Francis Ford Coppola's Megalopolis
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One of those movies, I may never watch
Never say that about any movie.
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Francis Ford Coppola says his twist on the dystopian sci-fi movie genre in Megalopolis reflects his utopian ambitions for the world.
“It’s a roman epic, what can I say? It’s a dive into a world that exists more than it should. Of course, it’s about loyalty, but ultimately in the end it’s a vision of hope,” Coppola told a Toronto Film Festival on Tuesday night as he presented a North American premiere of his pricey passion project.
Coppola cited Adam Driver’s Cesar wanting to construct a new utopian dream city in New York City as his inspiration for Megalopolis. “There’s always the vision of human beings that are great and are capable of dealing with any challenge they have to make a beautiful world for ourselves and for our children. It’s a hopeful film,” Coppola argued.
After a world premiere in Cannes, Megalopolis has divided critics, with some talking up an audacious masterpiece from Coppola, others questioning its existence and not many reviewers landing in the middle.
The marketing of Megalopolis has offered up its own drama as the sci-fi epic’s initial trailer was pulled by Lionsgate on Aug. 21, after just one day, when it was revealed that the critics’ quotes being cited in the teaser were bogus. The studio soon after released a new trailer without any critics’ quotes.
“It’s a roman epic, what can I say? It’s a dive into a world that exists more than it should. Of course, it’s about loyalty, but ultimately in the end it’s a vision of hope,” Coppola told a Toronto Film Festival on Tuesday night as he presented a North American premiere of his pricey passion project.
Coppola cited Adam Driver’s Cesar wanting to construct a new utopian dream city in New York City as his inspiration for Megalopolis. “There’s always the vision of human beings that are great and are capable of dealing with any challenge they have to make a beautiful world for ourselves and for our children. It’s a hopeful film,” Coppola argued.
After a world premiere in Cannes, Megalopolis has divided critics, with some talking up an audacious masterpiece from Coppola, others questioning its existence and not many reviewers landing in the middle.
The marketing of Megalopolis has offered up its own drama as the sci-fi epic’s initial trailer was pulled by Lionsgate on Aug. 21, after just one day, when it was revealed that the critics’ quotes being cited in the teaser were bogus. The studio soon after released a new trailer without any critics’ quotes.
What would a new Coppola movie be without all the drama? 
Just over two weeks before Francis Ford Coppola’s passion project Megalopolis is set to be released, the director has sued Variety for libel over a July 26 article that called his behavior on the set of the sci-fi film “unprofessional,” alleging that the Oscar winner hugged and kissed female background actors participating in a party scene.
The 85-year-old filmmaker is seeking $15 million and further punitive and exemplary damages from defendants Variety Media LLC and journalists Brent Lang and Tatiana Siegel in the jury trial seeking complaint filed Tuesday in LA Superior Court.
The 85-year-old filmmaker is seeking $15 million and further punitive and exemplary damages from defendants Variety Media LLC and journalists Brent Lang and Tatiana Siegel in the jury trial seeking complaint filed Tuesday in LA Superior Court.
This isn't something to be ashamed of. Ridley Scott even listed his own film Blade Runner in his four favorite films. That even inspired me to review my own novel on Goodreads and Librarything. Coppola's been making films for himself ever since Youth Without Youth and I think he should keep doing so.
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I am still fascinated by the process that Coppola has followed to return to his roots as an indie filmmaker, after having been "corrupted" by the studio system for the better part of his career.
And while it is indisputably true that not everyone has liked the films he has made in the last stretch of his career, it is still gratifying to know he has finally done what he wanted to do for all of his life: turn his back to the Hollywood establishment and just go with whatever feels right.
This interview yields a bit more light into the process that he has followed with his more recent films, and how all of the filmmaking he has done since leaving the studios behind has led to his "magnum opus," Megalopolis
I realize, of course, that Youth Without Youth, Tetro and Twixt weren't among his most popular movies, but you gotta admire the kind of moxie that it takes to just go with his instincts as a filmmaker without worrying too much about whether or not a certain project will be commercially successful.
