In the opening credits of “After the Hunt,” a #MeToo-themed thriller, director Luca Guadagnino chose to evoke the aesthetic of Woody Allen’s films, formatting the actor’s names in alphabetical order on one card.
When asked at the movie’s official Venice Film Festival press conference why he paid tribute to Allen, who has been accused of sexual assault by his adopted daughter Dylan Farrow, Guadagnino didn’t mince his words.
“The crass answer would be, ‘Why not? There is a canon that I grew up with, and when I started thinking about this movie with my collaborators, we couldn’t stop thinking of ‘Crimes and Misdemeanors’
or ‘Another Woman’ or ‘Hannah and Her Sisters.’ There was an infrastructure to the story that felt linked to the great oeuvre of Woody Allen from 1985 to 1991,” Guadagnino said. “I played with that graphic and font a few times before this, and I felt it was an interesting nod to thinking of an artist who has been, in a way, facing some sort of problems about his being and what is our responsibility in looking at an artist we love like Woody Allen.”
He curtly concluded, “And by the way, it’s a classic, that kind of font. It goes beyond Woody now.”
Set in the world of higher education, “After the Hunt” stars Julia Roberts as a beloved college professor who finds herself at a personal and professional crossroads when her mentee (Ayo Edebiri) accuses are friend and colleague (Andrew Garfield) of crossing a line. As she navigates the situation, a dark secret from her own past threatens to come to light.
In describing “After the Hunt,” Guadagnino says the story is “looking at people in their truths. It’s not that one truth is most important, it’s how we see the clash of truths and what is the boundary of these truths together. It’s not about making a manifesto to revive old-fashioned values.”
Meanwhile the screenwriter Nora Garrett addressed the difficulty of tackling complex and hot-button issues like cancel culture in her script.
“To imagine that we have completely moved on into a separate wave of feminism undermines what is actually happening and the reality of being with each other in society,” she said. “We’re trying to bring something that felt true and real.”
During a heated press conference, Roberts defended “After the Hunt” after she was asked whether the film was undermining the feminist movement. The journalist who raised the question said the movie “caused controversy” among the audience members, who felt the story “revives old arguments” about believing women who speak up about sexual assault allegations.
“Not to be disagreeable, because it’s not in my nature,” Roberts said with a laugh, “but the thing you said that I love is it ‘revives old arguments.’ I don’t think it’s just reviving an argument of women being pitted against each other or not supporting each other. There are a lot of old arguments that get rejuvenated that creates conversation.”
Roberts continued, “The best part of your question is that you all came out of the theater talking about it. That’s how we wanted it to feel. You realize what you believe in strongly because we stir it all up for you. So, you’re welcome.”
Later in the press conference, Roberts lamented that society is “losing the art of conversation in humanity right now.”
“If making this movie does anything,” she said, “getting everybody to talk to each other is the most exciting thing we could accomplish.”
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