I’m really sad that Zoetrope Studio failed. It sounded like Francis Ford Coppola wanted a Hollywood studio to not be run by businessmen, and run solely on creative passion, but ironically he had to be a businessman to keep the studio running.
What’s wild is that if he actually had the money to absorb a couple bombs, the studio probably could’ve made something great and turned a profit. So many innovations are limited by having no runway to see their vision through til it works.
@@kurtwagner350 In addition to that, it is also a matter of managing expenses, not just being a businessman. I mean, think of how Robert Rodriguez made El Mariachi on money out of his pocket, at the time $7000, and then when he was making Desperado, he knew how to make every $ count and stretch the $$. I wish Zoetrope's first films were more like a quarter or less of $25 million.
@@kurtwagner350 actually yes and living proof of that it's studio Laika, every project they make fails commercially again an again but they create true original stop motion art projects but they can keep doing it because the owner is cofounder of Nike so the financing won't ever be a problem as long as that guy is there with Nike's money
@@RavikantRai21490 Fair, ironically Michael Eisner investing in it is kinda interesting. He probably would’ve been the ideal exec type to see something like this through practically while respecting creative control largely. Although he had his faults too.
I'm not an expert on this history, but there seems to be some irony in Coppola and Lucas' relationship: Coppola helped Lucas get started and work more independently, but then Star Wars reframed cinema into moneymaking IPs which limited creative independence for all directors. By substituting studios for franchises, did they become the very thing they hoped to destroy?
Lucas still had creative control over Star Wars until he sold it. He even put the money down for Empire Strikes Back and clearly made the prequels without any studio input (for better or for worse lol), the studio system has always been around, it just changed form.
if Lucus didn't buy up land for ILM then yes they would have recreated what they hated. but we wouldn't have Mythbusters, Doublefine Games, the concept of a point and click game, or wide adoption of video editing software, so on and so forth without ILM. American Zoatrope hired art film students to make art films, there wasn't a future in it
@@AxelGizmoto be fair... those daring personal films weren't doing a great job keeping themselves alive, especially when you had big publicized flops like Heaven's Gate It's more like the genre killed itself and Star Wars handed them the rope
Naïve drivel The average Trump voter thinks that voting for tariffs will lead to less inflation. Some people have to be lead or forced to happiness, as awful as that may sound
@@rupnishadas9814 I think all projects, passion or not, should aspire to SOME semblance of quality instead of subjecting an audience to 2+hours of drivel. Otherwise, don't bother releasing it at all
I get a strong "freedom for me but not for thee" vibe from some of these Coppola anecdotes. Undermining or avoiding unions is a major red flag, for example.
One of the WGA demands they went on strike for was a minimum of 6 writers on a production. Mandating that there be too many cooks in the kitchen. It kind of proved they don't care about the art, just the money. Just like the people they were striking against.
You forgot to mention that Coppola said in interviews that he specifically and purposefully cast certain actors who had been "cancelled" to spite people who were "woke" (his words). (I'm assuming why he hired Shia Lebouf, Jon Voigt, and Dustin Hoffmann). Considering his past friendship with Victor Salva, this doesn't surprise me. I have to take strong issue with the idea that Coppola believes in a "better world for children". Just because he supports teaching children about film, etc... when his friend Victor Salva (aged 27 at the time) r*ped a 12 year old boy repeatedly on set, ON FILM, and was arrested, Coppola hired a high powered defense lawyer for him who got Salva a good deal. When asked in an interview why he did so, Coppola said that Salva and the child were "both just a couple of kids". Again, Salva was a 27 year old man. After Salva got out of his short prison sentence, Coppola produced his film Powder. As a film history buff, I can assume you remember the huge controversy behind the release of that film because of the director. The only reason it was released was thanks to Coppola. So, no, I don't believe anyone like that really cares about children.
I can't get over Adam Driver's face every time you cut to footage of him.. he also looks like he's trying to figure out what the movie he's in is about, or just dissociating through the press tour of a movie he might have enjoyed making but that he knows ultimately didn't turn out "good" or would be something the public would receive well. 😅😅
Coppola reminds me of a stranger who starts to talk to me on a bus. He seem confused that I don't want to hear your personal story that has been in your heart for 40 years.
Sorry, but some humans are just better storytellers than others. FFC is one of them. I could watch the Godfather over and over again. Ditto for Apocalypse Now.
So, you're telling me that Coppola saw Catiline as an outsider - loner - authentic - rebel? Catiline was a part of the establishment. As is Coppola, clearly. They just weren't favoured by the public in that moment. Painting Cicero as the villain, huh, what a nuanced point of view.
@@jonh2798 When people clock that politics and most elites in all industries are that way, the world is going to improve. Seriously, I still see people in 2024 vouching for politicians xD
@@jonh2798 Well Catiline failed and was killed so we don't really know what would have happened. It's the same story with Julius Caesar except for the fact that he had more success before his death. Over 2000 years later and nobody can know for sure what either one of them intended to do had they lived. Lucius Sulla gave up the dictatorship when Caesar was a child after he felt he had imposed enough reforms, did Caesar intend to do the same? Maybe, maybe not.
@@kevintanza6968 well, one is middle of the road politian and other is open fucking fascist with cult of psychos who suck up to foreign powers. Yeah, I do vouching for one who is mentally stable.
Having seen the film myself (fun fact, it was the only movie I can think of in which I saw people walk out), and I gotta say... I clicked on this video the moment I saw it, because "how it was made" had to be more interesting than the film itself.
If he is smart he’d immediately begin production using any behind the scenes footage he has on a documentary about how this movie was made and what went wrong. That would be an incredible and fascinating movie.
I've recently been re-discovering Ursula Le Guin and her many, VARIOUS, explorations of utopia through multiple stories, and what a strange coincidence too, right as Megalopolis has come along here in the U.S! To me, it feels like Ursula Le Guin is both one of the most well-known but also modern literary trove of imagining Utopias. She may not be contemporary anymore, but she's not a dead philosopher thousands of years old either. Like Coppola, her works also seem to have an earnest yearning for imagining better worlds and encouraging people to really sit down and challenge their beliefs about what kinds of suffering NEEDS to exist, and what a better future could look like for future generations But her works also often emphasize the importance of democracy--there are no benevolent geniuses coming to rescue everyone or to usher in a new age. If there are benevolent geniuses, they are simply a part of the world like any other person, and being able to see themselves only as a part of the world, in no better position to tell others how to live their lives than anyone else, is often what keeps them benevolent. If anything, visionaries who earnestly try to change the world for the better are often characterized as buffoonish and tragic all at once. Everything they try to do always seem to backfire. Every authoritarian improvement they make seem to fix one thing and introduce three new problems that make the world a worse place. Funnily enough, one character from Lathe of Heaven comes to mind listening to the way Coppola is characterized here in this video: Dr. Haber. He genuinely believes in the possibility of a better world, but isn't ever willing enough to truly listen to the life experiences of others to help guide him towards understanding what that world might look like. Instead of making the slow, arduous effort of understanding, he makes assumptions of people, makes assumptions of the world, and continuously tries to improve the world through the limited lens of his own ego. By centering the possibility of a better future with a single 'self', the scope of his world is always limited to his SINGLE narrow understanding of how things SHOULD be. At the same time, the world is always infuriating him by being unpredictable in ways that fall outside of his single understanding. Even when things appear to be working out for him, you zoom out at the bigger picture of the world he's created, and it all seems more constricting, limited, and unimaginative than ever before. I imagine Utopian worlds to be places where EVERYONE has a place, and everyone has a voice. Everyone can be happy, or choose to pursue happiness freely if they wish to. But that's a lot of people of different histories, ideas, perspectives. A place for EVERYONE has to truly be able to understand what everyone needs. But when a world is constructed through visionary purposes, how can that ever be possible? It's why utopian stories made by people who truly believe they've figured it out often contain very few people in them, if you really squint your eyes. The spaces where all the people can truly exist have been taken up by the visionary. So how many kinds of people can truly exist in a world like Megalopolis as well?
Earthly utopia is only reached across a river of blood and nobody has made the journey yet. (We must put our hope in the eternal!) Having said that I do enjoy explorations of utopia, especially to see how they stack up against heaven. What books by Ursula would you recommend first? My only exposure is the Ghibli adaption of Earthsea.
@@benvids If you haven't read The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas yet, start there; if you want a second recommendation, The Left Hand of Darkness is probably her most well-known novel and it's a cornerstone of American science fiction.
