TORONTO (AP) 鈥� Francis Ford Coppola believes he can stop time.
It鈥檚 not just a quality of the protagonist of a visionary architect named Cesar Catilina ( ) who, by barking 鈥淭ime, stop!鈥� can temporarily freeze the world for a moment before restoring it with a snap of his fingers. And Coppola isn't referring to his ability to manipulate time in the editing suite. He means it literally.
鈥淲e鈥檝e all had moments in our lives where we approach something you can call bliss,鈥� Coppola says. 鈥淭here are times when you have to leave, have work, whatever it is. And you just say, 鈥榃ell, I don鈥檛 care. I鈥檓 going to just stop time.鈥� I remember once actually thinking I would do that.鈥�
Time is much on Coppola鈥檚 mind. He鈥檚 85 now. Eleanor, his wife of 61 years, 鈥淢egalopolis,鈥� which is dedicated to her, is his first movie in 13 years. He鈥檚 been pondering it for more than four decades. The film begins, fittingly, with the image of a clock.
鈥淚t鈥檚 funny, you live your life going from being a young person to being an older person. You鈥檙e looking in that direction,鈥� Coppola said in a recent interview at a Toronto hotel before the North American premiere of 鈥淢egalopolis.鈥� 鈥淏ut to understand it, you have to look in the other direction. You have to look at it from the point of view of the older looking at the younger, which you鈥檙e receding from.鈥�
鈥淚鈥檓 sort of thinking of my life in reverse,鈥� Coppola says.
You have by now probably heard a few things about 鈥淢egalopolis.鈥� Maybe you know that Coppola financed the $120 million budget himself, using his lucrative wine empire to realize a long-held vision of Roman epic set in a modern New York. You might be familiar with the film鈥檚 in May, some of whom saw a grand folly, others a wild ambition to admire.
鈥淢egalopolis,鈥� a movie Coppola first began mulling in the aftermath of in the late 1970s, has been a subject of intrigue, anticipation, gossip, a lawsuit and sheer disbelief for years.
What you might not have heard about 鈥淢egalopolis,鈥� though, is that it鈥檚 an extraordinarily sincere message from a master filmmaker nearing the end of his life. Giancarlo Esposito, who first sat for a reading of the script 37 years ago with Laurence Fishburne and Billy Crudup, calls it 鈥渟ome deep, deep dream of consciousness鈥� from Coppola.
At a time when many are consumed by bitterly partisan politics and climate change anxiety, Coppola has spent every opportunity this year pleading that we are 鈥渙ne human family.鈥� His movie, a delirious dream of the future, is an unwieldy but heartfelt fable about the boundlessness of human potential. As implausible as optimism may seem in 2024, it鈥檚 Coppola鈥檚 cri de coeur 鈥� one that he connects less to his perspective as an elder statesman than he does to his abiding, childlike sense of possibility.
鈥淚 realized that the genius of human invention usually happened when we were playing with our kids. It鈥檚 in the act of play that we鈥檙e so creative,鈥� Coppola says. 鈥淭he cave paintings, you see hands but there are big hands and little hands.鈥�
鈥淢egalopolis鈥� will be released by Lionsgate in theaters Friday, including many IMAX screens, culminating what has been arguably Coppola鈥檚 biggest gamble 鈥� which is saying something for the filmmaker who plunked down his own millions to shoot 鈥淎pocalypse Now鈥� in the Philippines jungle and plunged his production company, Zoetrope, into bankruptcy to make 1982鈥檚 鈥淥ne From the Heart.鈥� That title has remained symbolic of Coppola, an eminently personal filmmaker, regardless of the success of 鈥淭he Godfather,鈥� who has often done his best work far out on a limb.
鈥淥n our first day of shooting, at one point in the day he said to everybody, 鈥橶e鈥檙e not being brave enough,鈥� Driver recalled in Cannes. 鈥淭hat, for me, was what I hooked on for the rest of the shoot.鈥�
In the film, Driver鈥檚 Cesar is at odds with a backward-looking mayor, Franklyn Cicero (Esposito), but falls for his daughter, Julia (Nathalie Emmanuel). Cesar鈥檚 powers as a time-stopper and an architect are derived from a substance called Megalon that could alter the fate of the metropolis dubbed New Rome. A lot is thrown into the mix, including Aubrey Plaza鈥檚 TV personality Wow Platinum and Shia LaBeouf鈥檚 Clodio Pulcher. Coppola spent years assembling a scrap book of inspirations for the film, though you could wonder if Cesar isn鈥檛 ultimately derived from himself.
