By David Gritten in Cannes
(Filed: 13/05/2005)

For four decades Woody Allen has been known as the quintessential New York film
director. Now he is in love with a new place to make movies - England.

Allen's latest film, Match Point, shot last year in and around London, premiered
at the Cannes Film Festival yesterday.

It was widely assumed that Match Point would be a one-off and that Allen would
return to Manhattan.

But BBC Films, which financed it, announced yesterday that Allen, 69, would make
a second film in Britain later this year.

Scarlett Johanssen, who stars in Match Point, will also appear in the new film,
which is as yet untitled. Allen disclosed yesterday that it would be a comedy,
and he had written an acting role for himself.

At a press conference where he appeared with his Match Point stars - Johanssen,
Emily Mortimer and Jonathan Rhys-Meyers - the normally reticent Allen gushed
about film-making in Britain.

"This story would have worked in New York, San Francisco or Paris," he said.
"But English actors' voices are wonderful.

"They all sound great to us [Americans]. An Englishman might detect a false
moment, but I couldn't. The stars were fine, of course, but every tiny little
part, every person with two words to say, sounded wonderful."

Poking fun at his gloomy image, Allen said: "The weather in London was cool, the
skies were grey. It was perfect for me."

He heaped praise on BBC Films: "The people who sponsored me were very generous
in not trying to influence me in any way."

This turned out to be another reason why he is so enthusiastic about filming in
Britain.

"It's increasingly difficult in America. I can get financing, but studios there
don't want to be thought of just as a bank. They want to participate.

"I can't work that way. I want the money in a brown paper bag and to give them
the film a few months later. In London I didn't have to go through any
rigmarole.

"The budget of the film is very small, so it's very democratic - everybody gets
nothing.

"And the actors are billed in alphabetical order. In London I could do all
that."

Johanssen landed the role in Match Point last year after Kate Winslet dropped
out, citing her wish to spend more time with her family.

But Allen revealed that when he started preparation for the film he assumed that
he needed an all-British cast to qualify for UK tax breaks.

When this proved not to be the case, he immediately contacted Johanssen.

"I had a wonderful time on this movie, and I'm glad I'll be working with Woody
again," she said. "But I'm not sure I'm his muse, exactly."

Mortimer found it "fantastically exciting" to work with Allen.

"He's different from any other film director I've known," she said.

"He doesn't spend a long time rehearsing or analysing a scene. And we'd all go
home after lunch at three o'clock every day, which made him very popular."

Match Point centres on Chris (Rhys-Meyers in a star-making role), a poor but
ambitious Irish tennis coach who enters Bitish society via a male client engaged
to Nola (Johanssen), a struggling American actress for whom Chris develops a
passion.

Instead he marries earnest, maternal Chloe (Mortimer), his client's sister, and
her wealthy father (Brian Cox) installs them in a ravishing Thames-side
apartment and gives Chris a job in his company.

Chris's increasing discontent leads him to take drastic measures to get what he
wants.

Match Point features several cultural landmarks - the Royal Opera House, Tate
Modern, the Royal Court Theatre and the Saatchi Gallery. The jewellers Asprey's
and Cartier are also seen. In one scene, Chris and Chloe see Andrew Lloyd
Webber's musical The Woman In White.








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