“It’s why utopian stories made by people who truly believe they’ve figured it out often contain very few people in them… The spaces where all the people can truly exist have been taken up by the visionary.” So glad to see La Guin brought up! @VultRoos you make an excellent point! You articulate exactly the feeling I had, for instance, while reading The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress by Heinlein, which presents strongly libertarian ideas about what an ideal society would be and how to build it, as exemplified by a stirring revolt for freedom fought by oppressed colonists on the moon. It’s an entertaining and inventive sci fi story for sure, but while so much of the speculation in it feels solid and well considered (resource logistics in space, cultural adaptations to a moon colony environment, etc.), the author seems incredibly naive and smug when addressing most of the sociological and political aspects, IMHO. The main characters, while solidly realized in many ways, have a strong whiff of the ‘my precious OC’ about them (both Gary AND Mary-Sue flavoured), and background characters don’t act like real people in a real society at all. Everyone who will triumph in the end happens to agree with the author’s politics, and anyone who doesn’t is treated as very absurd and not worth characterizing complexly. Literally everyone in the Noble Resistance agrees 100% about how it should be done, because apparently that’s self evident; there’s no dissenting opinions or discipline problems or betrayals in the ranks, just perfect inexplicable unity with no fractures or gradiants. It seems Heinlein wasn’t truly interested in exploring or questioning ideas about revolution, upheaval, and resisting oppression. Rather, he was writing a guide on his vision of a righteous revolution - how HE’D do it, and how he’d do it RIGHT because it would NATURALLY play out that way; every heroic character was used as his mouthpiece, and the effect was just… homogenizing. Which was disappointing as a reader, because the premise he chose is ripe for complexity. Anyways, thanks for this thoughtful commentary and analysis. Clearly it got my gears turning :)
When Paramount canceled the original production of the Last Temptation of Christ, Scorsese went out and made After Hours. A much smaller budget film, tightly shot in a few weeks in lower town Manhattan, After Hours exudes all of the frustration and confusion that Scorsese felt while trying to get his dream to production. Scorsese would eventually go on to film The Last Temptation, with an agreement from Universal that he would also direct Cape Fear. I think it's worth noting the difference between this story and the story of Megaopolis. FFC is an idealist and a dreamer. Certainly qualities to praise and admire. But he lacked that ability to plan for the future, to find compromise in order to accomplish longer term goals. He bet it all on creating his own Hollywood system to film his big budget dream movie, and instead spent decades with it in development hell with only a few more forgettable films released in the time. Scorsese has directed over a dozen major films since the last temptation, which have received numerous accolades.
I think that's even more striking considering that Scorcese's Silence (which also had Adam Driver!) also had a long and winding road before being made.
The only reason money doesn't matter to him TODAY is because he made enough money selling part of his winery business so that he could lose hundreds of millions of dollars. Before he was in such a luxurious position, he sure as hell cared about money. And so do I, and so does everyone I know. I'm not impressed or inspired by Coppola's supposed indifference to losing large amounts of money on a passion project, because he only has the privilege of such indifference because he's finally independently wealthy. Why should I care about that? So Francis Ford Coppola has enough money that he can piss away large amounts of it a movie very few people will see and even fewer will like. So what?
Yeah it's super weird to hear people defend this movie not on any merit of the movie but because of how much money it squandered recklessly and how troubled the production was. Reminds me of the discourse aroy waterworld but at least that movie was just a mediocre popcorn action flick instead of insultingly boring.
@@timhorton8085I think the leading revenue stream of your nation is manufacturing situations in which you can tell people no you don’t get it or you would be agreeing with me that’s probably why you dove headfirst into competing with LA for film shoots
K but he been saying tha same thing over & over again throughout tha last 50 years, even when he was broke & bankrupt af & quasi-blacklisted from tha industry for being a flopmaker 🙄🙄🙄 ur post reeks of class resentment lmao
I saw this in an arthouse cinema in Berlin, and about half the theater walked out before the end. If the audience at an arthouse cinema in Berlin is bored/bothered by a film, you KNOW there must be something wrong with the movie.
@@unfurlinglotusflower6939 can you please confirm people also laughed when driver said "going out to the cluurrrbbbss" because I saw that clip out of context from the film and ngl shits pretty funny
Great video! All that footage of him surrounding himself/his fictional stand-in with children.. Coppola's vision of himself as some kind of patron of young artists, guiding children to embrace their artistic voices, is kind of hilarious in the context of his repeated defense of Victor Salva.
@JamesBrown-gv1vg coppola said it was intentional to cast some people affected by cancel culture. And idk the details of their romantic history but I'm aware Shia has a baby nowadays. He has mouths to feed! & Acting is his trade.
@@Zoe-pv8zh Mia seems to be doing perfectly fine as the breadwinner in that household, he's admitted to what he did, you don't get to put another human being through what he put Tahlia through & go straight back into the limelight afterwards. I can't even fathom what statement Coppola thinks he's making by casting LaBeouf in his film.
While being a member of the most elevated & protected group of citizens in history. The Progressive and New Deal fixes of the Past are all they've known. As a rich man, those advantages are even more. Fly private jet? The Government makes that possible and spends a lot of money to do so , not to mention all the war required for its development. The ignorance and arrogance of going Randian when
Seeing clips from 'One from the Heart' for the first time is crazy; would have thought that it could have been made this year - absolutely gorgeous stuff.
That's probably its strongest redeemable quality. The performances are okay (outside of the singing). I'd say it's not as bad as its reputation, but it's not a great watch.
Well it was kind of made this year; apparently "Joker 2" took inspiration from ''One from the Heart" (and both movies happened to bomb at the box office).
It’s funny that you included the “how often do you think about the Roman Empire” clip because he actually did one of those videos before the release and said how much of an influence that period was for the film. You wouldn’t have even had to edit his face onto it.
I think Coppola's attempt to make his own studio was more about giving him control, not some utopian artistic vision. He doesn't like studios controlling him, but he clearly loves being the one in control on the set. In other words I think it is selfishness not selflessness that is the origin of his philosophy.
Here we are commenting on a digital platform in a near infinite sea of opinions, about a guy doing it. Trusting his vision as he has always done. Controlling/uncompromising. Putting his own money on the line to make a statement to the world at large, for himself? Only so far as one of the stages of man, like planting a tree for future generations
Megalopolis should have been a ballet or a Cirque du Soleil show. This story is too broad to be a compelling movie, but it might have worked visually in a medium without dialogue.
Ooh, good parallel. It's also different in that while Megalopolis seems to suggest that men are capable of making a utopia, BioShock... laughs at that.
I would describe this film as if Ayn Rand finally sat down to write Atlas Shrugged but took acid and watched Gladiator and then someone gave her 150 million dollars to produce it.
ok, i thought i was crazy for thinking that i had heard about this movie for my whole life. 5 seconds in, you show me an interview from 1997, the year i was born. this video was the right choice. thank you for your time.
The best way I can describe watching this movie is that it's similar to watching bad Shakespeare. Like I get what you're trying to do but you're doing all the worst possible ways.
A couple thoughts keep coming up: I was at one of the test screenings of One from the Heart, and filled out the multi page survey. It was a very lovely film that was too long, and the people at the center were kinda boring characters (that's hard to do with Teri Garr, but he did it). People did not walk out, and the finished film isn't much different (just shorter). A big film needs a plan; it needs a structure to support the multitude that work on it. Improvisation is hard on that scale (I think the documentary about Apocalypse Now underlines that issue). If Coppola really wanted total freedom, he could make smaller films and control more of the production. It's funny now that with the CGI and digital distribution eliminating two of his difficulties (physical reality and actual film production expense), his masterpiece isn't getting the word of mouth it should.
It seems like it would be a refuge from the endless sea of lame super hero films. A place where people could experiment and succeed or fail. I love art that tries, even if it does miss the mark.
I feel like A24 has really picked up the torch here in many ways, I get that a director-owned studio would be quite different, but it's definitely living in that space!
@@Alan.livingstonI am so completely sick of comic book movies. 🤮 I was really hoping that after Oppenheimer was so successful, we would finally get something different.
I had actually been dreaming of starting an extremely similar studio myself (many years from now, lol) im a little shaken to learn that something very close to my dream not only already happened but already failed, but it won't stop me from giving it a go one day!
There's something funny about Adam Driver being the protagonist of two films that were in development for decades which ended up being pretty meh to bad.
@@timelessdays Oh, I see. Gilliam's movie is mid. Interesting how Adam Driver has been a part of a total of 10 film projects by auteurs that went through development hell before coming out. Guess he's a lucky charm.
Hearing actors and actresses talk about how great a director is is never a truthful portrait of them. Because, after all, what are they going to say? Ask the electrician, the hairdresser and the cleaning lady and let they inform you. I bet that their experiences differ greatly from the teacher's pet one.
For decades people failed to do this regarding to Ellen Degeneres, all while she was branding herself as the “queen of nice” and Hollywood writers were comparing her to Mr. Rogers.
The problem with a movie that was conceived over 25 years ago is that it will undoubtedly feel dated no matter how many rewrites. Especially one written by a man who experienced his greatest highs in the 70s. Artists like Coppola have been told for so long how genius they are…they can no longer make something truly universal because they’ve become so isolated by their status, they have no idea how to relate to “regular people” - not even getting into the obvious misogyny that was rampant in the 70s. (also…How can you sue a publication for libel for publishing a video?!)
I think Coppola is a pretty humble guy. His depiction of “genius” in Megalopolis is silly but he normally talks about the greatness of other filmmakers and he said the highlight of his life was making wine and movie and watching his daughter win an Oscar. His movies have become more experimental and personal for decades and Megalopolis feels like the natural progression of that. And he sued them for publishing a video that was framed as something it was not. The woman in the video even said the shoot was a great experience and Variety publishing the video was a breach of privacy since it was supposed to be a closed set.
So true. Think how much society has changed since the early 1980s? His critiques of society then, however valid, won’t hit the same today. They are also the critiques of a successful white man living in Los Angeles; hate to break it to you buddy, but your audience has hear A LOT of societal critiques by successful white men living in Los Angeles in the last 40 years. The only thing more over-done than remakes and sequels is hot takes by rich white guys. Today’s audience isn’t going to see Adam Driver as the ultimate victim of the elites because he’s not allowed to make his massive skyscrapers without the changes his employers want.
What was so dated about the film? There is nothing new under the sun and Everything that has happened will all happen once again, what one generation calls their own is nothing more than a reflection of the pasts.
