Despite being effectively barred from the US film industry, Woody Allen said Monday that he has an idea for a New York film ready to go "if some foolish person" agrees to finance it.

Allen was speaking at the Venice Film Festival, where his 50th movie, "Coup de Chance", was about to premiere in the out-of-competition section.

It is his first film entirely in a foreign language, having been shot with French actors in Paris.

The 87-year-old director told reporters it was "very simple" working in French.

"I could tell by the body language and the emotion of the actors without understanding the language when they were being realistic and when they weren't."

The film was originally meant to be about Americans in Paris, but he changed his mind.

"I thought to myself: It's my 50th film and I love Paris so much that I'll make it in French… And then I could think I'm a genuine European filmmaker," he said.

Asked whether he would work in his native New York again, Allen said he already had a "great idea" for a film in the city.

"If some guy steps out of the shadows and says we'll finance your film in New York and obey all my terrible strictures — they can't read the script, they can't know who's in it, they just give me the money and go away — if some foolish person agrees to that, I'll make a film in New York," he said.

"Coup de Chance" ("Stroke of Luck") fits in the classic Allen mould — a light-hearted dissection of love and infidelity with a beautiful woman at its centre.

Allen is blackballed by much of Hollywood due to allegations he molested his adopted daughter in the 1990s, which he says were fabricated by his ex-partner Mia Farrow.

But he said he had always been "very, very lucky" in his life and career.

"I hope it holds out," he added. "Of course it's early in the afternoon so we'll see…"