Tema: Megalopolis (Francis Ford Coppola, 2024)

There were reports from the Megalopolis set that you kissed and touched extras in a way some people found inappropriate. Was that a rehearsal thing that got out of hand?


You’re talking about the Guardian piece, which is totally untrue. If you read that piece, you’ll realize that whoever the sources were — and I honestly don’t know who the sources were — it’s the same people who provided quotes for that Hollywood Reporter piece that said all these people were fired or resigned, and that there was a mass exodus, all of that. And the truth of the matter is, they were looking for some sort of dirt. The young women I kissed on the cheek, in regards to the New Year’s scene, they were young women I knew.

It’s all so ridiculous. Look at the timing of that article. It’s right before we’re about to premiere the film at Cannes. They’re just trying to damage the picture.


Why do you think they’re trying to damage the picture?


There’s a prevailing tendency in Hollywood to say, if you follow our rules, you’ll have a better chance of a success. “Well, what about Francis? He doesn’t follow your rules.” “Well, look, what’s going to happen to him, he’s going to have a failure.” I’m trying to do something different here. Film is change. I mean, the movies that your grandchildren are going to make are going to be nothing like what we see now.




Now that you’ve finally made Megalopolis, is that it for you?


No, I’m working on two potential projects right now. One is a regular sort of movie that I’d like someone to finance and make in England, because I don’t have a big history with my wife in England. Everywhere else I go, I’m reminded of her all the time. The other is called Distant Vision, which is the story of three generations of an Italian American family like mine, but fictionalized, during which the phenomenon of television was invented. I would finance it with whatever Megalopolis does. I’ll want to do another roll of the dice with that one.

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Francis Ford Coppola Says ‘You Can’t Put A Label’ On Megalopolis: ‘That’s The Kind Of Film I Like’

Already, the legend of Megalopolis looms large. It’s an ambitious original sci-fi apocalypse drama from the legendary Francis Ford Coppola, who spent decades trying to get it made; he eventually sold some of his personal wine fortune to make it happen; it debuted at Cannes to an air of bafflement, with reviews landing all across the board. But the filmmaker himself – the man who gave us The Godfather, Apocalypse Now, The Conversation, and Bram Stoker’s Dracula, to name but a few – wouldn’t have it any other way. Creating something confounding and wildly original was, it seems, always the point.

“The movie business tries to encourage everyone to think that there’s only one way a movie can be,” Coppola tells Empire in a major new interview. “It has to have a protagonist, then, in the first few minutes, it has to have an antagonist. They are prescribing a formula that they’ll be able to sell over and over again. So when a movie comes along that doesn’t fit that formula and they don’t think it’s a new formula that can be repeated, they don’t want to do it because they feel there’s too much risk.” Everything about Megalopolis – from its future-America-meets-Roman-Empire setting, to a scene requiring literal audience participation – was intended to take risks. “As we know, the art we revere — Bizet’s Carmen, artists like Picasso, Monet and Matisse — is art that in its time was considered too risky or a failure,” Coppola points out. “Apocalypse Now is a perfect example. When it came out, people said, ‘What the hell is this?’ But they never stopped going to see it. With Megalopolis you can’t put a label on it. And that’s great. That’s the kind of film I like.”


As ever, there’s much of Coppola himself in the work – even if he didn’t notice it until after he was done. “I didn’t know that so much during the filming, but as I see the finished film, I understand that now,” he says, looking to Adam Driver's Cesar Catilina. “When I was making Apocalypse Now, they said I was Kurtz. When I was making The Godfather, they said I was Michael. So maybe it’s my fate that my life is, in fact, being made by the films.” Get ready, then, for another bold artistic expression from a filmmaker like no other. “Artists are the ones who shed light on our human condition. That’s why artists are necessary,” Coppola says. “We give them a chance to illuminate contemporary life. The film leaps into the unknown unafraid. It’s a dangerous thing to do.” Who else is ready to take the leap?

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Adam Driver haciendo las oposiciones para Batman.

Menuda fotografía.

Coppola y Adam Driver durante el rodaje (cortesía de Phil Caruso / Lionsgate).

Spoiler:

Imagenes del film en alta resolución (cortesía de Lionsgate):

Spoiler:

Lo de Malaimare en la fotografía, efectivamente, pinta descomunal. Nada nuevo con este director de fotografía tan particular quién por desgracia se prodiga muy poquito en el circuito mainstream de Hollywood, prefiriendo trabajar en Rumanía, su país natal (donde Coppola y el se conocieron), y en Inglaterra. Dice que le llena más artísticamente. En cualquier caso todos recordamos la excelsa fotografía de The Master, por ejemplo. Si se hubiese llevado el Oscar ese año no me hubiese podido quejar, la verdad.

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En cualquier caso todos recordamos la excelsa fotografía de The Master, por ejemplo. Si se hubiese llevado el Oscar ese año no me hubiese podido quejar, la verdad.

No estuvo ni nominado, ese año la Academia sólo nominó a los tres intérpretes principales de la cinta, nada técnico y obvió totalmente a Anderson.

Saludos

Iniciado por Tripley

No estuvo ni nominado, ese año la Academia sólo nominó a los tres intérpretes principales de la cinta, nada técnico y obvió totalmente a Anderson.

Saludos

Anda, pues te prometo que estaba totalmente convencido de que había estado al menos nominado. Pues debió estarlo, hala.

Iniciado por Branagh/Doyle

Lo de Malaimare en la fotografía, efectivamente, pinta descomunal. Nada nuevo con este director de fotografía tan particular quién por desgracia se prodiga muy poquito en el circuito mainstream de Hollywood, prefiriendo trabajar en Rumanía, su país natal (donde Coppola y el se conocieron), y en Inglaterra. Dice que le llena más artísticamente. En cualquier caso todos recordamos la excelsa fotografía de The Master, por ejemplo. Si se hubiese llevado el Oscar ese año no me hubiese podido quejar, la verdad.

¿Dónde está el aspecto feo de la película? Por feo, entiendo su aspecto formal, no las posibles capas temáticas que refuercen una idea de zafiedad o decadencia en la sociedad que busca retratar. Es que no lo veo, ¿eh?
Vas a ver, Coppola manejando mejor la parafernalia digital y su entorno que los grandes estudios. ¿Que no? No es ningún reto visto lo que sale.

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¿Dónde está el aspecto feo de la película? Por feo, entiendo su aspecto formal, no las posibles capas temáticas que refuercen una idea de zafiedad o decadencia en la sociedad que busca retratar. Es que no lo veo, ¿eh?
Vas a ver, Coppola manejando mejor la parafernalia digital y su entorno que los grandes estudios. ¿Que no? No es ningún reto visto lo que sale.

Hay quien me ha dicho que las estatuas vivientes que se ven en el trailer lucen mal, pero yo no lo veo.

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Y recuerda mucho a Storaro. Lo que me encanta, claro.