I'm halfway through the video but I can't believe Coppola didn't keep shotting in New York as the attacks happened. Not for Megalopolis, but if he had 30 hours of poetic New York footage shot right up to a world changing events he could have shown the changes in the city in a truly poetic way, from the perspective of architecture and the histories of buildings. I feel like he accidentally stumbled onto a possible masterpiece outside his wheelhouse and didn't take the opportunity
Oh my god, listening to Francis Ford Coppolla talk for the first time... the stream of consciousness rambles... the intentional disregard for any sort of planning or forethought. Goddamnit. That's my dad.
As soon as I heard the idea for Zoetrope being this place where artists are first and have the freedom to do what they want my thought was "OK great, but what if the artists are bad?". It sounds very romantic and nice in theory, but in practice, there are a lot of artists out there of highly variable abilities, and even good ones often have bad instincts when there's nobody to give them a reality check on what they're doing.
Art made just for business is bad. Art made just to satisfy your own ego is also bad. The best pieces of art usually have a healthy balance between both elements. Coppola has done it but most artists don't grasp this concept. Because most business people don't understand art and most artists don't understand business. As a writer, I tend to feel more connection with the writers. But I'm grateful that I started accounting in college because it makes me understand the value and understanding of finances and business. Most artists, like the ones in Zoetrope, live in a bubble where they want an ideal world where they can churn out crap and live happily ever after. That's not how the world works and is never going to work that way. Unless you do it for free (and if so, more power to you, go for it).
There's something inspiring in watching someone strive to be creatively unchained through his whole life. There's also something kind of ironic about a creative person who "struggles" through "bankruptcies" where he's also filming huge productions, starting a winery, and eventually is able to make a totally personal, nonsensical multi hundred million production just because of his own personal demons. In the US, once you achieve a certain state of wealth and fame, you're allowed to do almost anything.
The 2001 New York footage was indeed extensively used in the movie. I was wondering why some of the shots had the same lens and sensor aberrations as the footage from Attack Of The Clones. It’s because it was shot on the same cameras and lenses.
I disliked Megalopolis. I scoffed and laughed at the absurdity of a lot of the scenes. I even checked the time at multiple points because of how impatient I was getting towards the end of the film. I said to my friends afterwards that I'd never want to watch it again. But I didn't HATE it. I think the passion poured into the film can be recognized at every point, which on some level I can admire. There were several times I thought about how much I enjoyed the visuals (even though I was initially very overwhelmed by them for the first thirty minutes. I couldnt process what anyone was saying) and I genuinely loved the sound design. At the very least, it's was definitely an experience that stuck with me.
Aubrey Plaza is truly living it up for the plot right now, she’s a gay witch, she’s living with Patti Lapone, she’s being weird in a Coppola. I hope her middle school vice principal she used to follow home in a box is proud.
Seeing her in theater for megalopolis then seeing her again not even hours later when i decided to watch agatha all along on a whim with zero idea of the plot was a real treat. Happy for her
It's kind of sad that this will likely be his final movie. Wasting all that money on an idea which has been in development for so long and still not having a coherent or compelling story to tell at the end of it.
34:30 - Coppola and Werner Herzog couldn't be more polar opposite in how they shoot film. Coppola lets the sculpture emerge from the marble; Herzog knows exactly what he wants to make and only makes that, no more.
Coppola had and still has a fantastic vision for artists and creators, but as history has shown time and time again, artists and visionaries tend to need a business man that believes in that vision, but is aware that in order to make art for a living bills need to get paid, and income has to come from somewhere. It's also ironic that "his generation" of filmmakers brought about the state of cinema today, because the idea of the [blockbuster] was created by his generation of filmmakers, some of which were his personal friends.
It's funny, for a director that fancies himself an actor's director more so than a visually enthusiastic filmmaker, he has made some of the most visually nuanced films of the last century. Even Dracula contains a lot of visual flourish that goes unnoticed by most.
It's fascinating how different Coppola's and George Lucas' path through hollywood ended up being. Both refused to be bound by the will of execs and suits. One did, but shifted the industry in a way that The Other wasn't able to outrun till he was in his 80's. I hope he really made what had been on his mind all those years
After watching this video and seeing the movie, I feel the true importance of movies and art is the preservation of hope and optimism. The movies is where you can make and see the happy endings that do not exist in the real world.
The problem with vanity projects is that they’re typically created by old men who wield tremendous power and influence over those around them, and that power imbalance not only ruins the project, it makes the lives of those involved (the crew, the cast, the viewers) worse, whether catastrophically or incrementally, but always worse.
I don't get it why Copolla didn't see the similarity with the Godfather and 80s Blockbusters. The Godfather is a book, a movie franchise, a soundtrack, a videogame, etc.
Because he made the Godfather so its different. He's not the greedy one who made a blockbuster and gets mad when others make even bigger movies with lasers and sharks.
@@samuelglover7685 See, I wouldn't have a problem with him making that third film for money, even if it was bad, if he didn't talk a big game about artistic integrity. He avoided making a third Godfather film for years until he needed the money. That's on him.
@@iago9711 Bioshock Infinite was critically praised, made a ton of money, and is on plenty of lists as one of the best video games ever made. You're definitely in the tiny minority of people who think it's anything remotely resembling bad. Not really comparable to a movie like this which is extremely divisive on release and a massive box office bomb.
I really wanted to like this movie, and the theme that we must have a societal discussion about utopia resonates with me, but I believe the movie is ultimately harmful to that end. Cultural unity and people power are portrayed only in its most negative light as demagoguery. The movie does not even try to address capitalism. It's obvious that Catalina is Coppola's self-insert, and Catalina explicitly confirms that he is a sociopathic megalomaniac. Julia mostly exists in the movie to be the "muse" that inspires Catalina's mania and creative genius. Catalina's success at the film's resolution supports the narrative that toxic men with these qualities should be forgiven and enabled to do as they like because then it will result in a nebulous "good" that outweighs their toxicity. It makes one wonder: What things has Coppola done that he's justified using this extremely common delusion? It's clear that Coppola's specific delusion is that aspiring for utopia is a virtue in and of itself. It makes you a good person intrinsically. The movie ends with Catalina being given all the money and power in New Rome to create without limits or oversight. That's exactly what he has stated he wants for himself in multiple interviews. That is Coppola's fundamentally flawed answer for how we achieve Utopia. The reason it is so fundamentally flawed in the first place is because he had to mold it around his over 40 years worth of his rationalizations for why he believes it is actually a good thing overall that he is a sociopathic megalomaniac creative genius. He believes that's why he should be given what he wants. The movie says a lot about the kind of person that Coppola is and how little perspective on the world he has. Coppola pretends to ask of us to strive for Utopia , but what he's really asking of us is to agree with his very personal delusions.
I believe Adam Driver is playing Adam from Girls playing Cesar Catalina. The choices he makes like "in da club" and all the physical stuff, it's all So Adam (Girls).
So, after such a long and well-researched video, I wondered how I would summarize it, and all it came to mind was something along the lines of: "A rich privileged man throws a tantrum after no longer being praised. And, instead of reflect on his own failures and learn a lesson, links himself to some historical figure in a self-congratulatory tour de force. Then, proceeds to narrate the story of such figure, but in modern age, only to pat his own self-indulgent ego. "You're a star and, if someone doesn't agree, it is because they're unable to comprehend YOU", whispers a voice in his ear. Dear lord, what a mess. I'm even surprised the main character isn't called something like "Coppolo".
HA! Hmm I mean I don’t think Megalopolis self-congratulatory so much as it is wish fulfillment (thematically and literally). He doesn’t write Cesar as flawless, which I think is important to note. It’s probably fair to call it an ego thing, but I personally have a lot of empathy for needing to express through art the frustration of having your dream blow up so publicly and fantastically…especially since I think his mission to found an artist-forward studio was a good one ultimately, even if he was incapable of seeing it through.
I was only told this movie existed after it had come out and, on paper, “the Catilina conspiracy reimagined in a futuristic New York with Catilina as the protagonist” sounds a movie tailor made for me. I’m horrified to learn that Coppola doesn’t understand Catilina at all. A movie about him and the conspiracy could’ve been a chilling commentary on capitalism and the political landscape of today, but I guess we have to wait another 30 years for a director who is not out of touch to take a stab at it
I think in giving Cicero the first name Francis, he was sort of implying that Coppola himself was the one stuck in his ways and that at the end he was opening himself up to a new way of doing things and leaving it open to future generations
This is why I always suggest Iain M Banks "Culture" novels. They depict a true Utopian society and explore the implications therein while also being fun sci fi adventures.
Fun fact; that NY 2nd unit footage shot during the 2000s scrapped after 9/11 was shot by DP Ron Fricke, the cinematographer of Koyanisquatsi (which Coppola and George Lucas produced).
watching this on Nebula and hearing Coppola's first note on Catilina, I can't help but think that Adam Sandler beat him to the punch by 5 years here with Uncut Gems, AND did it much, much better by having an unvarnished view of his protagonist.
I’m an artist. Convincing someone to stop doing what they love is pointless. Unfortunately their filmography has declined but directors have bad runs all the time, young or old.
@@jennymcelligottYeah I feel like we tend to give our contemporaries less grace than we do earlier filmmakers. Cannot imagine telling someone like Fassbinder to stop making films, best to let them do whatever they want and just be happy they *could* do it.
