In a decaying metropolis, Cesar Catilina, a brilliant architect, dreams of a utopia for all. Franklyn Cicero, the conservative mayor, does not see things that way. But Cesar has an advantage: he has the gift of stopping the flow of time. A widower eternally grieving, Cesar has a passionless affair with Wow Platinum, a TV star. But then, after Julia Cicero, the mayor’s daughter, takes an interest in him, Cesar finds himself having feelings. Since its premiere at Cannes, the film Megalopolisby Francis Ford Coppola, has been making headlines for all the wrong reasons. Since the film has enough cinematic problems, we will refrain here from revisiting the many controversies that have plagued the release.
A self-financed blockbuster costing US$120 million, Megalopolis is therefore on the bill: finally, everyone will be able to make up their own mind. In doing so, perhaps the theory of a conspiracy hatched by evil critics who understand nothing will be abandoned. Or perhaps, again, the idea that the appreciation of this particular film constitutes a kind of referendum on the value given to Coppola’s filmography will fade away.
Rewritten about 300 times, said the filmmaker in Vanity Fairduring an intermittent gestation of more than forty years, Megalopolis It’s a sad sight for anyone who loves Coppola’s cinema.
As reworked as it may be, the said scenario is based on a tenuous sentimental intrigue, namely the love story between Cesar (Adam Driver) and Julia (Nathalie Emmanuel). On this level, Megalopolis is in the vein of the filmmaker’s great romantic films, these willingly marked by an assumed artificiality: the unloved One from the Heartthe wonderful Peggy Sue Got Married (Peggy Sue got married), and the sublime Bram Stoker’s Dracula (Dracula based on the work of Bram Stoker). Unfortunately, the comparisons end there.
Of the many subplots, two are given more importance: the one concerning the marriage of convenience between Wow (Aubrey Plaza) and Hamilton Crassus III (Jon Voight), Cesar’s rich uncle, and the one about Clodio (Shia LaBeouf), Cesar’s jealous cousin, who turns into a Trumpian populist. In short, we have pure love, corrupting money, and politics that manipulates the masses.
Despite these three universal themes conducive to a thousand and one allegories, the “fable”, to use the term used by the promotional campaign, turns out to be unfinished and shaky.
Very uneven game
A backdrop reminiscent of the fall of Rome is mixed with a rather ugly futuristic aesthetic (and often compromised by poor quality special effects, especially at the end). Visually, the film lacks unity: the daytime scenes have a flashy, rather than opulent, look that feels “cheap” despite the budget, while the nighttime sequences seem to come from a different film.
Coppola, whose immense talent has been established for a long time, seems at times to be in search of a staging: for a handful of successful scenes, a plethora of randomly composed shots. It is sometimes enough to make one scratch one’s head.
And there is this bias towards vaguely Shakespearean dialogues punctuated, at random, with modern expressions: it simply does not work. Moreover, we never feel the cast completely at ease with the text.
It must be said that the performers seem to have been left to their own devices, for a very uneven ensemble performance, from variable interiority to shameless hamming it up.
Psychotronic scene
Big problem for a film that relies so much on a love story: Adam Driver and Nathalie Emmanuel share no complicity on screen. The former in this case modulates its intensity levels badly: a complaint of despair gives rise to one of the few unintentionally funny passages in the film.
In this respect, the truly humorous inclinations, when they occur, are embarrassing. In this regard, the scene where Crassus III takes revenge is psychotronic.
Needless to say, the spectacle of such a great filmmaker making such a mess is not a pleasant one. Fortunately, Francis Ford Coppola’s filmography continues to exist, and it remains rich in films that can fuel the passion of cinema. Megalopolis is not one of those, but now that the filmmaker has taken this old fad to its conclusion, who knows if he is not carrying within him a final film, more intimate, more accomplished.