46/20
The city of New Rome faces a duel between Cesare Catilina, a brilliant artist who advocates for a utopian future, and the greedy mayor Franklin Cicero. Between them is Julia Cicero, whose loyalty is divided between her father and her beloved. Francis Ford Coppola wrote the screenplay in the early 1980s, but the film was shelved in part due to his financial debts. Pre-production finally began in 2001 after 30 hours of second unit filming and table readings with Paul Newman, Uma Thurman, Robert De Niro, James Gandolfini, Nicolas Cage, Leonardo DiCaprio, Russell Crowe, Edie Falco and Kevin Spacey, but the project was scrapped after of the 9/11 attacks, because the script scene (page 166) "predicted" attacks. Coppola abandoned the project entirely in 2007 and did not begin development again until 2019. The security footage of Cicero entering Caesars office should be two different cameras as indicated by the small text in the upper left corner. It’s the same shot turned and slightly tilted.. Hamilton Crassus III: What do you think of this skeleton I have?. "The ultimate IMAX experience" the film version features a live actor asking questions during a taped press conference. Referenced in The John Campea Show: Adam Driver To Lead Francis Ford Coppola's New Film Megalopolis (2022). My Promise Written by Grace VanderWaal Performed by Grace VanderWaal Courtesy of Columbia Records In arrangement with Sony Music Entertainment Produced and orchestrated by Kris Kukul. "Megalopolis" is a film that I wanted to like, primarily because it is an incredibly expensive indie project, written, produced, financed and directed by the legendary Francis Ford Coppola – an auteur who planned this work for 40 years and loves it so much that he personally rated it a 10/ 10 on the movie platform Letterboxd. Moreover, the experience of sitting in an almost empty IMAX theater with only a few others added to the atmosphere… However, apart from Adam Driver’s Oscar-worthy performance and the stunning visuals that looked beautiful on the huge screen, nothing else in this film is worth praising. The plot follows the genius scientist Cesar, inventor of the revolutionary material "Megalon" with which he plans to build a utopian city of the future – "Megalopolis" This is one of the central themes of the film – the obsession with perfection in the world and society far from it. Envy, jealousy, greed and lust for power are other themes that shape the essence of this work. Coppola does not shy away from getting involved in political commentary as well as thinking about human existence. When I think about the themes of the movie, one might think that this is a good movie. On the contrary, all these themes are destroyed by the narrative chaos, which in my opinion stems from the director’s pretentious ambition to portray an unprecedented 'megalomaniac' work of art. Editing and narrative are disjointed – the film jumps from scene to scene without coherence, which became tiresome after only fifteen minutes. By the middle I completely lost interest in the story and was just waiting for it to end. While most of the cast are well-known, it’s hard to connect with any of the characters – most are shallow and some are completely unnecessary. The only character I connected with was Cesar, thanks to Adam Driver’s brilliant performance. His ability to convey Cesaro’s mania, dialogue and emotions is probably why I stayed engaged in the first place, rather than the depth of the character itself. The dialogue is a mixed bag – sometimes brilliant, sometimes boring – which made the experience quite uneven. The cinematography is excellent, and if Coppola had focused primarily on this element, this could have been an outstanding film.