This video really made me want to go see it for myself but I'd have to drive over an hour to maybe find a theater still playing in my area. Great video.
I will not pay to watch this movie. This man blackballed a child actor that outed victor salva of powder and jeepers creepers fame. He was more worried about his friend than the child that got raped. I hate that I love some of his movies and will watch any that I already own but I will not support him.
And he cast some quite problematic men in this movie as well. Deliberately, making a point of it. None of those performances are discussed in this video--a deliberate choice from our host here? In the event, Jon Voight is forgettable and Dustin Hoffman's part very small. Shia LaBouef, though, is having more fun than anyone else in the movie, even Aubrey Plaza. Coppola has framed these castings as some sort of necessary--even utopian--kumbaya gesture. But you can't have a kumbaya if there's never been any accountability. And there hasn't. (Yes, I saw it. Hurray for hoping for utopia, I guess, but Coppola asks no hard questions. None. It's just, the vague will of a supposed great man is all utopia takes, perhaps with the love of a good woman. That kind of baloney is just depressing; what a thing to sink your whole life into! Some cool visuals though.)
I made it through about 25 minutes before I couldn’t take it anymore. I can count on one hand the number of times I had to bail out of a major film. The entire tone felt like someone was secretly filming an amateur improv actor’s workshop. Around 10 minutes in Dustin Hoffman appears, and if someone didn’t know better they might think he had never acted a day in his life. I’ll have to force myself to sit back down and get through it just once, but woof…
I've decided to pause this video at 41:45 and add it to my "Watch Later" list, saving the review portion for after I've watched the movie again. Thanks for establishing the context surrounding it, including many aspects I was unfamiliar with before I watched it the first time!
I cannot wait to watch this when I'm home. I saw this high with a friend last Saturday and her and I were talking about how we lowkey had fun with how bizarre this movie was. Eggsited to hear your thoughts
Forget all that. I wanna know when in these 40 years he came up with the lines "Riches of my Emersonian mind" and "In the cleeerrrrb" and what was he on when he came up with them.
The issue here is one of imbalance, and we're seeing it from both sides. On FFC's end, he became so focused on the artistic aspect that he assumed others would naturally see his film, and by extension the world, the same way he did. This led to a narrow vision that only he could fully understand. On the flip side, there's a massive number of business people making creative decisions that should really be left to artists. As a result, movies and TV shows are increasingly driven by checklists, with the story becoming more of an afterthought. What’s really needed is a balance between the head (the business side) and the heart (the artistic side). The first sci-fi film, Metropolis, explored this very concept, and you’d think that after a hundred years, we’d take it more seriously by now. I get FFC’s frustration with the business side, but I also understand why executives are hesitant to pour huge sums of money into productions without being sure they’ll see a return. It almost feels like a permanent game of chicken, where one side is waiting for the other to blink first... ignoring the damage being cause around them.
This review is 1,000 times better than the movie itself. Megalopolis is excruciatingly bad. I could only make it about half way through before I just couldn't take it anymore.
Maybe the real Megalopolis was the studios we bankrupted along the way ❤
OMG, that's so good.
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
Respectfully, S T F U.
😎
😂
I’m really sad that Zoetrope Studio failed. It sounded like Francis Ford Coppola wanted a Hollywood studio to not be run by businessmen, and run solely on creative passion, but ironically he had to be a businessman to keep the studio running.
What’s wild is that if he actually had the money to absorb a couple bombs, the studio probably could’ve made something great and turned a profit. So many innovations are limited by having no runway to see their vision through til it works.
@@kurtwagner350 In addition to that, it is also a matter of managing expenses, not just being a businessman. I mean, think of how Robert Rodriguez made El Mariachi on money out of his pocket, at the time $7000, and then when he was making Desperado, he knew how to make every $ count and stretch the $$. I wish Zoetrope's first films were more like a quarter or less of $25 million.
It killed Ronnie Rocket and Tourist
@@kurtwagner350 actually yes and living proof of that it's studio Laika, every project they make fails commercially again an again but they create true original stop motion art projects but they can keep doing it because the owner is cofounder of Nike so the financing won't ever be a problem as long as that guy is there with Nike's money
@@RavikantRai21490 Fair, ironically Michael Eisner investing in it is kinda interesting. He probably would’ve been the ideal exec type to see something like this through practically while respecting creative control largely. Although he had his faults too.
"The Godfather led to the creation of High School Musical" is now my favorite factoid to tell people
Right next to 9/11 being responsible for 50 shades of grey
@@degeneratemale5386 And how the assassination of Franz Ferdinand led to hentai.
How do you know?
@@maddalonefarms
watch the video?
It’s like how _ReBoot_ did a _Mad Max_ parody episode (“Bad Bob”) and seeing that people were still interested spurred the creation of _Fury Road._
I'm not an expert on this history, but there seems to be some irony in Coppola and Lucas' relationship: Coppola helped Lucas get started and work more independently, but then Star Wars reframed cinema into moneymaking IPs which limited creative independence for all directors. By substituting studios for franchises, did they become the very thing they hoped to destroy?
Lucas still had creative control over Star Wars until he sold it. He even put the money down for Empire Strikes Back and clearly made the prequels without any studio input (for better or for worse lol), the studio system has always been around, it just changed form.
THANK YOU!
Star Wars marked the beginning of the end of diverse, daring, personal big cinema.
if Lucus didn't buy up land for ILM then yes they would have recreated what they hated. but we wouldn't have Mythbusters, Doublefine Games, the concept of a point and click game, or wide adoption of video editing software, so on and so forth without ILM. American Zoatrope hired art film students to make art films, there wasn't a future in it
@@AxelGizmoto be fair... those daring personal films weren't doing a great job keeping themselves alive, especially when you had big publicized flops like Heaven's Gate
It's more like the genre killed itself and Star Wars handed them the rope
"Bold yet fatally flawed" is one of my favorite classes of film. I can forgive a lot of "bad" movies, but boring is the worst cinematic sin imo.
Amen to this
"Superior but flawed." From the TV show "Thirty-Something."
Well, unfortunately I found Megalopolis to be extremely boring. It was a chore to get through.
Yeah, Megaflop is infamously boring, so it's not an either/or.
Did u learn that quote at "film school" ?
Terry Pratchet said it best. "You can't build paradise for someone else. They have to build it themselves or it's just a prison"
That’s a damn good quote!
Where is this quote from? Love it
@@glimmer_twin err, book 12 of the discworld series
Pratchett is an unlimited gold mine of quotes
Naïve drivel
The average Trump voter thinks that voting for tariffs will lead to less inflation. Some people have to be lead or forced to happiness, as awful as that may sound
I am so fascinated by passion projects gone badly. So many times you see it coming and the creator doesn't to make it better
How has it gone badly ? The film is here
@@iammraat3059Critically and financially.
@@iammraat3059 exactly!
Imo thats how a passion project should be. It’s something made for the artist and whether it is widely loved or not.
@@rupnishadas9814 I think all projects, passion or not, should aspire to SOME semblance of quality instead of subjecting an audience to 2+hours of drivel. Otherwise, don't bother releasing it at all
I get a strong "freedom for me but not for thee" vibe from some of these Coppola anecdotes. Undermining or avoiding unions is a major red flag, for example.
Totally agree. He wants no restrictions and all the freedom but is tyrannical in many situations.
It just sounds like libertarianism
One of the WGA demands they went on strike for was a minimum of 6 writers on a production. Mandating that there be too many cooks in the kitchen. It kind of proved they don't care about the art, just the money. Just like the people they were striking against.
Nah, unions suck because they have legal privileges they absolutely shouldn't have.
@@MakerInMotion Tell me you don't know how productions get made without telling me you don't know how productions get made.
You forgot to mention that Coppola said in interviews that he specifically and purposefully cast certain actors who had been "cancelled" to spite people who were "woke" (his words). (I'm assuming why he hired Shia Lebouf, Jon Voigt, and Dustin Hoffmann). Considering his past friendship with Victor Salva, this doesn't surprise me. I have to take strong issue with the idea that Coppola believes in a "better world for children". Just because he supports teaching children about film, etc... when his friend Victor Salva (aged 27 at the time) r*ped a 12 year old boy repeatedly on set, ON FILM, and was arrested, Coppola hired a high powered defense lawyer for him who got Salva a good deal. When asked in an interview why he did so, Coppola said that Salva and the child were "both just a couple of kids". Again, Salva was a 27 year old man. After Salva got out of his short prison sentence, Coppola produced his film Powder. As a film history buff, I can assume you remember the huge controversy behind the release of that film because of the director. The only reason it was released was thanks to Coppola. So, no, I don't believe anyone like that really cares about children.
Yes. Thank you. This always gets somehow (?!) lost when covering Coppola.
Coppola is a hypocritical PoS, yup. He very obviously is an Atlas Shrugged/Ayn Rand d-rider.
Thank you. Everyone else here is kissing his ass.
how does the salva thing explain him not being woke? woke people are usually more likely to support someone like salva.
I can't get over Adam Driver's face every time you cut to footage of him.. he also looks like he's trying to figure out what the movie he's in is about, or just dissociating through the press tour of a movie he might have enjoyed making but that he knows ultimately didn't turn out "good" or would be something the public would receive well. 😅😅
that's just his face, sir
@@CATDHD ye but its a weird face
@@vonhumboldt1985what do you want him to do, fix it?
Adam Driver famously hates watching himself and avoids it.
