Woody Allen is considering retirement after his latest film.
The 'Coup de Chance' director has returned to Venice Film Festival with a romantic thriller - his 50th movie to date - and he explained there are two factors he's thinking about when it comes to the idea of developing another project.
He told Variety: "I was thinking this is my 50th film and I have to decide if I want to make more films. There’s two things that I thought about. One is, it’s always such a pain in the neck to raise money for a movie. And do I want to go through it?
"Making the movie is one thing, but raising the money for it, you know, is tedious and not glamorous. And now if somebody steps out of the shadows and says, ‘I’ll give you money to make your movie,’ that would be an influential factor in making another movie."
The 87-year-old filmmaker insisted the other factor is the state of the industry, with plenty of movies now having short spells on the big screen before appearing on TV or streaming platforms.
He added: "I don’t like the idea – and I don’t know of any director that does — of making a movie and after two weeks it’s on television or streaming.
"This is not a high cultural point. There were many wonderful films made in the past, and you don’t see many wonderful films made now. When I wanted to go to the movies, there used to be three or four films I was dying to see.
"Every week there would be a film from Truffaut and Fellini and Ingmar Bergman and Kurosawa. Now, very few European films are playing in the United States to begin with. I think we’re not in a wonderful place culturally, certainly not in cinema."
Allen - who has insisted there is "no merit" to sexual abuse allegations made by his adopted daughter Dylan Farrow - addressed cancel culture but claimed his work has remained "the same" process.
He said: "I make my movies. What has changed is the presentation of the films. You know, I work and it’s the same routine for me. I write the script, raise the money, make the film, shoot it, edit it, it comes out.
"The difference is not is not from cancel culture. The difference is the way they present the films."