursed]

[diamonds]

Trailer.

[domino harvey]

Uh, I know Allen films don't always reflect well in the trailers, but those performances are looking rough. And Waltz is nowhere to be seen even though he's still in the main credits?

[therewillbeblus]

Yeah the trailers don't usually reflect the best lines or at least the context necessary for them to work. I still thought the ideas put worth were promising and am excited for Wallace Shawn to star as the central Allen surrogate. This feels like a nice piece of end-of-life existential therapy following his last film's remembrance of youth's developmental wonders, but we'll see how it plays out.

[domino harvey]

I definitely didn't realize Shawn was the lead and not just part of an ensemble

[therewillbeblus]

Same, and with Allen's recent streak of serene(!) reflections of wisdom in interviews/his memoir, as he reaches the last act of his life, I'm really curious how he'll weave them into this story which now seems to be in step with the revelations of existential acceptance he's been exuding as of late

[Dylan]

I loved this trailer, and I personally didn't have an issue with the performances. Gorgeous cinematography and very funny. I love that Wallace Shawn is the lead. I'm not expecting to be able to see this anytime soon, but I'm very much looking forward to the day it becomes available.

Regarding the lack of Waltz in the footage, the trailer seems to intentionally withhold an element of the film I've read about

SpoilerShow

that involves the recreation of scenes from various classic movies. According to a trivia item on IMDB, the recreations include scenes from Jules and Jim, The Exterminating Angel, 8½, and The Seventh Seal. It's possible that, similar to many Allen films, this will have a magical realism element that these recreations will play into and that the marketing department (per Allen's request, perhaps) doesn't wish to divulge, but of course I don't know for sure.

[therewillbeblus]

SpoilerShow

Wow I really hope that's still the case - if Waltz plays Death in the Bergman homage, that would be quite an inspired bit of casting!

[domino harvey]

It is 2020, do neither of you understand what spoilers are?

[therewillbeblus]

Damnit I swore I had spoilerboxed my response, shouldn't have rushed a post before a meeting- I'm usually very anal about this, my bad

[Der Spieler]

Looks way better than his last 5 films. Love Wallace Shawn.

[Nasir007]

A film I will never get to see.

I definitely got the sense the film is hiding the premise like the trailers of Midnight in Paris.

And that Shawn role, if Woody were younger that's a role basically written for him. He doesn't quite match Woody's style though. Not as neurotic.

[therewillbeblus]

He very much resembles the more serene attitude Woody has been embodying recently though, so not quite as neurotic as his younger, less-self-actualized self makes sense even if it's probably an unfair judgment to make off the trailer

And that Shawn role, if Woody were younger that's a role basically written for him.

Couldn't you say this about at least one role in most Allen movies, including many he's acted in?

[domino harvey]

Certainly the boundless optimism embodied by Wallace Shawn being married to Gina Gershon is upbeat! Though most people associate Shawn with Princess Bride or My Dinner With Andre, I have to admit I always think of his delivery of "You have the perfect ingredients for a comedy!" in Melinda and Melinda (of course in convo with poor Larry Pine in the thankless part of the would-be Andre Gregory role). Shawn has such a specific voice (and I don't mean vocally-- see Marie and Bruce, where Julianne Moore and Matthew Broderick's lips move but only Wallace Shawn comes out) that I have to imagine this part was written for him by Allen

[therewillbeblus]

I'd imagine so, especially since Allen's been casting him since the start of his film career. I also think of Melinda and Melinda, though mostly the ending, as a primary association next to My Dinner with Andrea, but I suspect anything except The Princess Bride is an anomaly. Unfortunately he's mostly silent in Starting Over's Divorced Men self-help group, but fits right in with the other character actors in that soft bunch of sympathetic misfits, and I've been thinking about that group a lot lately as a perfect example of compassionate filmmaking that laughs with and at its characters simultaneously, and couldn't be more respectful to their humanity.

[domino harvey]

There's probably a subsection of people our age who know him from Clueless as well