Coppola reminds me of a stranger who starts to talk to me on a bus. He seem confused that I don't want to hear your personal story that has been in your heart for 40 years.
Forrest Gump if that bus stop had been in the real world
Sorry, but some humans are just better storytellers than others. FFC is one of them. I could watch the Godfather over and over again. Ditto for Apocalypse Now.
You're describing every well-educated contemporary artist. You're also describing any person above 60 years old who gets on a bus. Keep at it tho.
Someday that will be you. be kind
@@allenzelt4481 Unironically the best answer here.
So, you're telling me that Coppola saw Catiline as an outsider - loner - authentic - rebel? Catiline was a part of the establishment. As is Coppola, clearly. They just weren't favoured by the public in that moment.
Painting Cicero as the villain, huh, what a nuanced point of view.
Catalina fought against the establishment
@@Lgx-ie4ifpart of the establishment, fighting against the establishment, to make himself the establishment
@@jonh2798 When people clock that politics and most elites in all industries are that way, the world is going to improve. Seriously, I still see people in 2024 vouching for politicians xD
@@jonh2798 Well Catiline failed and was killed so we don't really know what would have happened. It's the same story with Julius Caesar except for the fact that he had more success before his death. Over 2000 years later and nobody can know for sure what either one of them intended to do had they lived. Lucius Sulla gave up the dictatorship when Caesar was a child after he felt he had imposed enough reforms, did Caesar intend to do the same? Maybe, maybe not.
@@kevintanza6968 well, one is middle of the road politian and other is open fucking fascist with cult of psychos who suck up to foreign powers. Yeah, I do vouching for one who is mentally stable.
Having seen the film myself (fun fact, it was the only movie I can think of in which I saw people walk out), and I gotta say... I clicked on this video the moment I saw it, because "how it was made" had to be more interesting than the film itself.
If he is smart he’d immediately begin production using any behind the scenes footage he has on a documentary about how this movie was made and what went wrong. That would be an incredible and fascinating movie.
This reminds me of that episode of Community where they’re talking about how Hearts of Darkness is way better than Apocalypse Now 😂
I've recently been re-discovering Ursula Le Guin and her many, VARIOUS, explorations of utopia through multiple stories, and what a strange coincidence too, right as Megalopolis has come along here in the U.S! To me, it feels like Ursula Le Guin is both one of the most well-known but also modern literary trove of imagining Utopias. She may not be contemporary anymore, but she's not a dead philosopher thousands of years old either. Like Coppola, her works also seem to have an earnest yearning for imagining better worlds and encouraging people to really sit down and challenge their beliefs about what kinds of suffering NEEDS to exist, and what a better future could look like for future generations
But her works also often emphasize the importance of democracy--there are no benevolent geniuses coming to rescue everyone or to usher in a new age. If there are benevolent geniuses, they are simply a part of the world like any other person, and being able to see themselves only as a part of the world, in no better position to tell others how to live their lives than anyone else, is often what keeps them benevolent. If anything, visionaries who earnestly try to change the world for the better are often characterized as buffoonish and tragic all at once. Everything they try to do always seem to backfire. Every authoritarian improvement they make seem to fix one thing and introduce three new problems that make the world a worse place.
Funnily enough, one character from Lathe of Heaven comes to mind listening to the way Coppola is characterized here in this video: Dr. Haber. He genuinely believes in the possibility of a better world, but isn't ever willing enough to truly listen to the life experiences of others to help guide him towards understanding what that world might look like. Instead of making the slow, arduous effort of understanding, he makes assumptions of people, makes assumptions of the world, and continuously tries to improve the world through the limited lens of his own ego. By centering the possibility of a better future with a single 'self', the scope of his world is always limited to his SINGLE narrow understanding of how things SHOULD be. At the same time, the world is always infuriating him by being unpredictable in ways that fall outside of his single understanding. Even when things appear to be working out for him, you zoom out at the bigger picture of the world he's created, and it all seems more constricting, limited, and unimaginative than ever before.
I imagine Utopian worlds to be places where EVERYONE has a place, and everyone has a voice. Everyone can be happy, or choose to pursue happiness freely if they wish to. But that's a lot of people of different histories, ideas, perspectives. A place for EVERYONE has to truly be able to understand what everyone needs. But when a world is constructed through visionary purposes, how can that ever be possible? It's why utopian stories made by people who truly believe they've figured it out often contain very few people in them, if you really squint your eyes. The spaces where all the people can truly exist have been taken up by the visionary. So how many kinds of people can truly exist in a world like Megalopolis as well?
LATHE OF HEAVEN MENTIONED 🗣🗣🗣 WHAT IF ALL WE HAVE IS MEANS
(Le Guin is FANTASTIC and LoH is one of my favorites)
Thanks for writing this
Earthly utopia is only reached across a river of blood and nobody has made the journey yet. (We must put our hope in the eternal!) Having said that I do enjoy explorations of utopia, especially to see how they stack up against heaven.
What books by Ursula would you recommend first? My only exposure is the Ghibli adaption of Earthsea.
@@benvids If you haven't read The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas yet, start there; if you want a second recommendation, The Left Hand of Darkness is probably her most well-known novel and it's a cornerstone of American science fiction.
“It’s why utopian stories made by people who truly believe they’ve figured it out often contain very few people in them… The spaces where all the people can truly exist have been taken up by the visionary.”
So glad to see La Guin brought up! @VultRoos you make an excellent point! You articulate exactly the feeling I had, for instance, while reading The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress by Heinlein, which presents strongly libertarian ideas about what an ideal society would be and how to build it, as exemplified by a stirring revolt for freedom fought by oppressed colonists on the moon.
It’s an entertaining and inventive sci fi story for sure, but while so much of the speculation in it feels solid and well considered (resource logistics in space, cultural adaptations to a moon colony environment, etc.), the author seems incredibly naive and smug when addressing most of the sociological and political aspects, IMHO.
The main characters, while solidly realized in many ways, have a strong whiff of the ‘my precious OC’ about them (both Gary AND Mary-Sue flavoured), and background characters don’t act like real people in a real society at all. Everyone who will triumph in the end happens to agree with the author’s politics, and anyone who doesn’t is treated as very absurd and not worth characterizing complexly. Literally everyone in the Noble Resistance agrees 100% about how it should be done, because apparently that’s self evident; there’s no dissenting opinions or discipline problems or betrayals in the ranks, just perfect inexplicable unity with no fractures or gradiants.
It seems Heinlein wasn’t truly interested in exploring or questioning ideas about revolution, upheaval, and resisting oppression. Rather, he was writing a guide on his vision of a righteous revolution - how HE’D do it, and how he’d do it RIGHT because it would NATURALLY play out that way; every heroic character was used as his mouthpiece, and the effect was just… homogenizing. Which was disappointing as a reader, because the premise he chose is ripe for complexity.
Anyways, thanks for this thoughtful commentary and analysis. Clearly it got my gears turning :)
When Paramount canceled the original production of the Last Temptation of Christ, Scorsese went out and made After Hours. A much smaller budget film, tightly shot in a few weeks in lower town Manhattan, After Hours exudes all of the frustration and confusion that Scorsese felt while trying to get his dream to production. Scorsese would eventually go on to film The Last Temptation, with an agreement from Universal that he would also direct Cape Fear.
I think it's worth noting the difference between this story and the story of Megaopolis. FFC is an idealist and a dreamer. Certainly qualities to praise and admire. But he lacked that ability to plan for the future, to find compromise in order to accomplish longer term goals. He bet it all on creating his own Hollywood system to film his big budget dream movie, and instead spent decades with it in development hell with only a few more forgettable films released in the time. Scorsese has directed over a dozen major films since the last temptation, which have received numerous accolades.
i think 90% if these commenters live in an echo chamber of dullness.
I think that's even more striking considering that Scorcese's Silence (which also had Adam Driver!) also had a long and winding road before being made.
@@nickpetrillo8300nobody likes pretentious jerks
@@nickpetrillo8300yes they barely know Coppola
Omg ❤❤❤
The only reason money doesn't matter to him TODAY is because he made enough money selling part of his winery business so that he could lose hundreds of millions of dollars. Before he was in such a luxurious position, he sure as hell cared about money. And so do I, and so does everyone I know. I'm not impressed or inspired by Coppola's supposed indifference to losing large amounts of money on a passion project, because he only has the privilege of such indifference because he's finally independently wealthy. Why should I care about that? So Francis Ford Coppola has enough money that he can piss away large amounts of it a movie very few people will see and even fewer will like. So what?
Yeah it's super weird to hear people defend this movie not on any merit of the movie but because of how much money it squandered recklessly and how troubled the production was. Reminds me of the discourse aroy waterworld but at least that movie was just a mediocre popcorn action flick instead of insultingly boring.
Grr. Art bad! Me no make monies :
@@timhorton8085I think the leading revenue stream of your nation is manufacturing situations in which you can tell people no you don’t get it or you would be agreeing with me that’s probably why you dove headfirst into competing with LA for film shoots
K but he been saying tha same thing over & over again throughout tha last 50 years, even when he was broke & bankrupt af & quasi-blacklisted from tha industry for being a flopmaker 🙄🙄🙄 ur post reeks of class resentment lmao
@@awnaur0no919 if class is moronic, it deserves resentment .
I saw this in an arthouse cinema in Berlin, and about half the theater walked out before the end. If the audience at an arthouse cinema in Berlin is bored/bothered by a film, you KNOW there must be something wrong with the movie.
