Posted on 05/17/2024 4:14:33 AM PDT by C19fan
Francis Ford Coppola on Thursday premiered his self-financed opus “Megalopolis” at the Cannes Film Festival, unveiling a wildly ambitious passion project the 85-year-old director has been pondering for decades.
Reviews ranged from “a folly of gargantuan proportions” to “the craziest thing I’ve ever seen.” But most assuredly, once again, Coppola had everyone in Cannes talking.
No debut this year was awaited with more curiosity in Cannes than “Megalopolis,” which Coppola poured $120 million of his own money into after selling off a portion of his wine estate. Not unlike Coppola’s “Apocalypse Now” some 45 years ago, “Megalopolis” arrived trailed by rumors of production turmoil and doubt over its potential appeal.
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I know Vince Vaughn likes the title.
Ditto. It’s his money. Coppola is betting the farm on a personal passion project on which he has apparently retained complete creative control. He’s swinging for the fences and assuming the very high risk of failure. I can respect that.
Re the wokefest question:
We’ll have to watch the movie to judge, but a project like this is a rebellion against the suffocating studio control that is enforcing wokeness in the film industry. The legacy studios are now mostly owned by corporate conglomerates that are in turn beholden to the shadowy big money players who finance most of the big budget movies. The creatives have been complaining for years. Coppola is putting his own money on the line to do his own thing. It could be an epic failure, but I’ll give him credit for trying.
He may be a "creative guy" rebelling against the system. But the product will still suck unless he's like Mel Gibson. Or he's crazy like Tom Cruise.
He may be crazy, but not like Tom Cruise. He’s 85 years old. This is presumably his last film, and it has apparently been rattling around in his head for decades. I don’t follow him at all — mention his name and I think The Godfather, then Apocalypse Now, and then go blank — but glance at his Wikipedia page. He has certainly had an amazing career and has been willing to take big risks. In the context of modern Hollywood, he’s a larger than life throwback character. That makes him interesting. It doesn’t mean Metropolis will be a great movie, but he’s swinging for the fences. On his own dime. Whatever this film turns out to be, it won’t be formulaic hackwork.
If critics and “reviewers” hate it, then count me in. Nowadays that’s the only way to get me interested in a film.
From the title, I assume it is somehow about Polybius’ home town in Arcadia. But I have no idea about the plot.
Where did you see the trailer?
...is set in a futuristic megalopolis—a sprawling, densely populated imagined modern-day New York City...
Youtube
Yes, was just doing some wishful thinking it could be about someplace more inspiring than NYC. I have been to both places and didn’t have to worry about being mugged in the Greek city.
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