After having back-to-back years with films, 2019 was scheduled to be a bit of a down year for filmmaker Luca Guadagnino. However, in between projects, the Italian director was able to direct a short film that debuted at this year’s Cannes, titled “The Staggering Girl.” And while this short film, which stars Julianne Moore, is very different from “Call Me By Your Name” and “Suspiria,” there’s still plenty of Guadagnino style to appease fans. But according to the filmmaker, there’s a bit of style borrowed from another prominent filmmaker — Woody Allen.
And in a new interview with IndieWire, Guadagnino talks about Allen’s influence on “The Staggering Girl” and his thoughts on the recent developments with the controversial director’s past sexual molestation allegations resurfacing.
For those eagle-eyed film watchers out there, when you see “The Staggering Girl,” you may notice that the font used in the title resembles that of a Woody Allen film. Guadagnino says that’s not by accident.
“I did it already in the past with the short film ‘Working Stories,’ said the director. “I was asking Ariel Schulman, a director who is also a great visual artist, to draw by hand Woody Allen titles.”
And it’s that reverence for Allen that drives Guadagnino’s thoughts on the current state of affairs with the legendary filmmaker, as he’s struggling to find distribution and financing for future projects due to the #MeToo movement and his past allegations.
The filmmaker doesn’t like “all the perverted and primordial enjoyment of a kind of ‘Scarlet Letter’ trial of a man,” he said. “I still am a believer in the state of rights; Mr. Allen went through many investigations 20 years ago and was cleared.”
READ MORE: Luca Guadagnino To Direct HBO Limited Series ‘We Are Who We Are’
He continued, “The Woody Allen legacy — those movies are there, and they are fantastic. Anyone who denies that ‘Another Woman’ is a masterpiece is stupid!”
In much happier news, Guadagnino is going to make up for lost time this year by working on two new projects in the coming months. First, he tackles the highly-anticipated HBO series that he’s been working on, titled “We Are Who We Are,” which he will direct all eight episodes over a time period of only 16 weeks. The filmmaker says that he’s “switching gears” and working in TV to expand his horizons, so to speak.
“I want to do something to be seen on the iPhone, iPad, computer and TV. I am shooting digital,” he revealed.
READ MORE: Luca Guadagnino To Adapt Bob Dylan’s ‘Blood On The Tracks’ Into A Feature Film
After the TV series, he’s going to move onto his next film, which is inspired by Bob Dylan’s album “Blood on the Tracks” and stars his “Suspiria” actress Chloë Grace Moretz.
“It is the most touching thing, I want to cry now thinking of it,” he said. “It’s beautiful. It will be my most heartfelt, direct, and openly commercial movie to date.”
