Francis Ford Coppola's MEGALOPOLIS (2024)

[Thor 9,330]

This is an "event film" that deserves its own thread.

 

It premiered in Cannes yesterday, feedback is very good so far. I'm very excited about this, and just cross my fingers that it gets Norwegian distribution later in the year (or perhaps next year).

 

A couple of photos from the red carpet. Hans Zimmer was there too, with his wife.

 

 

 

The teaser trailer:

 

 

[GerateWohl 6,359]

Comparing the length of Adam Driver's hair between fotograph and trailer, he must have wrapped filming this about two years ago already?

[tomsmoviemadness 4,569]

Funny that you say the feedback is good, because I've seen very mixed things.

Some love and some absolutely hate it.

 

It's very intruiging

[Knight of Ren 1,401]

Yeah, the reactions seem to be quite mixed, and it looks like a "love it or hate" situation. Really looking forward to it, whether is brillain or terrible.

 

Do any of the reviews mention anything about the score? It's from a relatively unknown composer, so I wonder how it will sound like.

[Davis 3,957]

1 hour ago, Thor said:

feedback is very good so far.

 

[Naïve Old Fart 12,475]

I don't care if this is going to tank (obviously, I hope it won't), I want to see it!

 

[A24 4,993]

It would have been a success if Mike Figgis called it "It's Julius Caesar meets Star Wars". Now I fear the worst.

[crocodile 9,480]

Mixed response is not a bad sign necessarily. Some of the greatest films in history were shredded upon release. Sometimes, it simply means someone is trying something odd and execs don't know how to sell it.

 

In other words, this doesn't mean anything at all. Not with a movie like this.

 

Karol

[tomsmoviemadness 4,569]

I've seen multiple people liken it's reception to Babylon. And I really mean only the reception,not the films themselves. People are not sure what to make of the film, while others absolutely love it and say it is groundbreaking.

 

I'm curious to see it

[Edmilson 11,380]

1 hour ago, A24 said:

"It's Julius Caesar meets Star Wars"

Aren't the prequels pretty much a Roman epic in space?

 

[Chen G. 5,680]

44 minutes ago, Edmilson said:

Aren't the prequels pretty much a Roman epic in space?

 

You couldn't ask for a more John Carter scene if you tried:

 

[Mr. Hooper 7,572]

Yeah, it's being called "unmarketable", in the vein of Malick's 'The Tree of Life'. Maybe theatre owners will offer refunds for walkouts like some did for that one.

 

But I'm always interested in viewing an "ambitious failure" from a filmmaker of Coppola's stature...

 

Mildly excited for it.

 

1 hour ago, Edmilson said:

Aren't the prequels pretty much a Roman epic in space?

 

 

It didn't take long for 'Star Wars' to hijack this thread. lol

[Davis 3,957]

The last Coppola

film I really liked was DRACULA, 32 years ago.

[Edmilson 11,380]

21 minutes ago, Mr. Hooper said:

It didn't take long for 'Star Wars' to hijack this thread. lol

It wasn't my fault 

 

[Mr. Hooper 7,572]

21 minutes ago, JTN said:

The last Coppola

film I really liked was DRACULA, 32 years ago.

Critics called it an "ambitious mess" too, as I remember.

 

6 minutes ago, Edmilson said:

It wasn't my fault 

[Davis 3,957]

4 minutes ago, Mr. Hooper said:

Critics called it an "ambitious mess" too, as I remember

It kind of is. But it has Gary Oldman and Anthony Hopkins who make even a mess watchable.

[Mr. Hooper 7,572]

I don't know what's "messy" about it. The storytelling is quite straightforward.

[Davis 3,957]

33 minutes ago, Mr. Hooper said:

I don't know what's "messy" about it.

The blood.

[Mr. Hooper 7,572]

4 minutes ago, JTN said:

The blood.

I bet the help had the hardest time cleaning those sheets.

 

[A24 4,993]

Megalopolis is at 46% at Tomatoes Know Best. 

[Marian Schedenig 11,124]

2 hours ago, Mr. Hooper said:

 

Is that the King Charles portrait?

[Mr. Hooper 7,572]

58 minutes ago, Marian Schedenig said:

 

Is that the King Charles portrait?

Yikes. Now here's a mess...

 

 

 

But I might buy the Star Wars collaboration "King Charles in Carbonite" lithograph.

