Francis Ford Coppola’s decades-long dream project is a mixed bag of sci-fi and satirical drama.
Premiere: 27 September 2024
Original name: Megalopolis
Directed by Francis Ford Coppola
Screenplay: Francis Ford Coppola
Starring: Adam Driver, Giancarlo Esposito, Nathalie Emmanuel, Aubrey Plaza, Shia LaBeouf, Jon Voight & Laurence Fishburne
Length: 138 minutes
Age limit: K16
At least for lack of courage Francis Ford Coppolaa can’t blame. Megalopolis is a dream project produced by the 85-year-old veteran director with his own money, written and directed by the master of cinema himself. The film, which has been planned for decades, is confusing to watch – and not only in a positive sense, because an attempt has been made to cram decades of ideas into the epic set in an alternative future as if completely without a filter.
Awarded with five Oscars, Coppola’s career is especially defined Godfatherfilms and a war film released in 1980 The Book of Revelation. Now! However, the dazzling Megalopolis is something completely different from those masterpieces, even though it follows the same themes.
Sci-fi, ancient Rome, Shakespeare, dysfunctional family relationships and art of a certain kind Zack Snyder -visuals, Megalopolis takes a satirical stance on greed and lust for power, and at the same time presents the viewer with an image that is dazzling in its detail and amount of glitter.
Thematic parallels can also be drawn to contemporary US politics in particular Shia LaBeoufin with a caricatured character.
But despite the well-known author list and the fun visuals, the film degenerates into a boring and confusing one. Megalopolis is Coppola’s passion project, but it lacks real passion. The director has handled many of the film’s themes, such as greed, lust for power and corruption, much more convincingly in his previous films.
Photo: Living image center ELKE ry
Building a new Rome
Megalopolis takes place in New Rome, an alternative future that looks like New York, which resembles its historical namesake both in terms of its characters and political twists. Megalopolis is a man’s world, where women’s job is to be an ornament, a virtuous virgin or a mother. However, for the most part, everyone’s goal is power.
Giancarlo Espositon presented by the mayor Cicero wants to renew the city with traditional means, but on the other hand, Cesar Catilina, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for his technological invention (Adam Driver) strives to innovate something new in the city. Old money talks in the third direction by Jon Voight played by Crassus, while the almost unrecognizable Shia LaBeouf’s hooligan boy Clodio turns in the direction of populist politics in his lust for power.
Aubrey Plaza played by the TV star Wow Platinum climbs the scale along the way, so to speak, and is one of the most interesting characters in the film due to his flamboyance. A more down-to-earth perspective is offered by Cicero’s daughter Julia (Nathalie Emmanuel), who ends up working together with the opposite party, Cesar.
Like Montague and Capulet.
An impressive voice acts as the narrator and Cesar’s driver Laurence Fishburne. There are glimpses of the main actors in other smaller roles From Dustin Hoffmann of the Coppola clan Jason to Schwartzman and Talia Shireen.
Credit: HIFF / © Phil Caruso
A messy blockbuster
As a visual spectacle, Megalopolis is a lot of everything, but it is also downright boring in its confusion. In the great epic, or “fable” as Coppola himself calls his film, the deeper thoughts are drowned in the pompous commotion.
Francis Ford Coppola combines the themes of ancient Rome, Shakespeare, art history and politics with visions of the future in a genre concoction that includes sci-fi, historical drama, satire and straight comedy. It is difficult to grasp the clear red thread in the flurry of seemingly detached scenes.
If the film could even partially convince as well as what can be seen at the beginning, Matrix-atmospheric scene of Cesar stopping time at the top of the Chrysler Building, would be on the plus side. But that handsome scene remains unhelpful to the minority.
The film’s imagery and themes in relation to Coppola’s long career will certainly be studied for a long time in the field of film studies. However, Megalopolis, which is over two and a half hours long, easily alienates and leaves the average moviegoer cold.
Megalopolis is so pretentious that it threatens to turn to outright parody. Sometimes, watching an overacted circus show feels like watching something made with a slightly bigger budget Alejandro Jodorowsky film, which Coppola has hardly aspired to with his film.
Photo: Living image center ELKE ry
A stale female image
With its so-called big men, Megalopolis feels like an old man’s utopia, from which time has passed. The lavish parties in all their hedonism seem outdated and tired as an idea, and this is emphasized by the stale image of women in the film.
Female characters are not given the same space in the script as male characters. According to old beliefs, a woman’s place is at a lower level than a man’s, as an ornament or as a one-dimensional mother figure. Fate is hard for those trying to break out of their compartments.
In the case of the virtuous virgin, Megalopolis laughs at the men who idealize the subject, but that too is ultimately turned against the female character when the satire’s wings are clipped.
MEGALOPOLIS
“Megalopolis is a visually handsome, but at the same time confusing, tedious and musty-feeling curiosity from the legendary Francis Ford Coppola.”
Source: muropaketti.com
