77th Cannes Film Festival | Sex, drugs and cinema

Sex, drugs, violence… and megalomania. This is the summary made by some spectators of Megalopolisthe new film by Francis Ford Coppola, selected Thursday in official competition at the 77^e Cannes film festival. This decadent dystopia stars Adam Driver as a progressive architect named Caesar, whose love interest is the daughter of the town’s conservative mayor, Frank Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito).

Produced on behalf of the author by Coppola for a sum of 100 to 120 million US, this sci-fi epic inspired by the fall of the Roman Empire and set in a futuristic megalopolis resembling New York especially made headlines in beginning of the week due to its difficulties in finding a distributor.

No one seems to want to be associated for the moment with this crazy project, described as experimental and with little commercial potential, despite its cast made up of stars of the moment (Driver, Aubrey Plaza, Shia LaBeouf). Cinema cash drawers are not likely to panic, according to Hollywood observers.

We rather wonder how, without a distribution contract, the 85-year-old filmmaker who has not directed a film since 2011 (Twixt) will make his money with this heartfelt project that he has been carrying around since the filming ofApocalypse Now, 45 years ago. He will have to sell many bottles of wine from his Californian vineyard to repay all these expenses.

Already the news of the shooting, anything but reassuring, raised fears of a titanic shipwreck.

Comes to the rescue the Cannes Festival which, perhaps to help Coppola turn the tide of bad rumors, leaked the news of the selection of Megalopolis in official competition. The general delegate of the Festival, Thierry Frémaux, had already declared that it would be an honor to welcome the double gold winner on the Croisette this year. He added on Thursday, when the official selection was unveiled, that Coppola was part of the Cannes family.

However, the relationship between the two men does not always seem to have been good. Coppola, who won the Festival’s top honors 50 years ago for The Conversationthen again for Apocalypse Now in 1979, had not since presented another film in competition. In 1996, he chaired the jury of the official competition and apparently blocked the path to the controversial Crash of the Canadian David Cronenberg, back in competition this year with Shroudsan autobiographical film starring Vincent Cassel and Diane Kruger.

In 2009, Coppola turned his nose up at a gala evening for his film Tetro in the official selection, under the pretext that Thierry Frémaux did not want to welcome him into competition. The film was instead found at the opening of a parallel section, the Directors’ Fortnight (now the Cinematographers’ Fortnight), in the company of Quebecers Denis Villeneuve, Denis Côté and Xavier Dolan.

I remember an irritated Francis Coppola, addressing the audience at the Fortnight after the screening of his film (far from memorable) complaining that someone had tried to do the same thing to him with Apocalypse Nowbecause the film was not finished.

Rumors of the “catastrophic filming” of Megalopolis inevitably bring to mind Coppola’s Stations of the Cross on the set ofApocalypse Now, his hallucinatory vision of the Vietnam War. Coppola said at a press conference at the time, before winning his second Palme d’Or, that the 16 months of shooting the film had driven everyone crazy.

Martin Sheen, who was 36, had a heart attack on set; it was raining non-stop in the Philippines and the government of Ferdinand Marcos was putting obstacles in the way. Marlon Brando lied when he claimed he had read In the heart of darkness by Joseph Conrad, who inspired the screenplay. As usual, he didn’t know his lines.

Coppola almost lost his life there. He had invested all his savings in the film and was on the verge of bankruptcy. The successful businessman he became is no longer there. The fact remains that we wish him – and we – an outcome as happy as in 1979.

On May 25, the legendary filmmaker could become the first triple gold winner in history. The task will not be easy. He will compete with at least 18 filmmakers. Among these, there are only four women (there were seven last year): the French Coralie Fargeat (The Substancewith Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley) and Agathe Riedinger, who will present her first film, Rough diamond ; the Indian Payal Kapadia (All We Imagine Is Light) ; as well as a regular at the Croisette, the British Andrea Arnold (Bird).

The low representation of women being the recurring Achilles heel of the Cannes Film Festival, I would not be surprised if at least one female director is among the two or three filmmakers who are likely to be added to the competition – the jury of which is chaired by Greta Gerwig – between now and the opening of the event on May 14.

We currently find two Quebec actors in this Cannes selection: Roy Dupuis, who stars alongside Cate Blanchett, Alicia Vikander and Charles Dance in Rumors, by Winnipeg filmmakers Evan Johnson, Galen Johnson and Guy Maddin, presented out of competition; as well as Anne Dorval, from the distribution of Dog Trial by French filmmaker and actress Lætitia Dosch, who will be presented in the Un certain regard section, whose jury is chaired by… Xavier Dolan.

Remember that the selections for the parallel sections of Critics’ Week and Filmmakers’ Fortnight will be revealed on Monday and Tuesday respectively. According to a persistent Cannes rumor, we could find there the new film by Quebecer Matthew Rankin (also born in Winnipeg), A universal language.

The 77^e Cannes Film Festival will be held from May 14 to 25.