Coppola’s Megalopolis Premiere at 2024 Cannes Film Festival
85 year old Italian-American film director, Francis Ford Coppola continues his filmmaking career with the debut of Megalopolis at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival!
The film takes place in a futuristic New York, depicting Adam Driver as Cesar, an ambitious architect who has the ability to start and stop time, aiming to build a “harmonious metropolis.” Since its release, Megalopolis has had a mixed response, with divided critics including Tim Grierson and Bilge Ebiri simultaneously calling it a “disaster” but also “the craziest thing [they’ve] ever seen.”
A central theme illustrated within the film is the protagonist’s obsession with controlling time, illustrating how even the most powerful and visionary men are unable to manipulate the passage of time.
Coppola’s vision for the film was to create a modern American version of a Roman epic, drawing on parallels between both modern American Politics and the fall of the Roman Empire. Highlighting the current political climate and potential threats present in America today, the pertinence of this film has not been overlooked by viewers.
In a further discussion about his film and the political parallels within it, Coppola stated he “had no idea that today’s politics would make [the film’s content] so relevant,” and that the job of the cinematic artist is “to shed light on what’s happening in the world.”
Source(s):
‘Megalopolis’ Premiere Highlights Important Political Themes – La Voce Di New York
Francis Ford Coppola Debuts ‘Megalopolis’ in Cannes – AP News
— Sofie Lumaco
