Woody Allen’s COUP DE  CHANCE (STROKE OF LUCK) is his 50th feature film, and once you get over the shock, and it is a big that the film isn’t in English  you can settle in and enjoy a very engaging film.

The  scenario is a conventional one. The way it plays out isn’t.

Parisians Fanny and Jean are an upper middle couple, both with great white collar jobs, who have been together for many years.

One average, ordinary day Fanny is walking along the street when she bumps in to Alain, a former high school friend and they strike up a long conversation.  Alain reveals to Fanny that he had  a huge crush on her. Their conversation ends outside her work, a trendy, chic art gallery. They exchange phone numbers and their parting is left open ended. Maybe they will see each other again.

Thet do meet again, at first tentatively, with Fanny revealing that she thinks her husband is a bit of a highbrow, happy in his vocation of making the rich more and more richer. Their tentative meetings evolve in to a full blown affair. Jean becomes suspicious after calling her at the gallery  on a number of occasions and being told her that she has stepped out.

This is a very well crafted movie;  meticulously written and directed, shot by multi award winning cinematographer Vittorio Storaro, a great jazz soundtrack, and wonderful performances by the cast headlined by Lou de Laage, Valerie Lemercier, Melvii Poupard and Niels Schneider.

As per the movie title, COUP DE CHANCE is about how chance, if followed through, can have a huge impact on our lives. The film brought to mind Bob Dylan’s song ‘Simple Twist Of Fate’ from his one of his finest albums ‘Blood On The Tracks’.

Similar in class to his film ‘Blue Jasmine’ which saw our Cate win a best actress Oscar,  Allen’s latest opens nationally in cinemas on Boxing Day.