Megalopolis
It would have behooved Francis Ford Coppola to take the sage advice of Vanilla Ice, and stopped, collaborated and listened on the four-decade journey to making his “Megalopolis” a reality. Yes, the director of “The Godfather” films, “Apocalypse Now” and “The Conversation” long earned the right to make a movie his way, but when one finds themselves sitting on a project for so long, the desire to create great art should lead one to bringing in collaborators whom will help us shape that art into something meaningful, rather than just us throwing those ideas on screen and going, “This is what it is.” Like his friend George Lucas with the “Star Wars” prequel trilogy, a sous chef in the kitchen would have been an asset to lean on in bringing this passion project to life. As it is, “Megalopolis” feels like the half-developed ideas of a filmmaker who, long ago, bought into the perception of his genius, and doesn’t feel like he needs outside validation of those ideas. Admirable, but a disaster when you watch the film.
The fundamental idea behind “Megalopolis” is simply this- America is in its death throes much like the Roman Empire. In the city of “New Rome,” greed and decadence runs the world, but the creative spirit is not dead yet. The leader in that is Caesar Catilina (Adam Driver), a Nobel Prize winning architect who has the ability of control time, as well as manipulate matter through an innovative device. A visionary whose goal is to create a utopia, he finds himself constantly at odds with the mayor of New Rome, Franklyn Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito). For Cicero and the powerful elites of New Rome, especially the billionaire megalomaniac Hamilton Crassus III (Jon Voight), they see pleasure and casinos and exploitation as the way forward. What’s left out is the masses, whom they hope to control with their ideas. Caught in the middle is Julia (Nathalie Emmanuel), the mayor’s socialite daughter, who finds herself drawn to Caesar. Is this the end of the American experiment, or the beginning of a new way forward?
More than any other film he has ever made, Coppola cashed every chip he had in order to get “Megalopolis” in front of the camera finally. Much like Lucas, technology has been a fascination with Coppola in terms of how to make movies. This is a magnum opus from a technological standpoint. The cinematography by Mihai Malaimare Jr. is rich in its use of color and depth and different framing formats; they also harken back to the silent era in using irises to emphasize moments between characters. In this film, Coppola embraced improvisation and constant rewriting of the script, which led to several members of the art department and visual effects team resigning; whether this was a benefit to the film as a whole will be discussed later. He purchased a hotel in Georgia and turned it into a post production facility, in addition to using it to house the crew during filming; it is currently open to the public. And his approach to music with frequent collaborator Osvaldo Golijov (who’s scored all of his 2000s films) was to create a score that blurred between score and sound design (not unlike “Apocalypse Now”), while also being something operatic. It’s a compelling choice, but nothing particularly stood out musically. The visual landscape of the film is what people will be taking most from in this film.
In August, I finally watched a cut of the notorious “Caligula,” albeit one without the approval of any of the main creative forces of the film. This “Ultimate Cut” went back to the screenplay, and basically reconstructed its Roman Empire narrative in a way where the narrative is the focus, rather than the T&A that producer Bob Guccione focused on in his cut of the film, which landed it on a list of cinematic turkeys. That film, in the screenplay by Gore Vidal, feels like a way for a writer to make an erotic film that looks at the excess and depravity of modern culture through the Roman Empire’s rise and fall.
I bring up “Caligula” because, as I was watching “Megalopolis,” I could not help but compare Coppola’s ideas to that film. By naming his city “New Rome,” using actual names of Ancient Roman figures as his main characters, and including everything from hedonistic parties to even a chariot race in a futuristic Madison Square Garden, Coppola is being very direct in what he’s doing in this film. Even in the costume design and hair and makeup of some characters- especially Jon Voight’s blowhard Hamilton Crassus III and Shia LaBeouf as his foolish nephew (and Caesar’s cousin), Clodio Pulcher- are straight out of Roman time. We get classical dialogue from the characters, and even the moments of narration from Laurence Fishburne’s Fundi Romaine- Caesar’s assistant- has a very “Fall of the Roman Empire” feel to it. The time for ambiguity and thematic subtlety is long gone for Coppola, and it results in “Megalopolis” feeling like an uncompromising bore of a film. The improvisation and constant rewrites that allegedly went into this films performances mean that, from a tonal standpoint, “Megalopolis” is all over the place. Is this supposed to be an epic romance? A dark comedy? A satire? A thoughtful epic? A cautionary tale? It wants to be all of those things, and ends up being none of them in a meaningful way. At least in the new version of “Caligula,” its brazen, over-the-top tone feels like it makes sense for the story being told.
In addition to the Roman Empire, one can see the inspiration of Fritz Lang’s “Metropolis” on the film, as well, and its story of a son of the elite bringing forth a world where the masses who have struggled because of the greed of the elites have left them nothing. Caesar is intended to be the inspirational character, but when one of the first things we see him do is to destroy two apartment buildings as a way of showing off his gifts- buildings that leave the masses thinking their world doesn’t matter- it’s hard to find much empathy for him. Julia is the Maria character, but even she is one of the elites, and her goal is to bring the creative and financial powers together for the betterment of society. This feels like a late-stage capitalism interpretation of Atlas Shrugged, and that’s not a good thing. Part of why these themes fall flat is because the entire perspective of the film is from the view of the haves. Where are the common people in this story? They are masses to be manipulated. This isn’t shocking, given Coppola has been a dynastic voice in filmmaking for decades now, but it’s why another perspective might have given weight, and structure, to the big ideas he had in his head. By the end, Atlas wasn’t one shrugging at this film.
There are things I liked about “Megalopolis.” The way it looked on IMAX (an experience I, honestly, would not mind having again). The set design. The visual ambition. The performances by Emmanuel, Esposito and especially Aubrey Plaza as the amoral reporter Wow Platinum. But Coppola’s vision, however ambitious, never finds its footing, and trips on that ambition, with nothing to catch itself on. I wish I felt more for the ideas he’s finally wrestled on screen.