I saw it in a cineplex with only 5 people in the theater. No one walked out!
@@JumpingJesus4no one walked out when I saw it Saturday, but people were laughing and it wasn’t intentionally funny,
@@unfurlinglotusflower6939 can you please confirm people also laughed when driver said "going out to the cluurrrbbbss" because I saw that clip out of context from the film and ngl shits pretty funny
@@ranga274 lol yes. The acting was so bad from normally good actors.
@@ranga274 Yes my theater laughed and I have to honestly say it was one of the highlights of the film.
Great video! All that footage of him surrounding himself/his fictional stand-in with children.. Coppola's vision of himself as some kind of patron of young artists, guiding children to embrace their artistic voices, is kind of hilarious in the context of his repeated defense of Victor Salva.
Exactly…it will never make sense
@@bkrewind Yeah, & a certain casting choice in this film was basically a slap in the face to FKA Twigs.☹
@JamesBrown-gv1vg coppola said it was intentional to cast some people affected by cancel culture. And idk the details of their romantic history but I'm aware Shia has a baby nowadays. He has mouths to feed! & Acting is his trade.
@@Zoe-pv8zh Mia seems to be doing perfectly fine as the breadwinner in that household, he's admitted to what he did, you don't get to put another human being through what he put Tahlia through & go straight back into the limelight afterwards. I can't even fathom what statement Coppola thinks he's making by casting LaBeouf in his film.
@@Zoe-pv8zh He wasn't "affected by cancel culture" he got away with abusing a woman
The irony of FFC wanting a studio of the people but ultimately making a movie about how only businessman and wealthy patricians can save the world.
Atlas Chuckled.
@@JohnnyArtPavlou Atlas Went "Aw Jeez"
Atlas said idk jk lol
While being a member of the most elevated & protected group of citizens in history. The Progressive and New Deal fixes of the Past are all they've known. As a rich man, those advantages are even more. Fly private jet? The Government makes that possible and spends a lot of money to do so , not to mention all the war required for its development.
The ignorance and arrogance of going Randian when
Seeing clips from 'One from the Heart' for the first time is crazy; would have thought that it could have been made this year - absolutely gorgeous stuff.
That's probably its strongest redeemable quality. The performances are okay (outside of the singing). I'd say it's not as bad as its reputation, but it's not a great watch.
Agreed, I’ve only seen the re-edit. Gorgeous but not great.
Well it was kind of made this year; apparently "Joker 2" took inspiration from ''One from the Heart" (and both movies happened to bomb at the box office).
I have seen it because I listened and liked the soundtrack. Was into Tom Waits at the time. It was decent.
Don’t come for me but if they remake it, I would watch it.
It’s funny that you included the “how often do you think about the Roman Empire” clip because he actually did one of those videos before the release and said how much of an influence that period was for the film. You wouldn’t have even had to edit his face onto it.
Idc as a artist hearing your elders going through anything it takes to create a vision is inspiring don’t care if it’s ass happy for him
I think Coppola's attempt to make his own studio was more about giving him control, not some utopian artistic vision. He doesn't like studios controlling him, but he clearly loves being the one in control on the set. In other words I think it is selfishness not selflessness that is the origin of his philosophy.
yah he should have been an executive producer on this and let others write and storyboard the final drafts.
Here we are commenting on a digital platform in a near infinite sea of opinions, about a guy doing it. Trusting his vision as he has always done. Controlling/uncompromising. Putting his own money on the line to make a statement to the world at large, for himself? Only so far as one of the stages of man, like planting a tree for future generations
It's not selfish to want artistic control of your movie
@@flazay_da no, it's not, but I don't buy for a second he wanted that same freedom for anyone other than men who reminded him of himself
@@Chibbykins Bingo
Megalopolis should have been a ballet or a Cirque du Soleil show. This story is too broad to be a compelling movie, but it might have worked visually in a medium without dialogue.
I think the best comparison for this movie is like Rapture from Bioshock. An ambitious idea by an ambitious man that ultimately collapsed.
And they're still trying to get that made. 😂
Less of Ayn Rand and more of what if Neil Breen made Southland Tales set in the Roman Republic.
Ooh, good parallel. It's also different in that while Megalopolis seems to suggest that men are capable of making a utopia, BioShock... laughs at that.
It reminded me, and I'm dead serious, of Jerry Seinfeld's Unfrosted.
Not really
NO! NO! NO! NO!
MY ACCOUNTS ARE FROZEN 😭
This is the most cohesive review I’ve seen of this movie… expertly put together and critiqued. Well done.
Its more put together than the actual movie
I would describe this film as if Ayn Rand finally sat down to write Atlas Shrugged but took acid and watched Gladiator and then someone gave her 150 million dollars to produce it.
that sounds highly entertaining tho
Schrooms...but otherwise this is accurate.
Ayn Rand was the first reference that came to my mind when I saw the trailer to this. It reminded me of the Fountainhead.
I was going to say, I am getting big Atlas Shrugged vibes from the description.
Is it weird that I kind of liked the beautiful mess.
This movie feels like proof positive that running out of ideas is less dangerous than running out of people to tell you no
or worse like Lucas surrounding yourself with Yes Men.
So true
@@steverogers8163was going to say, you can say lots about the prequels but you can’t say they don’t have ideas in them
Seeing Coppola talk about how he lives his life like there are no rules is genuinely hard to watch, being aware of the abuse allegations.
ok, i thought i was crazy for thinking that i had heard about this movie for my whole life. 5 seconds in, you show me an interview from 1997, the year i was born. this video was the right choice. thank you for your time.
For years I thought he was remaking Metropolis 😂
@@samlibutti like the city from dc comics?
@@tomnook1929 no, no, the original German one.
@@mikhaelgribkov4117That's actually a good movie, even though it's silent. This garbage is nowhere near the level of Metropolis.
The best way I can describe watching this movie is that it's similar to watching bad Shakespeare. Like I get what you're trying to do but you're doing all the worst possible ways.
A couple thoughts keep coming up: I was at one of the test screenings of One from the Heart, and filled out the multi page survey. It was a very lovely film that was too long, and the people at the center were kinda boring characters (that's hard to do with Teri Garr, but he did it). People did not walk out, and the finished film isn't much different (just shorter). A big film needs a plan; it needs a structure to support the multitude that work on it. Improvisation is hard on that scale (I think the documentary about Apocalypse Now underlines that issue). If Coppola really wanted total freedom, he could make smaller films and control more of the production. It's funny now that with the CGI and digital distribution eliminating two of his difficulties (physical reality and actual film production expense), his masterpiece isn't getting the word of mouth it should.
I really wish that zoetrope studio actually succeeded
It seems like it would be a refuge from the endless sea of lame super hero films. A place where people could experiment and succeed or fail. I love art that tries, even if it does miss the mark.
I feel like A24 has really picked up the torch here in many ways, I get that a director-owned studio would be quite different, but it's definitely living in that space!
@@Alan.livingstonI am so completely sick of comic book movies. 🤮 I was really hoping that after Oppenheimer was so successful, we would finally get something different.
I had actually been dreaming of starting an extremely similar studio myself (many years from now, lol) im a little shaken to learn that something very close to my dream not only already happened but already failed, but it won't stop me from giving it a go one day!
Zoetrope > A24
Adam Driver has the unfortunate distinction of being in 2 $100m movies that only made $4m at opening weekend: The Last Duel and Megalopolis.
Insert “Two nickels” joke here
The Last Duel was wicked good, I thought. But I didn't even know it came out in theaters, I only saw it on streaming.
@@alecgolas8396 Eh, it sucked. It really had nothing to say about its subject matter
@@HBarnill what do you mean? it was incredibly obvious with it's message, *It Literally names the last act from the woman's perspective THE TRUTH*
@@pengwin_No doubt that was @HBarnill’s problem with it lol
We often hear about studio meddling messing up movies. I want a series on how studio meddling saved a movie.
There's something funny about Adam Driver being the protagonist of two films that were in development for decades which ended up being pretty meh to bad.
@@timelessdays Silence by Martin Scorsese was good.
@@rickardkaufman3988 I was referring to The Man Who Killed Don Quixote
@@timelessdays Oh, I see. Gilliam's movie is mid. Interesting how Adam Driver has been a part of a total of 10 film projects by auteurs that went through development hell before coming out. Guess he's a lucky charm.
@@timelessdays(even though i dont agree) you could argue ferrari fits this mould too
Adam did star in the last Ridley Scott movie I really enjoyed
When poor people say we should have a revolution I understand. When a rich guy says we should have a revolution I get very , very worried.
Most Revolution always lead to tyranny.
Most revolutions are from the wealthy. Poor people revolts are very uncommon and almost never succeed.
Nope
Hearing actors and actresses talk about how great a director is is never a truthful portrait of them. Because, after all, what are they going to say? Ask the electrician, the hairdresser and the cleaning lady and let they inform you. I bet that their experiences differ greatly from the teacher's pet one.
For decades people failed to do this regarding to Ellen Degeneres, all while she was branding herself as the “queen of nice” and Hollywood writers were comparing her to Mr. Rogers.
The problem with a movie that was conceived over 25 years ago is that it will undoubtedly feel dated no matter how many rewrites. Especially one written by a man who experienced his greatest highs in the 70s. Artists like Coppola have been told for so long how genius they are…they can no longer make something truly universal because they’ve become so isolated by their status, they have no idea how to relate to “regular people” - not even getting into the obvious misogyny that was rampant in the 70s.
