Hollywood Week: Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis, Cannes Films in Competition, Studio Ghibli, Meryl Streep
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- Category: Entertainment News
- Published on Saturday, 18 May 2024 09:54
- Written by Janet Walker
Megalopolis, the passion project of Francis Ford Coppola, 85, the Academy Award winning director of The Godfather and Apocalypse Now, made its world premiere In Competition at the Cannes Film Festival this week, garnering mixed reviews.
The self-funded film, rumored to cost upwards of $120million, was screened to potential Hollywood buyers including Netflix Chief Ted Sarandos, Donna Langley of Universal, and Tom Rothman of Sony, and others, in March without any offers. "He's looking for a unicorn — a mainstream distributor that can afford a massive marketing campaign for what is, for all intents and purposes, a giant art film. Based on reactions from that screening, Coppola may be out of luck (though being considered 'too risky' for film studios in 2024 is a veritable badge of honor in this culture)," reported Movieweb.com.
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Undaunted by the lukewarm reception after the Los Angeles screening, the big budget film was accepted In Competition category, the first for Coppola, at Cannes, the most prestigious international film festival.
The film's synopsis describes the 138-minute film as a "Roman Epic fable set in an imagined Modern America. The City of New Rome must change, causing conflict between Cesar Catilina, a genius artist who seeks to leap into a utopian, idealistic future, and his opposition, Mayor Franklyn Cicero, who remains committed to a regressive status quo, perpetuating greed, special interests, and partisan warfare. Torn between them is socialite Julia Cicero, the mayor's daughter, whose love for Cesar has divided her loyalties, forcing her to discover what she truly believes humanity deserves."
Written, directed, and produced by Coppola, Megalopolis stars Adam Driver, Giancarlo Esposito, Nathalie Emmanuel, Aubrey Plaza, Shia LaBeouf, Jon Voight, Laurence Fishburne, Talia Shire, Jason Schwartzman, Kathryn Hunter, Grace VanderWaal, Chloe Fineman, James Remar, D.B. Sweeney, and Dustin Hoffman.
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The film which has sold to some European territories remains without a U.S. distributor, although it has secured an IMAX theatrical screening commitment. "The film is going to get an Imax release," Imax CEO Richard Gelfond told the press during a Thursday event in Cannes about Megalopolis. "One of the things that we pride ourselves on is being filmmaker friendly. So we've committed to Francis to do a global Imax release," reported The Hollywood Reporter.
Internationally, the tenants of the film, which circle around the rebuilding of America after a destruction, and the philosophical choices of returning to the old or building a better, more perfect society, may find an audience as the destruction of America plays well throughout the world. While Coppola's Megapolis is based on the contentions, and ultimately the destruction of Rome, a period of history that may be lost to younger audiences and appears to be represented as a cyclical theme in society.
Critical and commercial success are rarely unified, and the sci-fi foundation with the destruction of American society may just find that niche market internationally. There is a distinct possibility further down the road of Megalopolis showing up during awards season, as Coppola has built a world which could qualify the film for a Best Production Design nomination.
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Reviews range from describing the project as bold and daring and praising the film for its ambition and "creatively unbounded approach" to others that "were blisteringly bad. Peter Bradshaw for The Guardian called it "megabloated and megaboring." Tim Grierson for Screen Daily called it a "disaster" "stymied by arbitrary plotting and numbing excess." Kevin Maher for the Times of London wrote that it's a "head-wrecking abomination." Critic Jessica Kiang said "Megalopolis" "is a folly of such gargantuan proportions it's like observing the actual fall of Rome," reported The Associated Press.
Studio Ghibli Receives Honorary Palme d'or
The 77th Festival de Cannes is delighted to celebrate Studio Ghibli, legendary Japanese animation studio. On Monday, May 20, at 3.30pm, film director and Creative Development Director of the Ghibli Park Gorō Miyazaki, Hayao Miyazaki' son, will take to the stage of the Grand Théâtre Lumière to receive the Honorary Palme d'or, on behalf of the entire Studio Ghibli including the Ghibli Museum, Mitaka and Ghibli Park, from Festival President Iris Knobloch and General Delegate Thierry Frémaux. During the ceremony, four short films written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki, co-founder of the Studio with Toshio Suzuki and Isao Takahata, will be screened. An unprecedented event, three of the four short films straight from the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka have never been screened outside of Japan.
Meryl Streep Receives Honorary Palme d'or
Meryl Streep, who has been called one of the greatest actresses of her generation, also received an honorary Palme d'or on May 14, 2024.
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Cannes Film Festival "In Competition" Films
Twenty-two films from around the world were selected to compete for the festival's top prize, the Palme d'or, which is awarded to the director of the Best Feature film.
The twenty-two films in competition are The Apprentice by Ali Abbasi, Motel Destino by Karim Aïnouz, Bird by Andrea Arnold, Emilia Perez by Jacques Audiard, Anora by Sean Baker, Megalopolis by Francis Ford Coppola, The Shrouds by David Cronenberg, The Substance by Coralie Fargeat.
Grand Tour by Miguel Gomes, Marcello Mio by Christophe Honoré, Caught By The Tides by Jia Zhang-Ke, All We Imagine As Light by Payal Kapadia, Kinds Of Kindness by Yórgos Lánthimos, L'amour Ouf by Gilles Lellouche, Diamant Brut by Agathe Riedinger 1er Film.
Oh Canada by Paul Schrader, Limonov – The Ballad by Kirill Serebrennikov, Parthenope by Paolo Sorrentino, The Girl With The Needle by Magnus Von Horn, The Most Precious Of Cargoes by Michel Hazanavicius, Three Kilometers To The End Of The World by Emanuel Parvu, and The Seed Of The Sacred Fig by Mohammad Rasoulof.
