Francis Ford Coppola has lamented the state of modern cinema, claiming some major studios no longer focus on making high quality films.
Speaking at a press conference at Cannes Film Festival following the world premiere of his new dystopian drama Megalopolis, Coppola expressed his view that studios are mostly focused on making money due to their high levels of debt.
“I fear that the film industry has become more of a matter of people being hired to meet their debt obligations because the studios are in great, great debt. And the job is not so much to make good movies, the job is to make sure they pay their debt obligations,” Coppola told Variety.
However, The Godfather director believes streaming services could interrupt the old system and potentially have a positive impact on the industry. “Obviously, new companies like Amazon and Apple and Microsoft, they have plenty of money, so it might be that the studios we knew for so long, some wonderful ones, are not to be here in the future anymore.”
Megalopolis, which was self-financed by Coppola and took decades to make, received a mixed reaction at its Cannes Film Festival premiere on Thursday (May 16). The film stars Adam Driver as Cesar Catilina, an architect-scientist who wants to improve a fictional version of New York City called New Rome.
Audience members reportedly started booing after the film ended. However, according to World of Reel‘s Jordan Ruimy, the boos soon turned to cheers when an “In Memoriam” segment proceeded to play for Coppola’s late wife Eleanor. The director and cast then received a seven-minute standing ovation.
“Thank you all so much. It is so impossible to find words to tell you how I feel,” Coppola said at the end of the credits, introducing his family members to the audience.
“But they were not the only family because all of these wonderful actors and folks were all my family. As Cesar [Driver’s character in the film] says, we’re all one family. You’re all my cousins. We are one. We are the human family. As you see at the end, that’s who we should pledge our allegiance to: our entire family and to this beautiful home, Earth, that we have.
“That is my wish. That it’s the children who are going to inherit this beautiful world from us. The most important word we have is the most beautiful word in any language: ‘esperanza.’ Hope. And that’s what I dedicate this to.”
The film has also received a mixed reaction from critics, debuting on Rotten Tomatoes with a score of 53 per cent. Many have commented on the movie’s “bizarreness”, with The Guardian describing it as “bloated, boring and bafflingly shallow”.
Megalopolis is set in an “imagined Modern America”, the official synopsis reads. “The City of New Rome must change, causing conflict between Cesar Catilina (Driver), a genius artist who seeks to leap into a utopian, idealistic future, and his opposition, Mayor Franklyn Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito), who remains committed to a regressive status quo, perpetuating greed, special interests, and partisan warfare.
“Torn between them is socialite Julia Cicero (Nathalie Emmanuel), the mayor’s daughter, whose love for Cesar has divided her loyalties, forcing her to discover what she truly believes humanity deserves.”
Aubrey Plaza, Shia LaBeouf, Jon Voight, Laurence Fishburne, Talia Shire, Kathryn Hunter, Grace VanderWaal, Chloe Fineman, DB Sweeney and Dustin Hoffman also star.
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