Megalopolis divides the critics, but rumours of Coppola's retirement have been greatly exaggerated
Francis Ford Coppola during a photocall for Megalopolis at the 77th Cannes Film Festival last week. 'Years ago when I said I wanted to do this, people said why?' Photo: Doug Peters/PA
It’s difficult to cleanse the palette after Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis. Days after the Cannes critics set their eager eyes on the director’s self-declared magnum opus, chins are still being stroked and heads scratched.
Unsurprisingly, the film has been receiving wildly varying reviews. While some have dubbed it awe-inspiring and exhilarating, most have brutally dismissed Coppola’s efforts as an incoherent failure. Whatever the feedback may be on his latest, it’s difficult not to be endeared by Coppola’s passion and love for the project.
In Cannes’ Palais de Festival, he spoke passionately and eloquently about the positive response the film elicited at the premiere.
“I became filled with relief and joy. It’s not an emotion I can give you in a word but it was a crowning joy of my career, after all these years of having an idea and building it over time and abandoning it and (then) saying, ‘no I shouldn't abandon it’. It was a beautiful feeling.”
How often does one ruminate on the Roman Empire? Coppola essentially built this project around the idea of a modern Roman Empire. Back when he first conceived the movie and during its gestation, many in his wider circle enquired as to the obsession with Roman epic set in modern America.
“Years ago when I said I wanted to do this, people said why? Because America was founded on the ideas of the Roman Republic, we didn’t want a king, Rome didn’t want a king, so they invented a new form of government called the Republic, with the senate and with Roman law and the things we embrace. We even built our cities to look like Rome. If you remember, Penn Station (in Manhattan) looked like the columns in Rome.”
Coppola has never shied away from political issues and Megalopolis is no different. However, the film's connection to the current political turbulence Stateside was accidental, albeit a happy accident. Megalopolis is a a cautionary tale for sure.
“I had no idea the politics of today would make the film so relevant. What’s happening in American politics, in our democracy, is exactly how they lost their republic thousands of years ago. Our politics has taken us to the point where we might lose the republic.
Coppola is a perfectionist, perpetually discontent with his own creations. So, after 40 years of tinkering, will Coppola see fit to break out the old editing tools once more, or has he finally made his peace with the film?
“The reason I often re-edit my films is because I own them. If you ask why I own Apocalypse Now the answer is no one wanted it. So when you own a movie you tend to think ‘Oh I understand it better now'. I would never re-edit The Conversation because I like the way it is. I’ve never re-edited The Godfather, although there is a scene I might add some day.
“An interesting story, when Catherine de Medici married the king of France she brought with her Leonardo da Vinci who came with 40 mules and all his apprentices at work. Da Vinci only brought one painting because he wasn’t quite finished with it and, of course, that was the Mona Lisa which he gave as a gift to the king of France for his hosting.
"I’ll be here in 20 years, and if there’s a way I can make the film a little better I’ll try. I know I’m done with it though because I’ve already started writing another film.”
So rumours of Coppola’s retirement are exaggerated? For those who feared Megalopolis was a disappointing way to bow out, a sigh of relief. Everybody else seemed more worried about Coppola’s $120 million going to waste than he was. Struggling to find financing for the film in the early days, Coppola forked out of his own pocket to get the project up and running.
“I never cared about money. One of the reasons I had the line of credit to do this was because around the time of the 2008 financial crash, I borrowed $20m to build a winery like the Tivoli gardens where children could do something when their parents were drinking wine. This risk of $20m dollars paid off big and I took the profits from that and put it into the movie so I have no problems.
"My children too, without exception, have wonderful careers, without a fortune but they’ve made their own careers. You know, money doesn't matter, what’s important is friends because friends will never let you down. Money can evaporate.”
He’s let go of some of his inhibitions, it seems, at the twilight of his life. “There’s so many people when they’re on their death bed say ‘I wish I had done this or that’. When I die I’m going to say I got to do this and I got to see my daughter win an Oscar and I got to make wine and I got to make every movie I wanted to make and I’m going to be so busy thinking of all the things I got to do that when I die, I won’t even notice it.”
