Woody Allen Calls Cancel Culture Silly, Considers Retirement

Woody Allen says he doesn't consider himself "canceled" after allegations of sexual abuse made by his adoptive daughter -- but he does say he might hang it up in the movie biz.

The famed, controversial filmmaker is at the Venice Film Festival, where he's debuting his latest project -- "Coup de chance" -- and while there ... he did a wide-ranging interview with Variety, in which he addressed a number of topics including the issue of cancel culture.

The interviewer asks him if he feels like he's been canceled, and here's how he replied... "I feel if you’re going to be canceled, this is the culture to be canceled by. I just find that all so silly. I don’t think about it. I don’t know what it means to be canceled. I know that over the years everything has been the same for me."

Woody adds, "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. It’s that that’s the big change."

Of course, what he fails to mention is that his movies these days, by and large, aren't getting major distribution here in the States -- so, on that front, he has been kinda canceled.

Now, on the issue of what Dylan Farrow has alleged about him -- detailed in an HBO doc that Woody labeled as fiction -- he basically brushed it off here in this interview once again ... pointing out it had been thoroughly investigated at the time, and nothing came of it.

He adds, "The fact that it lingers on always makes me think that maybe people like the idea that it lingers on. You know, maybe there’s something appealing to people. But why?"

That whole saga was very much so on people's minds at Venice ... evidenced in the fact that protesters showed up to denounce Woody's presence and the screening of his French film. Nonetheless, it's getting screened right now -- with WA front and center and tuxed up.

Anyway, there's more Woody addresses in this sit-down ... including the prospect of retiring, something he'd floated about a year ago -- only to walk it back.

Now, he sounds a bit more serious about it -- explaining, "I have so many ideas for films that I would be tempted to do it, if it was easy to finance But beyond that, I don’t know if I have the same verve to go out and spend a lot of time raising money."

"Coup de chance" is Woody's 50th film ... but it was made in France, and it remains to be seen if the guy has much of a future in debuting American films to a wider audience here.