As it stands, Coppola will probably lose money on Megalopolis, since he financed it himself, but he has already said he does not care one bit.
And while it is indisputably true that not everyone has liked the films he has made in the last stretch of his career, it is still gratifying to know he has finally done what he wanted to do for all of his life: turn his back to the Hollywood establishment and just go with whatever feels right.
This interview yields a bit more light into the process that he has followed with his more recent films, and how all of the filmmaking he has done since leaving the studios behind has led to his "magnum opus," Megalopolis
One might think that the director of “The Godfather,” “Apocalypse Now,” and “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” knew all there was to know about filmmaking, but when Francis Ford Coppola finished “The Rainmaker” in 1997, he realized that he still had a lot to learn — and that he couldn’t learn it within the codified structure of Hollywood studio production. “After I made the John Grisham film, I wanted to take off and be a student for a while,” Coppola told IndieWire. “I had made a lot of films, and they were all in different styles. But what is my style? Do I even have a style? That’s the question I was asking myself.”
That’s how one of the most acclaimed and accomplished directors in modern film history became a scrappy independent filmmaker once again with films like “Youth Without Youth,” “Tetro,” and “Twixt,” all made during an extraordinary period of creativity that not only yielded some of Coppola’s boldest and most unique pictures, but laid the groundwork for his magnum opus. “All that I learned during that period of exploration was very influential when I finally came out of the cocoon and made a professional film, which was ‘Megalopolis.'”
That’s how one of the most acclaimed and accomplished directors in modern film history became a scrappy independent filmmaker once again with films like “Youth Without Youth,” “Tetro,” and “Twixt,” all made during an extraordinary period of creativity that not only yielded some of Coppola’s boldest and most unique pictures, but laid the groundwork for his magnum opus. “All that I learned during that period of exploration was very influential when I finally came out of the cocoon and made a professional film, which was ‘Megalopolis.'”
As it stands, Coppola will probably lose money on Megalopolis, since he financed it himself, but he has already said he does not care one bit.
My review
Francis Ford Coppola's Megalopolis: A Fable
Francis Ford Coppola's Megalopolis: A Fable is a mad masterpiece, and easily the most astonishing and memorable cinematic achievement of the 21st century.
Perhaps no other major filmmaker of our times besides Jean-Luc Godard has taken experimental cinema to the extremes that Coppola does here, with results that are both breathtaking and awe-inspiring, giving us a vision that only a true cinematic genius could possibly pull off.
Megalopolis is right up there with the likes of D.W. Griffiths's Intolerance and Abel Gance's Napoleon as one of those exceptional cinematic achievements that practically redefined what cinema as a narrative form was even capable of.
There's really never been a movie like this before, and perhaps there never will be again, because, really, who else besides Francis Ford Coppola would happily invest over $100 million of his own money on a project that was so completely and utterly uncommercial?
To fully appreciate this movie, having a hearty taste for experimental cinema is practically a prerequisite. People who do not love experimental cinema, or have not seen much of it, should probably just not even try to watch this; it is highly unlikely they could make heads or tails of it.
The experience of watching Megalopolis on a humongous IMAX screen is both dreamlike and completely intoxicating like very few movies of the last 50 years have been. You would have to go back, possibly, to the likes of 2001: A Space Odyssey to find something that was even in the same ballpark.
As with everything that has to do with experimental cinema, even those who already really like it may not be completely on board for everything that Coppola is trying to do here; the point really doesn't seem to be so much any kind of conventional narrative (although there is unquestionably a storyline that is a delight to follow) as much as it is to just bring some kind of dreamlike quality to the big screen.
I have very little faith in the Hollywood establishment to properly appreciate this movie, because Coppola is basically just completely rejecting everything that conventional commercial cinema stands for; it is the grand final gesture, possibly, of one of the biggest maverick filmmakers to have ever lived. Thus, it will not be at all surprising if the movie is completely shut out by the Oscars - and possibly most of the other big awards.