 

[Marian Schedenig 11,124]

3 hours ago, Mr. Hooper said:

 

8 minutes ago, Mr. Hooper said:

 

[Marian Schedenig 11,124]

3 hours ago, Mr. Hooper said:

 

 

[Andy 6,862]

13 hours ago, JNHFan2000 said:

Funny that you say the feedback is good, because I've seen very mixed things.

Some love and some absolutely hate it.

 

It's very intruiging

 

12 hours ago, Knight of Ren said:

Yeah, the reactions seem to be quite mixed, and it looks like a "love it or hate" situation. Really looking forward to it, whether is brillain or terrible.

 

12 hours ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

I don't care if this is going to tank (obviously, I hope it won't), I want to see it!

 

10 hours ago, crocodile said:

Mixed response is not a bad sign necessarily. Some of the greatest films in history were shredded upon release. Sometimes, it simply means someone is trying something odd and execs don't know how to sell it.

 

In other words, this doesn't mean anything at all. Not with a movie like this.

 

Karol

You guys are freaking me out. For a moment I thought either I time-traveled to one year ago, or I accidentally opened the old thread for the Cannes premiere of Dial of Destiny. 

[mrbellamy 7,820]

3 hours ago, Mr. Hooper said:

 

 

 

[Nick1Ø66 7,602]

IMO, that trailer looks f*cking amazing*.  Psyched for this.

 

That said, this is going to be one of those films that is going to be very good or very bad. 

 

Spoiler

*But WTF do I know. The last trailer I thought looked great was Matrix: Resurrections, and well...

 

[Edmilson 11,380]

9 hours ago, JTN said:

The last Coppola

film I really liked was DRACULA, 32 years ago.

The Variety review also mentions that Dracula was Coppola's "last decent film".

 

https://variety.com/2024/film/reviews/megalopolis-review-francis-ford-coppola-1236005482/

 

And judging by his filmography, then yeah...

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Ford_Coppola_filmography

 

But I have to be honest: I don't really care about Bram Stoker's Dracula either. I know it's probably a great movie and it does have a great Wojciech Kilar. But I am allergic to vampire romance movies due to the fact that I was a teenager at the height of the Twilight craze. I was like "Girls are so dumb! How come they love these horrible movies and even worse books? I don't understand it". 

[Andy 6,862]

Coppola’s Drac was a sublime celebration of the literal illusion cinema offers.  The adaptation and romantic narrative was secondary to the flickering magic tricks. 

[A24 4,993]

3 hours ago, Andy said:

 The adaptation and romantic narrative was secondary to the flickering magic tricks. 

 

That's all I remember. That and Keanu Reeves' 'out of placeness'.

[Davis 3,957]

7 hours ago, Andy said:

You guys are freaking me out. For a moment I thought either I time-traveled to one year ago, or I accidentally opened the old thread for the Cannes premiere of Dial of Destiny. 

 

[Holko 11,828]

5 hours ago, Edmilson said:

But I am allergic to vampire romance movies due to the fact that I was a teenager at the height of the Twilight craze. I was like "Girls are so dumb! How come they love these horrible movies and even worse books? I don't understand it". 

So just because of one stupid entry you're dismissing the whole "genre"?

[Davis 3,957]

7 hours ago, Edmilson said:

But I am allergic to vampire romance movies due to the fact that I was a teenager at the height of the Twilight craze.

DRACULA is nothing like Twilight. It's (Dracula, that is) a gothic horror with the romance of Bram Stoker's original story, hence in the title "Bram Stoker's".

 

Another great vampire film is Neil Jordan's INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE, with a tremendous Elliot Goldenthal score. 

[Trope 1,358]

I would recommend the fantastic 2009 film The Last Vampire on Earth, directed by the esteemed Vitaliy Versace.

[LiterallyIconic 1,563]

.

[Naïve Old Fart 12,475]

Ahem. Guys. Aren't we forgetting the 1979 DRACULA, with that score, by that guy?

[Edmilson 11,380]

10 hours ago, Holko said:

So just because of one stupid entry you're dismissing the whole "genre"?

Yes.

 

8 hours ago, JTN said:

DRACULA is nothing like Twilight. It's (Dracula, that is) a gothic horror with the romance of Bram Stoker's original story, hence in the title "Bram Stoker's".

