Francis Ford Coppola is certainly one of the greats, responsible for films routinely cited as “perfect”, such as Apocalypse Now and the Godfather Parts 1 and 2.
It’s been well publicised at this point that Coppola funded this 120 million dollar film himself, even going as far as selling his vineyard. Routinely rejected by studios, this script evidently meant much to the visionary director, undeterred by the dismissal of bemused studio executives.
Unfortunately, Megalopolis is a confusing, incoherent, and immensely frustrating film. Starring Adam Driver as genius urban planner Cesar Catilina, the film follows his attempts to rescue the city of New Rome from the brink of societal collapse. Somewhere in the plot is also Catilina’s ability to stop time, a mysterious new element called ‘Megalon’, acid trips, a satellite falling from the sky, and more.
Admittedly, I watched the film a week after release, so I knew exactly what to expect. This actually allowed me to thoroughly enjoy the screening, unlike the many who understandably walked out of cinemas. I laughed at unintentionally funny moments, smiled at bizarre visual choices, and stuck with it through baffling and ultimately irrelevant narrative tangents.
It’s truly an admirable effort, which is in large part why I found the film stuck with me. I knew Megalopolis was trying to tell me something, I just couldn’t understand what that was.
And that is, unfortunately, a fatal flaw.
The film was given the subtitle “A Fable” for release, as if the distributors knew audiences would be baffled. It’s almost imploring viewers to try to learn something from the experience, rather than taking the story literally.
But fables have always been succinct stories that teach a basic lesson, which is about as far from Megalopolis as one can get.
That’s not to say it’s all bad. Driver’s performance goes a long way to ground the narrative as far as possible, and the film is visually impressive throughout, with just a few poor visual effects letting it down. The costume department is also firing on all cylinders, seamlessly blending Roman Empire-era attire with Roaring Twenties fashion.
However, my key takeaway ended up not being what Coppola likely intended. Being free from studio executives that care only about what is profitable is great, and it must have been immensely satisfying for Coppola to finally make the film of his dreams. However, being entirely free from constraint has clearly not done the film any favours.
Any test screening could’ve told Coppola that the film fundamentally failed to convey its message, and whilst these studio-mandated screenings are loathed by directors for ‘misunderstanding their vision’, perhaps that’s not always a bad thing.
Ultimately, Coppola lost sight of the point of Megalopolis, which may not have happened if he was bound by what would make money, ergo what audiences would understand.
The restrictions of working within the studio system may be limiting, but, if nothing else, Megalopolis has shown that creativity thrives under constraint, and becomes aimless without it.