鈥淚 thought about Francis but I wasn鈥檛 thinking I鈥檓 going to do a version of Francis,鈥� said Driver. 鈥淎ll movies, I kind of feel, are their directors in a sense.鈥�
Esposito was surprised to find the script hadn鈥檛 changed much over the years. Every morning, he would receive a text from Coppola with a different ancient story. On set, Coppola favored theater games, improvisation and going with instinct.
鈥淗e takes his time. What we鈥檙e used to in this modern age is immediate answers and having to know the answer,鈥� Esposito says. 鈥淎nd I don鈥檛 think Francis needs to know the answer. I think the question for him is sometimes more important.鈥�
Reports of disorder on the set led to Driver making a statement that, to the contrary, it was one of the best shooting experiences of his career. Later, just before the film was to premiere in Cannes, a report alleged Coppola behaved inappropriately with extras. Variety later posted a story with a video shot by a crew member showing Coppola, in a nightclub scene, walking through a dancing crowd and then stopping to apparently lean in to several women to hug them, kiss them on the cheek or whisper to them.
Earlier this month, claiming its report was false and libelous. The trade publication said it stood by its reporters.
Asked about the reports in Toronto, Coppola said 鈥淚 don鈥檛 even want to (discuss it). It鈥檚 a waste of time.鈥� Later in the interview, he separately noted: 鈥淚鈥檓 very respectful of women, I always have been. My mother, she always taught me: 鈥楩rancis, if you ever make a pass at a girl, that means you disrespect her.鈥� So I never did.鈥�
None of the major studios or streaming services (鈥淎nother word for home video,鈥� Coppola says) . He also first showcased it to executives and friends in Los Angeles before the festival, but found little interest.
鈥淚鈥檓 a creation of Hollywood,鈥� says Coppola. 鈥淚 went there wanting to be part of it, and by hook or crook, they let me be part of it. But that system is dying.鈥�
If Coppola has a lot riding on 鈥淢egalopolis,鈥� he doesn鈥檛, in any way, appear worried. Recouping his investment in the film will be virtually impossible; he stands to lose many millions. But speaking with Coppola, it鈥檚 clear he鈥檚 filled with gratitude. 鈥淚 couldn鈥檛 be more blessed,鈥� he says.
鈥淓veryone鈥檚 so worried about money. I say: Give me less money and give me more friends,鈥� Coppola says. 鈥淔riends are valuable. Money is very fragile. You could have a million marks in Germany at the end of World War II and you wouldn鈥檛 be able to buy a loaf of bread.鈥�
Coppola has lately been watching a lot of films from the 1930s ( is a favorite). But his mind is mostly on the cinema of the future. In recent years, Coppola has experimented with what he calls 鈥渓ive cinema,鈥� trying to imagine a movie form that鈥檚 created and seen simultaneously. In festival screenings, 鈥淢egalopolis鈥� has included a live moment in which a man walks on stage and addresses a question to a character on the screen.
鈥淭he movies your grandchildren will make are not going to be like this formula happening now. We can鈥檛 even imagine what it鈥檚 going to be, and that鈥檚 the wonderful thing about it,鈥� says Coppola. "The notion that there鈥檚 a set of rules to make a film 鈥� you have to have this, you have to have that 鈥� that鈥檚 OK if you鈥檙e making Coca-Cola because you want to know that you鈥檙e going to be able to sell it without risk. But cinema is not Coca-Cola. Cinema is something alive and ever-changing.鈥�
Coppola has hoped to include the live moment in screenings nationwide. As of Tuesday, there weren鈥檛 details available on those showings. He鈥檚 even come up with a way to 鈥渟imulate for the home an experience that is somewhat theatrical," he said. Regardless of whether moviegoers will flock to 鈥淢egalopolis," it's clearly a passionate late-career statement from a titan of American movies, made without a whiff of an algorithm, that embodies a line heard several times in the film: 鈥淲hen we leap into the unknown, we prove that we are free."
鈥淭here have to be," Coppola says, "filmmakers who make the film without risk and jump into it and say, 鈥榃ell, it feels right to me but who knows? Maybe I鈥檓 wrong, maybe I鈥檓 right, it doesn鈥檛 matter. It鈥檚 in my heart.鈥欌��
Jake Coyle, The Associated Press