That would, of course, be completely unfair to the cast and crew of this absolute masterpiece, who have all made a totally superlative effort to bring Coppola's vision to life with astonishing vibrancy.
Adam Driver, Nathalie Emmanuel and Giancarlo Esposito are the biggest standouts among the cast; on the technical side, Mihai Malaimare Jr.'s cinematography, Milena Canonero's costume design, and the production design by Beth Mickle and Bradley Rubin are all top-notch.
It should be noted that the movie does make very appropriate use of the "full IMAX" aspect ratio on some key scenes; this will be lost on regular theaters as well as the eventual home release.
No real movie buff should miss the chance to watch this on the biggest IMAX screen available. It stands to reason it will not be in theaters for very long, because this is definitely not a movie for a mass audience. Only the most sophisticated viewers are likely to fully appreciate what Coppola has accomplished here.
Francis Ford Coppola's Megalopolis: A Fable
Francis Ford Coppola's Megalopolis: A Fable is a mad masterpiece, and easily the most astonishing and memorable cinematic achievement of the 21st century.
Perhaps no other major filmmaker of our times besides Jean-Luc Godard has taken experimental cinema to the extremes that Coppola does here, with results that are both breathtaking and awe-inspiring, giving us a vision that only a true cinematic genius could possibly pull off.
Megalopolis is right up there with the likes of D.W. Griffiths's Intolerance and Abel Gance's Napoleon as one of those exceptional cinematic achievements that practically redefined what cinema as a narrative form was even capable of.
There's really never been a movie like this before, and perhaps there never will be again, because, really, who else besides Francis Ford Coppola would happily invest over $100 million of his own money on a project that was so completely and utterly uncommercial?
To fully appreciate this movie, having a hearty taste for experimental cinema is practically a prerequisite. People who do not love experimental cinema, or have not seen much of it, should probably just not even try to watch this; it is highly unlikely they could make heads or tails of it.
The experience of watching Megalopolis on a humongous IMAX screen is both dreamlike and completely intoxicating like very few movies of the last 50 years have been. You would have to go back, possibly, to the likes of 2001: A Space Odyssey to find something that was even in the same ballpark.
As with everything that has to do with experimental cinema, even those who already really like it may not be completely on board for everything that Coppola is trying to do here; the point really doesn't seem to be so much any kind of conventional narrative (although there is unquestionably a storyline that is a delight to follow) as much as it is to just bring some kind of dreamlike quality to the big screen.
I have very little faith in the Hollywood establishment to properly appreciate this movie, because Coppola is basically just completely rejecting everything that conventional commercial cinema stands for; it is the grand final gesture, possibly, of one of the biggest maverick filmmakers to have ever lived. Thus, it will not be at all surprising if the movie is completely shut out by the Oscars - and possibly most of the other big awards.
That would, of course, be completely unfair to the cast and crew of this absolute masterpiece, who have all made a totally superlative effort to bring Coppola's vision to life with astonishing vibrancy.
Adam Driver, Nathalie Emmanuel and Giancarlo Esposito are the biggest standouts among the cast; on the technical side, Mihai Malaimare Jr.'s cinematography, Milena Canonero's costume design, and the production design by Beth Mickle and Bradley Rubin are all top-notch.
It should be noted that the movie does make very appropriate use of the "full IMAX" aspect ratio on some key scenes; this will be lost on regular theaters as well as the eventual home release.
No real movie buff should miss the chance to watch this on the biggest IMAX screen available. It stands to reason it will not be in theaters for very long, because this is definitely not a movie for a mass audience. Only the most sophisticated viewers are likely to fully appreciate what Coppola has accomplished here.
Hollywood was right to not fund this crap.
Megalopolis (2024)
Francis Ford Coppola's vanity project has revealed itself to the babbling and ramblings of an old man. Plot's, characters, and storylines fail to connect while listening to the incoherent ramblings of Laurence Fishburns naration. This is supposed to be about the fall of a Roman family told in modern gothic setting. Adam Driver plays a nobel prize winning architect of a new technology as he wages a war with the mayor of the city played by Giancarlo Esposito. Caught in th emiddle of this fued is Esposito's daughter Natalia Emmanuel.
