The stuff that Coppola’s dreams are made of: The director on building ‘Megalopolis’
Of the many quotations and slogans that flitter through Francis Ford Coppola’s idea-stuffed, open-hearted, unabashedly optimistic “Megalopolis,” one that particularly resonates with the director is: “When we leap into the unknown, we prove that we’re free.”
CANNES, France (AP) — Of the many quotations and slogans that flitter through Francis Ford Coppola’s idea-stuffed, open-hearted, unabashedly optimistic “Megalopolis,” one that particularly resonates with the director is: “When we leap into the unknown, we prove that we’re free.”
“That’s me making this film,” Coppola says, speaking on a hotel terrace in Cannes the day after “Megalopolis” premiered at the French festival. “To all of the studio big shots, I proved that I’m free and they’re not. Because they don’t dare leap into the unknown. And I do. That’s the only way to prove that you’re free.”
Coppola pauses and then adds, with a grin. “I don’t recommend it.”
“Megalopolis,” Coppola’s first film in 13 years, has been called many things since it was unveiled in Cannes. A folly. A disaster. An audacious, self-financed gamble. What it is, regardless of whether all its strange parts function smoothly together, is a colossal personal statement by one of American’s most visionary filmmakers, about having the daring to be visionary.
