Here comes the October 16th the long-awaited film by Francis Ford Coppola, Megalopolis. With protagonists Adam Driver And Nathalie Emmanuelclocking in at 2 hours and 20 minutes, the film certainly delivers a particular immersive experience. A film about megalomaniaon utopias and rich in symbolisms: the viewer remains in a confused state for almost the entire story.
Plot
We are in a futuristic roman empirethe New Romea mix between New York and ancient Rome. Here, an architect with supernatural powers dreams of changing the world and rebuilding civilization from scratch, Cesar Catalina (Adam Driver) imagine then an ideal future city made of megalonsa new floating organic material discovered by himself. His plans come though hindered from the mayor, Franklyn Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito), who sees in man little concreteness and a danger for the stability of the city.
Cicero’s daughter, Julia (Nathalie Emmanuel), however, remains fascinated by Cesar, in particular by his ability to stop time. Intrigued, she approaches the man and he helps in his aimdespite the discrepancies with his father. Meanwhile Catilina has just left the TV presenter Wow Platinum (Aubrey Plaza), because he is still too emotionally involved in the death of his ex-partner. Wow marry therefore for vendetta the boy’s uncle, Hamilton Crassus III (Jon Voight), and uses it to unleash his family, especially his cousin Clodius Pulcher (Shia LaBeouf), against Catiline. Cesar therefore finds himself surrounded by obstacles, but nevertheless he will fight for his desire to create Megalopolissupported by Julia’s love.
These are just the main lines of the story, but in reality what happens on the screen is very complex. Between dream visions And symbolic imagesthe narrative thread is continually broken up into pieces difficult to follow in a linear manner what happens. This is because Coppola wanted to put everything in this film: the criticism to contemporary society, past and future, The theme of timeof spaceof theLovefrom the death and so on and so forth. A dystopian future that seeks a new futurewhere everything is taken to the extreme in reverse, just think of the party scene for the super virgin Vesta Sweetwater (Grace VanderWaal), to whom everyone offers money, while obscene acts are performed by other women in public as if it were normal. Not to mention the child armed with a gun, a shocking image for modern ethics.
Chaotic delirium
What we perceive certainly is the chaosthe total confusion where the protagonist finds himself, but in which the whole city is also immersed. Living monuments which fall to pieces and collapse to the ground overwhelmed by this dark worldthe moon that is stolen by one hand shaped cloudthe utopian city formed by floating waves.
We wonder if the film was born from a dream of Coppola himself, since everything is like this surreal. Certainly, as in dreams, every image and phrase in Megalopolis is metaphor of something, making the film full of meaning. Give her quotes from Marcus Aurelius uttered by Julia to the numerous literary, philosophical and cinematographic inspirations, such as Metropolis Of Fritz Lang.
A human superhero
But let’s talk about our protagonist. Adam Driver was great in playing thisbrilliant man. Inextricably linked to timethe architect is frightened by the speed with which everything escapes, embodying the concerns of the human being and our continuous desire to being able to stop the minutes. So much so that when Cesar Catilina loses the ability to stop time, he will only be able to save himself thanks to one other power: love.
It is natural to wonder if this kind of superhero also embodies its director, a creator of extraordinary works of art but who now feels time slipping away from his hands. The film was indeed directed and produced by Coppola himself, having found no one who financially supported the idea. He therefore put all his hope and commitment, like Catiline, into giving life to Megalopolis.
Yet, this superhero is «a man from the future trapped in the past» as Julia quotes a line, and so it is also for the directorial direction of the film.
There photograph they special effects in fact they are too archaic for the film genre and it doesn’t seem like a product of 2024. Even though it presents itself as a futuristic film, Megalopolis it has a lot of the past. Contents already covered and revisited, not to mention the figure of womanexploited sexually and constant interpreter of the role of she who is next to the man to support him towards his rise to power. So nothing so revolutionary, actually.
Symbolism and quotes
A positive aspect of the film, as we said before, is certainly the use made of cinema: it becomes a means of symbolically expressing many aspects of life, there is a real purpose to this filmprofound meanings. There are many quotes that remain imprinted in the viewer’s memory, because every dialogue hides philosophical pills:
«There are two things that cannot be looked straight in the eye: the sun and one’s soul» says Adam Driver
In the end though, unfortunately too much is too muchand the film is more aesthetic than emotional. You look at everything from the outside and get lost all the time. Perplexity therefore reigns supreme at the end of Megalopolis.
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