NEW YORK – After the Venice Film Festival, the film by Woody Allen Celebrity is coming to the United States, where he opened the New York festival, awaiting its release on November 13th. Shot in black and white with Sven Nyqvist’s photograph (with which Allen returns for the first time from Crimes and Misdemeanors), Celebrity follows the life of a gossip journalist, Kenneth Branagh (a film alter ego of Woody Allen), who chases without success, a series of beautiful women played by Charlize Theron, Famke Janssen and Winona Ryder, uses stars such as Melanie Griffith and Leonardo di Caprio, while her ex-wife, Judy Davis, finds her 15 minutes of fame and love with Joe Mantegna. The first reviews to the film are mixed: negative Variety, excited by the Hollywood Reporter. He, Woody Allen, follows with apprehension the fate of his new film. We met him at the end of the screening.

Let’s start from the scene where Melanie Griffith claims that what she does from the neck up, sexually, is not adultery.
But it’s true! People make such distinctions, that oral sex is officially not sex and the girl who did it with a hundred men before marrying can show up virgin to her husband! That’s what the president of the United States says right now, that the kind of sex he did with Lewinsky is not real sex because it’s oral. This is the culture we live in, it’s completely crazy but people make these distinctions and believe in it. It is the weakest node in the defense of President Clinton and also of Melanie Griffith, a scene that I wrote, mind you, long before you know about Clinton and the current political scene.
What sensations do you feel in front of this scene?
It is a sad spectacle, from which no one comes out the winner. Republicans would do anything to harm the president and get impeached because it suits him; the Democrats support or abandon him according to their personal interests; the public will accept whatever Clinton wants to do because the economy is good, but they would abandon it in an instant if it were not. There is no real moral conflict on the subject, but it tells us something profoundly sad about morality in the country. And the media have behaved very badly in this situation, because they continue to bomb the public with news that people would gladly do without.

How was the idea for this film about “celebrity” born?
I thought the concept of celebrity is very strange in the United States: people like Lorena Babbit’s husband, or Charles Manson, or a priest asking for money on television are celebrities; young actors like Leonardo Di Caprio are exaggerated in a disproportionate way. It is a curious phenomenon in this country. And then I wanted to see if I could make a film with a big cast, on a personal story like I’ve done before, about divorce and relationships, but played in a public arena, between fashion shows, nightclubs, projection rooms, those places where celebrities congregate. It took a lot of effort on my part.
Why did you entrust the part to Kenneth Branagh?
Initially writing the film I had Alec Baldwin in mind, but since he was involved in another film, I thought of Kenneth, who is a man whom women find very attractive. My only doubt was whether it would have made an American accent, but then I saw a piece of the film he did with Robert Altman, The Gingerbread man, and I calmed down. I never thought of acting it because I wrote the film for a forty-year-old man who was both emotionally unsuccessful. If I had recited him, even if I had been younger, he would have been comical, whereas instead I wanted him serious.

How much is true in what we have recently read about the clashes between you and Leonardo di Caprio?
Absolutely nothing. All you have read is totally fake, inventions devoid of any relationship with reality, such as when they said that my wife was pregnant, or as if they were saying that I was kidnapped by a spaceship. I could not imagine a boy sweeter than Leonardo, both I and he can not wait to go back to work together. He’s a wonderful actor, not the “taste of the month”, as some have called him, he’s a genuine actor who will continue to be great long after me.

Why in this film did you not work with your usual director of photography, Carlo Di Palma?
Carlo is a great friend of mine, I’m sure we’ll work together again, but every year he came to New York to make a film with me and every year he said he did not want to. He is one of the greatest cinematographers in the world and a wonderful person, I am very close to him and his wife. I had already worked with Sven Nyqvist, who has been involved in other projects for a few years, but this time we were able to shoot this film together. I like to always work with the same people.
Why the stylistic choice of black and white?
Because I’ve always loved old black and white movies, and at this moment in my life black and white offered me a romantic and evocative feeling that suited me more, like when I shot Manhattan.

She has had her share of linting by the media. What are the advantages and disadvantages of celebrity?
Honestly on the scale, the positive aspects of celebrity are much stronger than the negative ones. Of course, you do not have any privacy, there are celebrities like John Lennon who end up killed, and there are times when I would have loved very much not being famous. But on the other hand you live an exciting, interesting, creative life, you have benefits from other people, who maybe deserve them more than you do not have: the best table at restaurants, the best seats at the theater; your doctor gives up everything he’s doing on the weekend to come and visit you, the policeman stops you for speeding and when he finds out who you are he lets you go without getting a ticket. When I hear young actors complaining about their celebrity I always tell them to feel blessed!

If you care about your privacy, why did you agree to be the subject of Barbara Koppel’s documentary?
Because I did not know what he would do. It was supposed to be a documentary on jazz, and then after a week, she was so sweet and pretty she started asking to follow us more, and before I knew it I was seduced by the camera, which was so unseen that I did not even notice.

Is it therefore true, as the documentary shows us, that his wife often decides for her, and that her mother disapproves both her marriage and her career?
But this is my life! Soon Yi is a very strong person who knows exactly what he wants, and my parents, who are still alive, at 91 and 97, would still prefer me to be a pharmacist. Even now, when I am 62 years old, I think my career in the world of the spectacle could collapse at any moment and that if I had a pharmacy diploma I could practice my profession in any state of America.
She is at her third marriage. Do you feel changed?
Yes, in the sense that I am happier, I have no problems, I never feel a sense of discontent. I can guarantee that this will be my last marriage, which will be successful and we will stay married until we live. It is a very strong and wonderful feeling.

Do you often go to the cinema?
Yes, at least once a week, but I do not like contemporary American films, I prefer to see old movies, Fellini, Buñuel, Bergman, Renoir. I have never loved reading so much, I do it because I feel I have to, but given the choice between the written page and a movie or comedy in the theater I always prefer the dramatic scene.

She often cites her fear of flying. Do you have other fears or superstitions?
I am claustrophobic and never enter the tunnels. But the worst thing is that I am an alarmist, which does not mean being hypochondriac, as they often accuse me. For example, if I have a pain in my finger, I really do, I’m not imagining it, but I think it’s a brain tumor; if I wake up with a sore throat, I really have a sore throat, but I think at least it’s a throat cancer, and this causes me a great deal of pain and anxiety. And I’m superstitious. For example, when I am affecting a banana on cereals, which has been my breakfast for decades, I cut only seven slices of banana. I could never cut eight or six, because I would be afraid that something terrible would happen to me that day.

What was the effect of an ant’s voice in “Antz”?
That I did it exclusively as a personal favor to Jeffrey Katzeneberg. He told me it would be the easiest job I would ever do, that I’d have to go to the studio to record my voice for five half days and that’s it. But it was the hardest thing that I have ever done. They made me record every joke hundreds of times and the next day we started all over again. The lines were all written on the page, I improvised only a few variations here and there. After all, years ago I played a spermatozoon, I thought that making the ant was a step forward!

What can you tell us about your next project?
I’m preparing a film about a musician, set in the thirties, in color, with Sean Penn, Uma Thurman and a new English actress, Samantha Morton. I am not an interpreter, it takes place in California, New York, Detroit, Saint Louis and New Jersey. And of course I’ll do it all in New York.