 

Another great vampire film is Neil Jordan's INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE, with a tremendous Elliot Goldenthal score. 

Oh, I'm sure these are great movies. It's just that thanks to Twilight I really don't care about this genre of "angst gothic vampires falling in love with a virginal woman" etc. Not my thing.

 

But Alexandre Desplat's score to New Moon is REALLY good.

[HunterTech 1,580]

Virginal woman? I'm not convinced you even watched Twilight if that's what pops up in your mind.

 

Well, I suppose it's better than thinking about the legitimate plot point of the wolfman who grooms the rapidly aging vampire child You absolutely will not find that in any of these other movies.

[Edmilson 11,380]

She only loses her virginity on the penultimate film after she marries Edward, before she is as caste as it can be. The franchise was known for defending the Christian viewpoint of only having sex after marriage.

 

But as far as I know this thing about a repressed woman discovering her sexuality after being seduced by a centuries-old tormented vampire didn't start with Twilight.

 

And yeah, not only the whole thing about a werewolf teen falling in love with a newborn baby (!) was not only creepy, off-putting and utterly disgusting but also a horribly lazy way to solve the love triangle.

 

But what can we expect? Stephanie Meyer is a terrible writer and yet her atrocious books made a lot of money and were beloved by a whole generation (my generation) of teenage girls.

[mrbellamy 7,820]

But apparently you read them anyway!

[Mr. Hooper 7,572]

@Edmilson: Allergic to vampire movies because of 'Twilight'.

 

Also @Edmilson: Answers to criticism of 'Twilight', and has the knowledge to back it up.

[HunterTech 1,580]

In fairness, Twilight is a very fascinating train wreck, so hearing others talk about the ways in which it really loses its gourd never fails to be entertaining.

[SyncMan 395]

Portions of Osvaldo Golijov's score for that film--Megalopolis Suite---will make its world premiere with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Riccardo Muti, this November 8th and 9th.

 

https://cso.org/performances/24-25/cso-classical/muti-and-the-cso/

[thestat 497]

Can't wait for this. Not been impressed by Golijov's work so far but the last time Coppola brought in a known-unknown (ie. Kilar), it caused a seismic fracture in Hollywood action music, of all fracking things with everyone from Joel Silver (Demolition Man) to Jerry Bruckheimer (Pirates of the Caribbean) temping their pictures with 'obscure' Polish classical composer wonders:

 

 

[Thor 9,330]

This has nothing to do with MEGALOPOLIS as such, but a moment tonight at Cannes that I found very moving -- Coppola, who was there with his film, presenting George Lucas the honorary award. Can't we just stop being cynical for a moment and just appreciate moments like these? These are ageing icons, gone in not too long a time, but can be appreciated now.

 

 

[LiterallyIconic 1,563]

.

[FBC Director 10,549]

Eccentric billionaires are such sharp dressers.

[Van_Etten 118]

Cannes released a long press kit for the film, which also features Osvaldo Golijov talking about the score.

https://cdn-medias.festival-cannes.com/uploads/2024/05/174074.pdf

[Bayesian 1,575]

4 hours ago, Van_Etten said:

Cannes released a long press kit for the film, which also features Osvaldo Golijov talking about the score.

https://cdn-medias.festival-cannes.com/uploads/2024/05/174074.pdf

Wow, this is pretty neat. I wonder how many other films that screen at Cannes get this treatment. Better than any Wikipedia article that could ever be written about a film. 

[Davis 3,957]

On 25/05/2024 at 8:56 PM, Thor said:

This has nothing to do with MEGALOPOLIS as such, but a moment tonight at Cannes that I found very moving -- Coppola, who was there with his film, presenting George Lucas the honorary award. Can't we just stop being cynical for a moment and just appreciate moments like these? These are ageing icons, gone in not too long a time, but can be appreciated now.

 

 

Indeed. Especially since without Coppola there would be no George Lucas as we know him. He saw Lucas’ talent before anybody else did and gave him shot after shot, believed in him, encouraged him to make whatever film he wanted, and not let any studio tell him what to do or how not to do it. And Lucas never forgot how much he owes his mentor. And, more than 50 years later, here they are together in Cannes, one of them has made yet another film, the other being presented with the biggest honorary award in the movie world. It’s truly remarkable and moving. I just wish Spielberg had been there with them.