Weekend films

'Megalopolis', Francis Ford Coppola's lifelong dream

The ambitious and highly anticipated return behind the camera of the director of 'The Godfather' and 'Apocalypse Now' arrives in cinemas

by Andrea Chimento

18 October 2024

3' min read

Key points

A unique experience
The Apprentice

3' min read

The most eagerly awaited film of the year, a colossal and predictable flop, one of the most powerful features of the season: this and much more is 'Megalopolis', Francis Ford Coppola's return behind the camera thirteen years after the previous 'Twixt'.

It is a monumental project, an idea that Coppola began sketching out more than forty years ago: the film, in fact, had a decidedly troubled production history that led the great director of masterpieces such as 'The Godfather', 'The Conversation' and 'Apocalypse Now' to take the reins of the operation himself, also from a financial point of view.

The protagonist is Adam Driver as Cesar, a New York architect who has a utopian plan to rebuild the city after a catastrophe that completely destroyed it. His dream, innovative and determined to create an entirely new metropolis, will however be thwarted by some of the most powerful men in the city.

It is easy to link the extreme ambition of the dreamer at the centre of this film with the figure of Coppola, a unique author in the history of cinema, who always threw his heart over the obstacle, signing films as titanic as they were risky throughout his long career.

"Megalopolis" is an impossible dream, a project that does not stand up in today's production universe, but at the same time it is a feature film that still believes in the power of cinema and sees the Seventh Art as something that can still be renewed almost 130 years after its birth.

A unique experience

Megalopolis' struggles to get going, not least because Coppola puts a lot of meat on the fire, making it anything but easy to watch: coarse moments alternate with bursts of great aesthetic and dramaturgical force in this operation that recalls the great and crazy projects of New Hollywood, that magical period of American cinema that Coppola helped shape at all levels.

As the minutes pass, the film also grows, thanks to some remarkable aesthetic and philosophical ideas, in which one can find the Coppola of the golden age. The director compares the United States to the Roman Empire and creates a feature film driven by total freedom, so much so that it represents a viewing experience unique in contemporary cinema.

It is a take-it-or-leave-it film, simply unmissable for any self-respecting cinephile and absolutely one of the great events of the last few years: at the American box office it flopped, but little does it matter, those who choose to see it with the right predisposition will find themselves in front of a film to be interpreted and full of moments practically never seen before. At the Cannes Film Festival, where it was presented in competition, each screening was accompanied by a figure who, during a sequence, spoke directly with Adam Driver, from the hall, approaching the screen: we hope that many screenings in Italy will maintain that same dynamic.

“Megalopolis” e gli altri film della settimana
Photogallery4 foto

The Apprentice

Also from the competition at the Cannes Film Festival comes 'The Apprentice', a new film by Ali Abbasi, a Tehran-born director in 1981 who had shocked two years ago with 'Holy Spider'.

At the centre is the story of Donald Trump's rise to power during the 1970s and 1980s. Rather than the story of the young entrepreneur, however, it is above all the story of the relationship between him and the controversial lawyer Roy Cohn, who mentored him in order to understand - and overcome - certain 'mechanisms' of the laws and American society.

Now in his fourth feature film, Abbasi raises the bar of ambition with this film that is in effect a coming-of-age story about how one can become powerful in the United States, but also a shadow analysis of the early career of Trump, a rampant unscrupulous entrepreneur who will soon realise how Cohn's lessons are crucial to success.

Filmed with good stylistic maturity, "The Apprentice" is an extremely interesting work in terms of its narrative rhythm and methods: it is not (only) a biographical feature, but a film about several decades of American history, of which Abbasi shows more the vices than the virtues. There is no lack of overly didactic moments and predictable passages, but the overall picture holds up thanks also to the remarkable performance of lead actor Sebastian Stan, who confirms his excellent form after his fine performance in 'A Different Man', seen this year at the Berlin Film Festival.