The maestro of cinema reinvents something magical and draws us to his latest masterpiece like moths to a flame. Can’t wait to get burned!
The trailer for Maestro Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis dropped late last week and it’s a sight to behold. It features Adam Driver in a sequence that has a bit of Harold Lloyd dangling from the hands of a clock on the side of an office building, mixed with fantastical dream elements, elements of Orson Welles’ The Stranger all told in tones of spaghetti westerns (yellow filter anyone??) — this is one hippy cinematic trip that he’s taking us on! I held my breath for the entire 2 minutes and 16 seconds…
Personally, I can’t wait to watch it, and while Cannes often belongs to the quiet gems discovered in between the blockbusters, I’ll have me a Coppola star studded film for starters, please.
The official synopsis: “Megalopolis is a Roman Epic fable set in an imagined Modern America. The City of New Rome must change, causing conflict between Cesar Catilina (Adam Driver), a genius artist who seeks to leap into a utopian, idealistic future, and his opposition, Mayor Franklyn Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito), who remains committed to a regressive status quo, perpetuating greed, special interests, and partisan warfare. Torn between them is socialite Julia Cicero (Nathalie Emmanuel), the mayor’s daughter, whose love for Cesar has divided her loyalties, forcing her to discover what she truly believes humanity deserves.”
Megalopolis is Coppola’s self financed passion project and while it was first conceived in 1977, it was finally filmed from November 2022 to March 2023. The film is Coppola's first directorial effort since 2011, making this occasion one to remember for a lifetime.
"In many ways what it's really about is a metaphor—because if you walk around New York and look around, you could make Rome there", Coppola said, when interviewed by Ann Nocenti in 1999. "Ultimately what's at stake is the future, because it takes the premise that the future, the shape of things to come, is being determined today, by the interests that are vying for control ... we already know what happened to Rome. Rome became a fascist Empire. Is that what we're going to become?"
The film is written, directed and produced by Coppola, and stars Adam Driver, Giancarlo Esposito, Nathalie Emmanuel, Aubrey Plaza, Shia LaBeouf, Jon Voight, Laurence Fishburne, Talia Shire, Jason Schwartzman, Kathryn Hunter, Grace VanderWaal, Chloe Fineman, James Remar, D.B. Sweeney and Dustin Hoffman.
Megalopolis is produced by Fred Roos, Barry Hirsch, Michael Bederman and executive produced by Anahid Nazarian, Barrie Osborne, Darren Demetre.
Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis will make its world premiere in Competition at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival on the 17th of May. The film has yet to secure a US and UK distributor, while Le Pacte is in place for a France release.
Image courtesy of American Zoetrope, used with permission.