Francis Ford Coppola mortgaged part of his vineyard and invested some 120 million US dollars of his personal fortune to produce his most recent film, Megalopolis. The shipwreck is titanic. This is a critique of grandiloquence which is itself grandiloquent. A terribly new-age ecological rethink, in both form and substance.
Fable about the destiny of the United States on the eve of a new presidential election with Donald Trump, a strong metaphor for the fall of the Roman Empire, Megalopolis is set in a futuristic megalopolis, New Rome (New York with Madison Square Garden transformed into a Colosseum).
At the same time science fiction peplum, political dystopia and Shakespearean tragedy, the first film of the filmmaker of the Godfather since 2011 stars Adam Driver in the role of a brilliant architect named César Catilina. Winner of a Nobel Prize thanks to his invention of megalon, a material with revolutionary properties, Caesar recites Hamlettalks a lot, drinks even more in his apartment at the top of the Chrysler Building and seems to get himself confused in his muddy aphorisms.
His mistress (Aubrey Plaza) is an archetypal diamond digger, his uncle (Jon Voight), an easily influenced billionaire, his greedy cousin (Shia LaBeouf) is morbidly jealous, his mother (Talia Shire, sister of the filmmaker) is angry with him, Mayor of New Rome, Francis Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito), hates him, and the mayor’s daughter, jet-setter Julia (Nathalie Emmanuel), intrigues him.
We do not understand the intentions of this group of characters, sketched in such a caricatured way that it is impossible to become attached to them. Is Caesar a megalomaniac pygmalion, as the mayor describes him, or a utopian who wants ideal living conditions for his fellow citizens? Is Mayor Cicero motivated by the common good or a corrupt elected official? Why does his daughter Julia, presented as a drifting Paris Hilton, suddenly become a monument of wisdom and social conscience?
And what are Jason Schwartzman, the filmmaker’s nephew, or Dustin Hoffman doing in this mess, if not some extra? Despite a second viewing this week, I cannot offer a clear answer to these questions, as Coppola’s senseless scenario seems to change direction with the wind. I almost forgot: Caesar has the power to suspend time with a snap of his fingers. Not that this detail is of any help to the plot.
Grotesque prank
Megalopolisa succession of scenes without much connection or interest, resembles a Roman chariot accident. It is both a cold and cerebral 2 hour 18 minute exercise in human genius and a consummate kitsch satire on consumer society and the cult of celebrity. A party bloated toga which multiplies the insistent nods to Roman mythology and offers bacchanals which ring false.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY LIONSGATE
Aubrey Plaza as Wow Platinum in Megalopolis.
The cartoonish treatment of the staging is closer to the superhero film in style. Batman and Robinof Dick Tracy by Warren Beatty or a theater production filmed on Broadway than any work in Francis Coppola’s filmography.
The venerable 85-year-old filmmaker misuses today’s technological means in the service of a vision of another era. Split screens, dissolves, absolutely ugly special effects. The numerous demonstration scenes look like they were shot on cardboard sets with two dozen extras. One wonders where the tens of millions invested by Coppola have disappeared.
His confused film, without clear direction, is a grotesque farce, in which one would not swear that the humor is always intentional. We can only hope, Coppola being a monument of the seventh art, that this extravagant megalomaniacal enterprise will ultimately become a psychotronic cult success. Because there is no need to say, Megalopolis is so bad that it’s practically a feat.
Science fiction
Megalopolis
Francis Ford Coppola
With Adam Driver, Nathalie Emmanuel, Giancarlo Esposito
2:18 a.m.