Woody Allen Talks RIFKIN’S FESTIVAL and filming in Moscow on Russian TV

Rifkin’s Festival – the newest film written and directed by Woody Allen – is very slowly rolling out around the world (with the global cinema industry in all sorts of trouble). The latest release comes from Russia, and Allen did a lengthy interview with Russian TV recently.

You can watch on YouTube with auto translating of subtitles.

In the interview he talks about the new film, and goes into the character of Rifkin, played by Wallace Shawn and death, played by Christoph Waltz. He also talks about New York, lockdown and excitingly, still practising playing the clarinet. He also says he is uninterested in making a film about the pandemic, although he would be open to shooting a film in Russia.

Allen has a long history in Russia, and has seen a lot of recent success there. He is inspired by Russian writers and filmmakers (most notably showing that influence in Love And Death). There is a statue dedicated to Allen in Kaliningrad (see below), and he visited there in 2015 (with George Lucas). His last few films, such as A Rainy Day In New York and Cafe Society, have been amongst his most successful ever in that country.

Rifkin’s Festival was released in Russia in New Year’s Eve. Some cool posts about the Russian release from fans:

It is unknown when cinemas will reopen around the world. It has been announced for Turkish release in 2021, but everything seems to be up in the air at this time.

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3 Comments

  1. For the the preliminary meet and greet pre interview portion of this promotion for Rifkin’s Festival, as a nice icebreaker for his Russian fans, I wonder if Woody began his introduction by retelling his old joke, “Let me start from the very beginning, I did a vodka ad . . . Hold on, let me put Mr Allen in the phone!!!” Folks, The Man is world wide!!!!

    GO WOODY!!!

  2. Thanks for these great interviews posted recently. Only miss hearing more about this play that he apparently wrote during lockdown!

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