It’s the event of the moment, it divides and it downright fascinates: “Megalopolis”, the highly anticipated next film by Francis Ford Coppola continues to be talked about. George Lucas, who has just been honored at Cannes, saw it and here is his opinion.
In the family of “aborted projects by great filmmakers”, I ask for Megalopolis. Well, that was before the film was finally made four decades after Francis Ford Coppola had the idea!
Indeed, Megalopolis is more than one of the events of the 77th Cannes Film Festival, it is the realization of a dream of the director, a film which is also dedicated to his wife Eleanor whom he just lost on April 12.
And it must be said that this passion project has had its ups and downs, forcing the legendary director to make compromises before finding itself on the verge of being filmed, then abandoned after the September 11 attacks which questioned everything – especially when the film talks about the reconstruction of New York after a cataclysm…
In 2019, however, in the era of big, ambitious Hollywood productions, the project rose from its ashes, slowly however, but still with a budget between 100 and 120 million dollars, entirely financed by Coppola. Its filming will only begin in November 2022 and end in March 2023, a filming which will be mentioned in the press as chaotic, even inappropriate: (re)discover the complete genesis in our detailed article.
Cannes: consecration?
On May 16, the film, finally completed, was presented in competition for the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, marking Coppola’s fourth nomination in the category and his first since 1979, the year of the triumph of Apocalypse Now, which earned him his second Palme d’Or. And the film, which stars Adam Driver, Giancarlo Esposito and Nathalie Emmanuel, created a sensation – in the good and bad sense of the word.
First of all by its spontaneous interruption in the middle of a scene, while the screen goes black and the lights in the room come back on. Between theater and cinema, the hero of the film César Catilina (Adam Driver) is then interviewed by a man actually present on stage in a pre-filmed sequence. Catilina thus begins to explain his ambitious architectural project and speaks directly to the audience in front of this real-false journalist on stage, a surprising moment between fiction and reality, breaking the fourth wall, which ends when the man on stage leaves. goes and the film resumes. This experience, which places Megalopolis in the real world, will it be reproduced in theaters? To be continued.
If this intervention is applauded, the film is divisive. Indeed, at the end of the screening, opinions fell and were mixed. For some, we are dealing with a masterpiece.unclassifiable, unique, insane”, for others it is a “cosmic nanar” already outdated in time. We move from praise to the description of a catastrophe. Discover the polarized opinions in our dedicated article.
George Lucas’s opinion
The other great filmmaker invited to the Cannes Film Festival was none other than the father of Star Wars, George Lucas, who after a masterclass given to festival-goers, was duly celebrated during the closing ceremony of this 77th edition, while he received an honorary Palme d’Or rewarding his entire career, from the hands of his lifelong friend, Francis Ford Coppola.
Discover their entire respective speeches which we have transcribed here.
Because yes, Francis Ford Coppola And George Lucas are close friends who, together, defined the New Hollywood, alongside other filmmakers such as Martin Scorsese, Brian De Palma, Dennis Hopper, Michael Cimino and Steven Spielberg. Additionally, it was thanks to Coppola that Lucas was able to get his start in the industry, as he was the producer of his first film, THX 1138, released in 1971.
And to the question of whether he had seen his friend’s next event film and what he thought of it, George Lucas replied to Le Monde:
“I’ve always been there for Francis’ films. I saw, regarding this one, an unedited form, lasting five hours, a year ago, so it will be difficult for me to say. It’s an extremely ambitious project that has been very close to his heart for a very long time. You know, films, no matter their budget, no matter their form, no matter their intentions, no matter the number of their spectators: you like them or you don’t like them. This is the truth of cinema.” That’s what it says.
Megalopolis, it is therefore the event of the moment, in all its division, whether the film is revolutionary or not. It will be up to everyone to form their own opinion: for that, see you soon in the dark rooms.
PODCAST – We debrief “Megalopolis”
