The reporters revealed their film-theory backgrounds and desire for symbolism, but Woody Allen resisted all attempts to categorise his new film. Match Point is a drama set in London with an almost completely British cast—the exception being Scarlett Johansson—that revolves around the familiar Allen themes of passion, betrayal and consequences. But no, the writer-director insisted, it does not mark the end of his infatuation with New York, a personal trend away from comedy or toward sensuality, an homage to A Place in the Sun or a cynicism about the nature of justice. ‘‘I write the idea that occurs to me,’’ he said at a news conference on Friday following an early morning screening of the film. ‘‘My films are done much more by chance than by design than people seem to think.’’One by one, journalists—mostly from the United Kingdom and the United States—ignored the cast members present (Johansson, Emily Mortimer and Jonathan Rhys-Meyers) to ask the director rather esoteric questions that seemed more about where Match Point fit in the Allen oeuvre, and what it signified for his future, than the film itself. And one by one, Allen answered with the bottom-line pragmatism of a veteran filmmaker. He made the film in London, he said, because the conditions there were more conducive to creativity. Although he has no problem getting financing in the United States, he said, studios have become increasingly meddlesome. ‘‘They want a say in casting, they want to see the script, sometimes they come to dailies,’’ he said. ‘‘I’ve never worked that way. I want the money in a brown paper bag, and then I’ll give them a film a few months later. In London it went more that way.’’ The cast was British because of tax laws, and the moment he found out it did not have to be 100 per cent British, he cast Johansson, who was, he said, fortunately available. ‘‘She was willing to work for little money. The budget is small, and we’re very democratic—everyone gets nothing.’’ The story follows a poor Irish tennis pro as he enters the cozy, rich environs of a British upper-class family, and involves more sex—Johansson and Rhys-Meyers have scenes that involve rain-soaked blouses and baby oil—and violence than a typical Allen film. But, he points out, compared with most films today, it is still quite discreet. ‘‘To me, this is a crime story,’’ he said. ‘‘I was interested in the crime, and the characters filled themselves in.’’ Without giving too much away, many viewers felt there were similarities to A Place in the Sun and other films, as well as to Allen’s own Crimes and Misdemeanors—similarities Allen dismissed. ‘‘This film is about luck and ambition, quite a bit about luck, and passion.’’ —LAT-WP
