Francis Ford Coppola actually did it. His dream project Megalopolis, surrounded by controversy and longing, has seen the light of the cinema world. In keeping with the story about late Roman conditions, the new film celebrated its world premiere in Cannes, which was overflowing with vanity and champagne.
It’s the ideal setting for the science fiction fantasy about the decline and resurrection of American culture. This much is clear: Megalopolis is a unique cinema experience in today’s film landscapedefinitely worth seeing, highly topical and outdated at the same time.
Megalopolis takes place in ancient Rome and the future
At the Cannes Film Festival, Megalopolis is in competition for the Palme d’Or, the largest possible advertising platform for a self-financed film that has still not found a distributor in the USA. With this, Coppola once again presents his demonstrated his crazy enthusiasm for filmmaking. He doesn’t let tropical storms or the creative deficiencies of the current blockbuster system get him down.
The idea goes back to 1977 (via Movieweb ), around the same time as the theatrical release of George Lucas’ Star Wars. You can still smell a hint of the crumbling American empire of the Nixon and Vietnam brands in the realization that stands before us 47 years later.
Check out the teaser trailer for Megalopolis:
Megalopolis – Teaser Trailer (English) HD
However, Adam Driver doesn’t look like a late hippie; he has the hairstyle of the Roman statesman Gaius Julius Caesar and his name: Cesar Catiline. This Cesar is a star architect and universal genius in one decadent Fantasy New York called New Rome. He dreams of an urban planning utopia: the megalopolis. The pragmatic mayor Franklyn Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito) and his own family want to prevent exactly that.
Caesar belongs to the clan of the richest man in the world, Hamilton Crassus III (Jon Voight), whose descendants are located between the Murdochs, the Trumps and the Julio-Claudian dynasty from ancient Rome. While Cesar dreams, his opponents would rather put a casino on the wasteland. A romance with the mayor’s daughter (Nathalie Emmanuel) exacerbates the situation. Intrigues, assassinations and the like are only a matter of time.
It’s rare to see a 100 million sci-fi film like this
By the way, Cesar can make time stand still, but don’t expect a detailed storyline to explain it. Megalopolis is not that kind of film. Rather, Coppola fills his theoretically straightforward story with quotes, riddles and symbols until you no longer know where up and down or past, present and future are.
Constantine film
Megalopolis
References to the 2021 storming of the Capitol stand next to a conspicuous post-9-11 vacant lot in downtown New Rome. The TV shows within the film sometimes take on a 90s look and then mimic the 2010s again. It’s similar with the mood of the film, which turns from philosophical languor into amusing soap opera and then resurfaces as a surreal sci-fi trip. Just when you think you’ve got Megalopolis under control, he escapes his grasp.
As you can see from the previous words, the film invites lists because here one idea chases the next, one intoxicating effect displaces the next. As a narrative, the new Coppola is more challenging than most films that have had a 100 million budget in the past few decades.
What Coppola’s film has in common with Civil War and Joker
Comparisons are difficult, but still close. Coppola’s film may have its origins in the ’70s, but it can be seen as a more politically offensive contemporary of Alex Garland’s Civil War, and the similar Todd Phillips’ Joker and Matt Reeves’ The Batman. Popular cinema showing signs of decline and ideological neglect channeled into genre patterns.
After the end of the Bush II era, a series of films were released that lost themselves in party excess, including The Hangover, Bride Alarm and Project X, but also The Bling Ring and The Wolf of Wall Street. (Which brings us back to the lists.)
Megalopolis now feels like a sequel to the Trump years; it is an awakening to a much darker, disturbing déjà vu. If Project X met Civil War, it wouldn’t look anything like a Francis Ford Coppola film. Nothing looks like Megalopolis. But it’s a small step toward understanding this great film.
Constantin has secured the rights for Megalopolis in Germany, but there is no theatrical release at this point.