What it’s like to watch Megalopolis with Francis Ford Coppola in attendance
Francis Ford Coppola has officially launched his tour of Megalopolis, the film that cost him ~$140 million of his own money and…well, let’s just say it didn’t recoup. But forget that original run because now Coppola is showcasing Megalopolis the way he says it’s intended: with an audience, on the big screen and accompanied by a discussion with the director himself. With only six dates set for the tour (or at least this leg of it) and the launch in my home state, I had to attend.
My first thought when purchasing my ticket was, Would this be some sort of The Room-esque fiasco? Probably not considering the level of respect the industry has for Coppola and the price of tickets (mine was around $70 but they went for over $200 the closer to the stage you got). But the movie was being mocked on a wide scale when it came out, and it’s not as if Coppola has let it marinate enough for it to get a proper retrospective curiosity or appreciation. Would the audience of 1,500 go ballistic when Adam Driver delivered his instantly infamous “Back to the cluuub” line?
As it turns out, they would. But Coppola gave full permission for the attendees of the venue (the Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank, New Jersey) to respond as they naturally would. As he addressed the crowd prior to Megalopolis flickering before them, Coppola stated, “Jump into it, if something is funny, please laugh. If sad, you can weep. Or yell at the screen…Even if you’re confused…there’s something to learn because if you’re willing to open and enter a new door, you may well find yourself somewhere you’ve never been before.”
And that’s more or less how the actual screening went, as most of us committed ourselves to entering this new door labeled Megalopolis. Subconsciously, we all knew Francis Ford Coppola was in the wings, but it didn’t really impact the experience at that point. If there was a moment of bad acting — and Megalopolis has a lot of that — we laughed as a community. If there were moments where characters got what was coming, we applauded. And in the scene where Adam Driver seemingly talks to someone at the mic as part of the “live theater” aspect, it was a revelation met with resounding cheers.
Whether Coppola had decided to coax the Megalopolis audience into such behavior or not, it was all actually a natural reaction to the film. And in that, it joined together a room of fans from all walks, which was part of Coppola’s post-screening discussion. While Coppola did ramble for a while to the point where many members of the audience left, he clearly had a passion for everything he discussed. But even he sensed his own boredom (his words, not mine!), chiseling down an intended 10-point analysis of our society to just five, hitting on topics related to how the U.S. handles time, work, money, and more.
Where Coppola — and the audience — came back to life was the Q&A session, which lasted around 40 minutes. Here are some highlights:
On the initial reception of Megalopolis: “The truth of the matter is, a lot of stuff that you read about Megalopolis…is totally not true. It got terrible reviews, no question, but it got great reviews from the most important reviewers and venues…It got a tremendous reaction in Cannes…But that all gets squelched and I think it comes down to people want to say to the filmmakers, ‘Oh, [don’t follow the rules], look what happens. Look at the mess he’s in.’ I don’t know. I don’t care.”
On his creative process: “I didn’t really work on it for 40 years…Usually I work on a project and I work on it until I start to hate it. Then I start to work on another project…and I start to hate it and I abandon it.”
On advice he would give to future generations of filmmakers: “I think what I left with this film is the fact that I put my money where my mouth was in terms of [not following the studios]…I am thrilled with the fact that when I see my grandchildren’ s films, I’m not gonna know what the hell they’re doing because it’s so involved…[With] young filmmakers, I say, ‘Make your films personal. Make them who you are; you’re a one in a million individual and if you make your film very personal…If you make it personal then it will live forever.”
On The Godfather and spawning sequels: “I should be shot. I’m the one who called the second Godfather, The Godfather Pt. II. And that’s why there’s a whole absurdity of Spider-Man 6…I didn’t think The Godfather should be any more than two pictures and a coda [The Death of Michael Corleone].”
We’ll have to see how Francis Ford Coppola goes about the rest of this Megalopolis tour, but as it stands, it’s an absolutely incredible experience. Did I like the film? I did not. Did it matter? It did not, because while I walked out of the theater discussing its shortcomings and few actual merits, the most authentic takeaway was what Coppola provided us. When all was said, done and skewered with an arrow, this is without a doubt the ultimate way to see Megalopolis, especially if Coppola decides to never release it on physical media or streaming (hey, the man basically bankrupted himself making it, so he can do whatever he damn well pleases). It has to be. And while Coppola did tease at this screening that he would love to put more dream sequences back into the film, this is the best we are likely to get; and it goes beyond director’s cut — it’s director’s vision.
The post What it’s like to watch Megalopolis with Francis Ford Coppola in attendance appeared first on JoBlo.