The announced fiasco of MegalopolisFrancis Ford Coppola’s most recent feature film in theaters this Friday, inspired our columnist Marc Cassivi to create a short list of some of cinema’s biggest trainwrecks.
Posted at 3:09 a.m.
Updated at 6:00 a.m.
Cleopatra (1963)
Cleopatra is the epic that put an end to the fashion for peplums in the 1960s. This 44 million US blockbuster – which was initially supposed to cost 2 million – almost bankrupted the 20th Century Fox studios, due to its multiple delays (two years of filming), its cost overruns and the ailments and whims of its stars. Elizabeth Taylor played the famous Queen of Egypt in this historic love triangle with Marc Antony (Richard Burton, who became her lover during filming) and Julius Caesar (Rex Harrison). The director and screenwriter of the excellent All About EveJoseph L. Mankiewicz, was called to the rescue when filming had already begun. He then disowned this feature film of more than four hours, poorly received by critics, which was nevertheless a finalist for the Oscar for best film.
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Waterworld (1995)
Shipwreck among shipwrecks, Waterworldpostapocalyptic film loosely inspired by the saga Mad Maxcost some US$175 million in 1995, an all-time record at the time. A script revised several times (notably by Joss Whedon), serious logistical problems and delays caused by bad weather off the coast of Hawaii, as well as a latent conflict between producer and star actor Kevin Costner and director Kevin Reynolds. Costner reportedly demanded that he be given more hair using special effects. Reynolds, who suffered from seasickness during filming, left the ship during the editing stage. The review was mixed and the film only earned 88 million at the North American box office. Steven Spielberg had, however, advised against the two Kevins (who had collaborated on four films previously), in light of the difficulties encountered during the filming of Jawsto shoot at sea…
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Day and night (1997)
IMAGE FROM THE FILM
Alain Delon and Arielle Dombasle in Day and night
The great director Claude Chabrol classified in 2009 Day and night, by Bernard-Henri Lévy, among the three “worst films in the history of cinema”. Upon its release, The Cinema Notebooks called it “the worst French film since 1945”. “It’s at least a reason to go see it,” retorted Arielle Dombasle, companion of BHL and one of his actresses (with Lauren Bacall and… Quebecer Julie du Page). The room emptied during the film’s premiere at the Berlinale. Day and night was brought down in flames by critics and shunned by the French public. A certified turnip, produced for 53 million francs, an imposing budget for a French film at the time. This is the last film starring Alain Delon in a leading role as well as the last fiction film directed by Bernard-Henri Lévy.
Not available on digital platforms, only on DVD
Battlefield Earth (2000)
This science fiction film, shot in Montreal by director Roger Christian, is the adaptation of the futuristic best-seller by founder of the Church of Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard. According to several critics, including the late Roger Ebert and Marc-André Lussier, it is one of the worst films of modern cinema. The screenwriter J. David Shapiro also apologized, a few years after its release, for having written “the lousiest film in history”. Battlefield Earthproduced by and starring John Travolta, won seven Razzie Awards in 2000, including Worst Film of the Year, as well as the Razzie for Worst Film of the Decade in 2010. The reviews were, of course, disastrous ( on the Metacritic aggregator, Battlefield Earth has a rating of 9… out of 100!) and its box office was only 21 million US compared to a budget of 73 million. A failure of interstellar caliber.
Prime Video, Apple TV+
New France (2004)
A budget of 33 million dollars – the largest in the history of Quebec cinema –, international stars (Gérard Depardieu, Tim Roth, Vincent Perez, Irène Jacob), a theme song by Céline Dion written by Luc Plamondon, for a shipwreck at the Titanicthe ship, not the film. New France by Jean Beaudin (J.A. Martin, photographer), historical melodrama starring David La Haye and Noémie Godin-Vigneau, inspired by the story of Corriveau. “By recounting with retrograde banality the impossible romance circa 1758 between the daughter of a miller and a woodsman, the thinkers of this rubbish of a TV movie are only looking for a possible and sad performance at the box office,” wrote the critic turned filmmaker Denis Côté in the weekly Herewhich earned him “banned for life” by distributor Christian Larouche. The film, which grossed $2 million at the box office, is now virtually impossible to find.
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