TORONTO — Louis C.K. on Saturday debuted potentially the most audacious film of the Toronto International Film Festival: a very Woody Allen-esque comedy that simultaneously comments on Allen – and C.K.’s – controversies.

C.K. shot the film, “I Love You, Daddy,” earlier this year in secret. He financed its production himself and shot it in black-and-white and on 35mm. Little was known about it before it premiered Saturday.

Comedian Louis C.K. admitted allegations of sexual misconduct and expressed remorse Friday. Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP

The New York-set, lushly scored movie often takes after Allen’s 1979 film “Manhattan,” yet it also includes a character that the cast on Saturday acknowledged was modeled after Allen. John Malkovich plays a legendary film director who’s rumored to have molested a young girl decades earlier. At the premiere, C.K. – who co-starred in Allen’s “Blue Jasmine” – said he and co-writer Vernon Chatman wanted to make a movie about beloved artists who are trailed by murmurs of scandal.

“Vernon and I were talking about the fascination with people that there’s these stories about and stuff – people that you love in their work,” C.K. told the audience after the screening.

But “I Love You, Daddy” could also be seen a C.K.’s response to his own controversies. Allegations of questionable sexual behavior have long dogged C.K. Most recently, the comedian (and previous C.K. collaborator) Tig Notaro advised C.K. to “handle” the rumors.

In the film, C.K. plays a successful TV producer whose 17-year-old daughter (Chloe Grace Moretz) begins a relationship with Malkovich’s aged director. It spawns a kind of crisis for C.K.’s character, who has his own issues with how he treats women.

– From news service reports

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