(also…How can you sue a publication for libel for publishing a video?!)
You are so right!!
I think Coppola is a pretty humble guy. His depiction of “genius” in Megalopolis is silly but he normally talks about the greatness of other filmmakers and he said the highlight of his life was making wine and movie and watching his daughter win an Oscar. His movies have become more experimental and personal for decades and Megalopolis feels like the natural progression of that.
And he sued them for publishing a video that was framed as something it was not. The woman in the video even said the shoot was a great experience and Variety publishing the video was a breach of privacy since it was supposed to be a closed set.
So true. Think how much society has changed since the early 1980s?
His critiques of society then, however valid, won’t hit the same today. They are also the critiques of a successful white man living in Los Angeles; hate to break it to you buddy, but your audience has hear A LOT of societal critiques by successful white men living in Los Angeles in the last 40 years. The only thing more over-done than remakes and sequels is hot takes by rich white guys.
Today’s audience isn’t going to see Adam Driver as the ultimate victim of the elites because he’s not allowed to make his massive skyscrapers without the changes his employers want.
What was so dated about the film? There is nothing new under the sun and Everything that has happened will all happen once again, what one generation calls their own is nothing more than a reflection of the pasts.
Your vision is so narrow-minded that I do hope you're just sixteen.
I'm halfway through the video but I can't believe Coppola didn't keep shotting in New York as the attacks happened. Not for Megalopolis, but if he had 30 hours of poetic New York footage shot right up to a world changing events he could have shown the changes in the city in a truly poetic way, from the perspective of architecture and the histories of buildings. I feel like he accidentally stumbled onto a possible masterpiece outside his wheelhouse and didn't take the opportunity
You are absolutely right
Use of Spongebob clip in a 1-hour video about a Francis Ford Coppola film - chef's kiss
Chefs kiss is a super cringe statement.
@@shadowaccount Not as cringe as calling something ‘cringe’
@@shadowaccount Spongebob clips are pretty cringe too, however.
Craft services kiss in the club scene 👌
Megalopolis: A Coppola Lapse Now.
groan. 👏 do you write for Seth Myers?
Ludovic, the only people who make that *groan* response to a great pun - and yours is - are those who wish they could do it but never can.
That was beautiful, thank you.
[slow clap into a standing ovation] !!
[applause]
Oh my god, listening to Francis Ford Coppolla talk for the first time... the stream of consciousness rambles... the intentional disregard for any sort of planning or forethought. Goddamnit. That's my dad.
As soon as I heard the idea for Zoetrope being this place where artists are first and have the freedom to do what they want my thought was "OK great, but what if the artists are bad?".
It sounds very romantic and nice in theory, but in practice, there are a lot of artists out there of highly variable abilities, and even good ones often have bad instincts when there's nobody to give them a reality check on what they're doing.
define: "bad artists"
@@steamboatwill3.367I’ll say Zach Snyder
Rather art be produced from honesty than from algorithms
Art made just for business is bad. Art made just to satisfy your own ego is also bad.
The best pieces of art usually have a healthy balance between both elements. Coppola has done it but most artists don't grasp this concept. Because most business people don't understand art and most artists don't understand business.
As a writer, I tend to feel more connection with the writers. But I'm grateful that I started accounting in college because it makes me understand the value and understanding of finances and business.
Most artists, like the ones in Zoetrope, live in a bubble where they want an ideal world where they can churn out crap and live happily ever after. That's not how the world works and is never going to work that way. Unless you do it for free (and if so, more power to you, go for it).
Using a piss yellow filter for the whole film was certainly a choice.
Um... let's call it "Apple Cider" shall we?
Dont watch it then..loser.
Looks like some silly PS3 ad
Golden sho-- er... dawn. Golden dawn.
It's like the opposite of Twilight
There's something inspiring in watching someone strive to be creatively unchained through his whole life. There's also something kind of ironic about a creative person who "struggles" through "bankruptcies" where he's also filming huge productions, starting a winery, and eventually is able to make a totally personal, nonsensical multi hundred million production just because of his own personal demons. In the US, once you achieve a certain state of wealth and fame, you're allowed to do almost anything.
The 2001 New York footage was indeed extensively used in the movie. I was wondering why some of the shots had the same lens and sensor aberrations as the footage from Attack Of The Clones. It’s because it was shot on the same cameras and lenses.
I disliked Megalopolis. I scoffed and laughed at the absurdity of a lot of the scenes. I even checked the time at multiple points because of how impatient I was getting towards the end of the film. I said to my friends afterwards that I'd never want to watch it again.
But I didn't HATE it. I think the passion poured into the film can be recognized at every point, which on some level I can admire. There were several times I thought about how much I enjoyed the visuals (even though I was initially very overwhelmed by them for the first thirty minutes. I couldnt process what anyone was saying) and I genuinely loved the sound design.
At the very least, it's was definitely an experience that stuck with me.
after the first act it gets way more watchable.
I'm completely with you on this
Hearing the stuff he wrote out of context makes him sound like a Bioshock villain
Not really
Aubrey Plaza is truly living it up for the plot right now, she’s a gay witch, she’s living with Patti Lapone, she’s being weird in a Coppola. I hope her middle school vice principal she used to follow home in a box is proud.
Follow someone in a box? Witchy indeed
That almost kiss behind her and Agatha though 😮
what
@@lordluckylucan it was one of her early talk show anecdotes. She used to follow her middle school vice principal home while wearing/hiding in a box.
Seeing her in theater for megalopolis then seeing her again not even hours later when i decided to watch agatha all along on a whim with zero idea of the plot was a real treat. Happy for her
the blind items about the production of this movie were depressing at best and disastrous at worst
It's kind of sad that this will likely be his final movie. Wasting all that money on an idea which has been in development for so long and still not having a coherent or compelling story to tell at the end of it.
its an amazing film
The Ai faking critics quotes is crazy
34:30 - Coppola and Werner Herzog couldn't be more polar opposite in how they shoot film. Coppola lets the sculpture emerge from the marble; Herzog knows exactly what he wants to make and only makes that, no more.
Coppola had and still has a fantastic vision for artists and creators, but as history has shown time and time again, artists and visionaries tend to need a business man that believes in that vision, but is aware that in order to make art for a living bills need to get paid, and income has to come from somewhere.
It's also ironic that "his generation" of filmmakers brought about the state of cinema today, because the idea of the [blockbuster] was created by his generation of filmmakers, some of which were his personal friends.
It's funny, for a director that fancies himself an actor's director more so than a visually enthusiastic filmmaker, he has made some of the most visually nuanced films of the last century. Even Dracula contains a lot of visual flourish that goes unnoticed by most.
It's fascinating how different Coppola's and George Lucas' path through hollywood ended up being. Both refused to be bound by the will of execs and suits. One did, but shifted the industry in a way that The Other wasn't able to outrun till he was in his 80's. I hope he really made what had been on his mind all those years
they both were really close co-founder of American Zoetrope which filmed Lucas THX 1138. Plus George help edited Godfather movie.
After watching this video and seeing the movie, I feel the true importance of movies and art is the preservation of hope and optimism. The movies is where you can make and see the happy endings that do not exist in the real world.
The problem with vanity projects is that they’re typically created by old men who wield tremendous power and influence over those around them, and that power imbalance not only ruins the project, it makes the lives of those involved (the crew, the cast, the viewers) worse, whether catastrophically or incrementally, but always worse.
Is there an example where the end result is good or you get into it because it's fun and the people involved had fun with it?
Coppola has power and influence? Lmao
@@katherinealvarez9216 midnight mass was a project that mike flanagan had been trying to get made forever. turned out great
yet scorsese, miyazaki, flanagan, wim wenders newest projects and up being good. But lets place the blame on old man 😒
is that the problem with vanity projects? i had no idea. don't know why I had thought it might be about-uh the vanity.
I don't get it why Copolla didn't see the similarity with the Godfather and 80s Blockbusters. The Godfather is a book, a movie franchise, a soundtrack, a videogame, etc.
Because he made the Godfather so its different. He's not the greedy one who made a blockbuster and gets mad when others make even bigger movies with lasers and sharks.
@@steverogers8163 Well..... he *did* go ahead with the regrettable 3rd Godfather flick.
and lot of movies were made into TV series in the 1970s, the most famous example is "M.A.S.H" wich outshined it's movie predecessor.
@@samuelglover7685 See, I wouldn't have a problem with him making that third film for money, even if it was bad, if he didn't talk a big game about artistic integrity. He avoided making a third Godfather film for years until he needed the money. That's on him.
Megalopolis: Never have you seen an intense conflict about planning permission as this one.
Megalopolis, AKA "What if BioShock was bad?"
This
We already had bioshock infinite
@@laylamorrison9596 I am hearing BioShock in discussions of this film way more than I would ever have thought.
Maybe time to revisit
@@iago9711 Bioshock Infinite was critically praised, made a ton of money, and is on plenty of lists as one of the best video games ever made. You're definitely in the tiny minority of people who think it's anything remotely resembling bad. Not really comparable to a movie like this which is extremely divisive on release and a massive box office bomb.
@@NoooiiiissseeeI bet that he hates every Bioshock games apart from 1
I really wanted to like this movie, and the theme that we must have a societal discussion about utopia resonates with me, but I believe the movie is ultimately harmful to that end. Cultural unity and people power are portrayed only in its most negative light as demagoguery. The movie does not even try to address capitalism.