Driver is also dealing with his cousins led by Shia Lebeoff, Jon Voight, and a group of interchangeable women that writhe on the screen in a Kardashian esque mockery of the upper class. At no point in the course of this film did someone tell Francis no...that's dumb stop doing that. If you enjoyed Cloud Atlas but thought how can we make it look worse...Megalopis achieves that. If you watched Tree of Life and thought how about lets make it bad...Megalopolis achieves that. If watched Babylon and thought Chazelle was pretentious...Megalopolis inserts it's head further up it's own butt than one could think a film has possibly done before or ever again.
You actually feel bad for the actors in this one because unlike a Battlefield Earth where they camping it up Emmanuel, Driver, and Esposito are trying very hard to salvage this turkey. The worse thing about the film is that Coppola couldn't stick to his own story. Rather than tell one story he chooses to tell four and none of them are done very well. Dust off the book shelf's because The Razzie's Worst Picture of the year is coming for this one.
Megalopolis (2024)
Francis Ford Coppola's vanity project has revealed itself to the babbling and ramblings of an old man. Plot's, characters, and storylines fail to connect while listening to the incoherent ramblings of Laurence Fishburns naration. This is supposed to be about the fall of a Roman family told in modern gothic setting. Adam Driver plays a nobel prize winning architect of a new technology as he wages a war with the mayor of the city played by Giancarlo Esposito. Caught in th emiddle of this fued is Esposito's daughter Natalia Emmanuel.
Driver is also dealing with his cousins led by Shia Lebeoff, Jon Voight, and a group of interchangeable women that writhe on the screen in a Kardashian esque mockery of the upper class. At no point in the course of this film did someone tell Francis no...that's dumb stop doing that. If you enjoyed Cloud Atlas but thought how can we make it look worse...Megalopis achieves that. If you watched Tree of Life and thought how about lets make it bad...Megalopolis achieves that. If watched Babylon and thought Chazelle was pretentious...Megalopolis inserts it's head further up it's own butt than one could think a film has possibly done before or ever again.
You actually feel bad for the actors in this one because unlike a Battlefield Earth where they camping it up Emmanuel, Driver, and Esposito are trying very hard to salvage this turkey. The worse thing about the film is that Coppola couldn't stick to his own story. Rather than tell one story he chooses to tell four and none of them are done very well. Dust off the book shelf's because The Razzie's Worst Picture of the year is coming for this one.
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I had a feeling he would say, "It's one of the greatest visual masterpieces of all time, so it's one of the greatest if all time, and it's experimental so it's wrong to criticize the story."
Having said that, I literally just put The Holy Mountain in my top ten, so chances are Ill like it. But I don't expect to fan it over it.
Having said that, I literally just put The Holy Mountain in my top ten, so chances are Ill like it. But I don't expect to fan it over it.
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It's visuals are on the same level as those cheap Bollywood films that get random releases in the US. You have a couple CGI set pieces but you have no artistry in the film making. It doesn't help that Batman 1989 is out right now in limited showing and that manages to look fantastic attempting the same motif (Fritz Lang's German Expressionism)
In this scene...Gotham looks huge based on the background, the characters are speaking to each other and Nicholson is in the shadows, tension is built and the reveal comes in lighting and blocking.
Now the scenes in Megalopolis take out the lighting...blocking...remove important dialogue and actual scenes to explain what is happening and then move onto the next thing.
In this scene...Gotham looks huge based on the background, the characters are speaking to each other and Nicholson is in the shadows, tension is built and the reveal comes in lighting and blocking.
Now the scenes in Megalopolis take out the lighting...blocking...remove important dialogue and actual scenes to explain what is happening and then move onto the next thing.
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Well I do like experimental storytelling (assuming this can potentially be an example), and I'm running into this with every bit of mental prep I can get. I've waited a long time to see this and I won't waste my opportunity, even if I end up hating it.
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