It's obvious that Catalina is Coppola's self-insert, and Catalina explicitly confirms that he is a sociopathic megalomaniac. Julia mostly exists in the movie to be the "muse" that inspires Catalina's mania and creative genius. Catalina's success at the film's resolution supports the narrative that toxic men with these qualities should be forgiven and enabled to do as they like because then it will result in a nebulous "good" that outweighs their toxicity. It makes one wonder: What things has Coppola done that he's justified using this extremely common delusion?
It's clear that Coppola's specific delusion is that aspiring for utopia is a virtue in and of itself. It makes you a good person intrinsically. The movie ends with Catalina being given all the money and power in New Rome to create without limits or oversight. That's exactly what he has stated he wants for himself in multiple interviews. That is Coppola's fundamentally flawed answer for how we achieve Utopia. The reason it is so fundamentally flawed in the first place is because he had to mold it around his over 40 years worth of his rationalizations for why he believes it is actually a good thing overall that he is a sociopathic megalomaniac creative genius. He believes that's why he should be given what he wants.
The movie says a lot about the kind of person that Coppola is and how little perspective on the world he has.
Coppola pretends to ask of us to strive for Utopia , but what he's really asking of us is to agree with his very personal delusions.
I believe Adam Driver is playing Adam from Girls playing Cesar Catalina. The choices he makes like "in da club" and all the physical stuff, it's all So Adam (Girls).
I’m so glad you covered this :) Your Godfather Part III video is what made me pay close attention to how Megalopolis would play out!!
So, after such a long and well-researched video, I wondered how I would summarize it, and all it came to mind was something along the lines of: "A rich privileged man throws a tantrum after no longer being praised. And, instead of reflect on his own failures and learn a lesson, links himself to some historical figure in a self-congratulatory tour de force. Then, proceeds to narrate the story of such figure, but in modern age, only to pat his own self-indulgent ego. "You're a star and, if someone doesn't agree, it is because they're unable to comprehend YOU", whispers a voice in his ear.
Dear lord, what a mess. I'm even surprised the main character isn't called something like "Coppolo".
HA! Hmm I mean I don’t think Megalopolis self-congratulatory so much as it is wish fulfillment (thematically and literally). He doesn’t write Cesar as flawless, which I think is important to note. It’s probably fair to call it an ego thing, but I personally have a lot of empathy for needing to express through art the frustration of having your dream blow up so publicly and fantastically…especially since I think his mission to found an artist-forward studio was a good one ultimately, even if he was incapable of seeing it through.
In 25 years he will make a massive movie that will be an expensive metaphor for the failure of this movie.
@@AbsentMinded619 That's assuming he even lives that long. The dude's in his 80's.
your comedic timing again is amazing on this one
Adam Driver's face in all the interview footage constantly looks like he is seriously questioning his life decisions, like 'WTF was I thinking?'
Now I've actually seen it, yeah...that look is EXACTLY what was goin' on!
The making of his movies are more interesting than the films it self
I was only told this movie existed after it had come out and, on paper, “the Catilina conspiracy reimagined in a futuristic New York with Catilina as the protagonist” sounds a movie tailor made for me. I’m horrified to learn that Coppola doesn’t understand Catilina at all. A movie about him and the conspiracy could’ve been a chilling commentary on capitalism and the political landscape of today, but I guess we have to wait another 30 years for a director who is not out of touch to take a stab at it
are you telling me that I indirectly have Francis Ford Coppola to thank for the existence of Newsies?
I think in giving Cicero the first name Francis, he was sort of implying that Coppola himself was the one stuck in his ways and that at the end he was opening himself up to a new way of doing things and leaving it open to future generations
They made a documentary about this, its called 'Synecdoche, New York'
Even though she won an Oscar, do you think you could do a video about Mary Pickford? you're overdue.
That Barbara Stanwyck video is overdue too
This is why I always suggest Iain M Banks "Culture" novels. They depict a true Utopian society and explore the implications therein while also being fun sci fi adventures.
Finally, the one place where I can trust the view of this film.
Fun fact; that NY 2nd unit footage shot during the 2000s scrapped after 9/11 was shot by DP Ron Fricke, the cinematographer of Koyanisquatsi (which Coppola and George Lucas produced).
Baraka is the best visual Doc of all time.
Francis Ford Coppola try not to go into debt challenge:
Level: Impossible
52:50 “And this time, it didn’t ruin him” why did this make me weirdly emotional
Haven’t even watched this vid yet but I saw a tweet about a letterbox review that said “this movie sucked megacockpolis”
watching this on Nebula and hearing Coppola's first note on Catilina, I can't help but think that Adam Sandler beat him to the punch by 5 years here with Uncut Gems, AND did it much, much better by having an unvarnished view of his protagonist.
Coppola wants to compete with Ridley Scott in the 'old directors who should retire but won't' category.
I’m an artist. Convincing someone to stop doing what they love is pointless. Unfortunately their filmography has declined but directors have bad runs all the time, young or old.
@@jennymcelligottYeah I feel like we tend to give our contemporaries less grace than we do earlier filmmakers. Cannot imagine telling someone like Fassbinder to stop making films, best to let them do whatever they want and just be happy they *could* do it.
@@XVMatthew I, for one, would love to see Fassbender continue to race in GT3... would be great to watch.
"Gerontopolis".
@@rafaelmarkos4489 Well that career pretty much ran its course. That last season completely broke him go the point it's not a dream anymore.
This video really made me want to go see it for myself but I'd have to drive over an hour to maybe find a theater still playing in my area. Great video.
HOLD ON you're telling me sofia coppola's "i'm grounded because i tried to charter a helicopter from new york to maryland" is in this????
I will not pay to watch this movie. This man blackballed a child actor that outed victor salva of powder and jeepers creepers fame. He was more worried about his friend than the child that got raped. I hate that I love some of his movies and will watch any that I already own but I will not support him.
And he cast some quite problematic men in this movie as well. Deliberately, making a point of it. None of those performances are discussed in this video--a deliberate choice from our host here? In the event, Jon Voight is forgettable and Dustin Hoffman's part very small. Shia LaBouef, though, is having more fun than anyone else in the movie, even Aubrey Plaza. Coppola has framed these castings as some sort of necessary--even utopian--kumbaya gesture. But you can't have a kumbaya if there's never been any accountability. And there hasn't.
(Yes, I saw it. Hurray for hoping for utopia, I guess, but Coppola asks no hard questions. None. It's just, the vague will of a supposed great man is all utopia takes, perhaps with the love of a good woman. That kind of baloney is just depressing; what a thing to sink your whole life into! Some cool visuals though.)
I made it through about 25 minutes before I couldn’t take it anymore. I can count on one hand the number of times I had to bail out of a major film. The entire tone felt like someone was secretly filming an amateur improv actor’s workshop. Around 10 minutes in Dustin Hoffman appears, and if someone didn’t know better they might think he had never acted a day in his life. I’ll have to force myself to sit back down and get through it just once, but woof…
Damn Isabel you worked FAST on this one. Kudos.
Edit: Isabel did her homework beforehand and it shows. it’s worth it.
i mean yeah, you have to research to make video essays, she does it for all her vids
The thing I’ll always appreciate martin scorsese over Coppola is his greater sence of self awareness and humility
I've decided to pause this video at 41:45 and add it to my "Watch Later" list, saving the review portion for after I've watched the movie again. Thanks for establishing the context surrounding it, including many aspects I was unfamiliar with before I watched it the first time!
Doing the exact same thing! And excited that apparently it arrives to Mexican cinemas at the end of October.
You've inspired me! Great video. Great comment
“SO GO BACK TO THE CLuUuUuUuuuUuuub”
I've been commenting this on video essays about megalopolis, and I'm so glad I'm not alone.
Thank you. We are now forever siblings.
The drive behind copola and the message behind the film seems to be 'i should be made into a benevolent dictator'.
I cannot wait to watch this when I'm home. I saw this high with a friend last Saturday and her and I were talking about how we lowkey had fun with how bizarre this movie was. Eggsited to hear your thoughts
Forget all that. I wanna know when in these 40 years he came up with the lines "Riches of my Emersonian mind" and "In the cleeerrrrb" and what was he on when he came up with them.
"Megaflopolis" Ouch! 😅
The issue here is one of imbalance, and we're seeing it from both sides. On FFC's end, he became so focused on the artistic aspect that he assumed others would naturally see his film, and by extension the world, the same way he did. This led to a narrow vision that only he could fully understand. On the flip side, there's a massive number of business people making creative decisions that should really be left to artists. As a result, movies and TV shows are increasingly driven by checklists, with the story becoming more of an afterthought.
What’s really needed is a balance between the head (the business side) and the heart (the artistic side). The first sci-fi film, Metropolis, explored this very concept, and you’d think that after a hundred years, we’d take it more seriously by now. I get FFC’s frustration with the business side, but I also understand why executives are hesitant to pour huge sums of money into productions without being sure they’ll see a return. It almost feels like a permanent game of chicken, where one side is waiting for the other to blink first... ignoring the damage being cause around them.
ART SIDE FOR LIFE!
that's why i put out a video novel from the perspective of me... but in a single shot rant channel format
This review is 1,000 times better than the movie itself. Megalopolis is excruciatingly bad. I could only make it about half way through before I just couldn't take it anymore.
This was so brilliantly researched, I'm pausing at the review so i can watch it for myself with this context!
It would be interesting to see who FFC had in mind to play these characters over the years.
The streaming docuseries about this flop is going to be epic