Last 15 th of May he Cannes Film Festival had one of the most memorable evenings in his long film history. Was when Francis Ford Coppola projected for the first time Megalopolis: a film that he had been trying to make for forty years, and that for it to finally see the light required the sale of a large part of the director’s wine estate. The Godfather. Megalopolis has cost a whopping 120 million dollars, and all from Coppola’s pocket. In his distribution we find Adam Driver supported by Nathalie Emmanuel, Giancarlo Esposito, Aubrey Plaza, Shia LaBeouf either Dustin Hoffman.
A cast of ringleaders at the service of an ambitious science fiction film, whose first reactions suggested that it was going to be a commercial catastrophe. Leaving aside the rumors, as well as the possibility that its filming was equally disastrous and problematic, it certainly fits with the reception the film received from international critics. Coppola and his team received a seven-minute ovation as the screening concluded, but it seemed more a gesture toward the fact that it was the first film the filmmaker had directed in 13 years (after Twixt), rather than a show of generalized enthusiasm.
The truth is that the reception has been tremendously mixed, and confirms the doubts of producers and distributors about how to sell Megalopolis. So it happens that in the US the film still has no confirmed distribution, although it does in other territories such as France and Spain. In our country it will be in charge Tripictures (with a date to be specified) and in the neighboring country The Pacte. Both companies will risk taking Megalopolis to the cinemas with the fear that the public will actually turn their backs on him, and with an added difficulty that we found out about shortly after the film was seen in Cannes.
It turns out that Coppola, always groundbreaking, has arranged for a scene in his film to require the participation of the audience. And that’s exactly what happened at the Cannes screening: an actor stood up in the audience and began to have a dialogue with Driver’s character from the big screen. An experimental gesture that, in addition to being original and friendly, is also tremendously difficult to replicate on a widespread level. It does not seem possible that it be done in all the sessions that are organized in this way. Megalopolis throughout the world.
Or… is it? deadline has contacted Le Pacte to discuss this breaking of the fourth wall. Jean Labadie, head of the distributor, has assured that they will do everything possible to ensure that Megalopolis be screened in French cinemas with this performance incorporated. Labadie assumes, on the other hand, that it will be impossible to do so in all rooms. “Without a doubt we will do many performances of this type.”
“But with four daily screenings In many theaters, it will not be easy to do it at each screening. We will organize it, but we cannot predict how many times we will be able to do it. “We will work on it with all the exhibitors in France to try to do it as many times as we can.” Tripictures, for its part, has not clarified what it will do, but on the part of Le Pacte they deal with an added difficulty if they want to project the film exactly according to Coppola’s designs. Is that Megalopolis It is developed for screens IMAX.
“In France we only have 22 IMAX theaters, but we are eager to screen Francis Ford Coppola’s creation as he conceived it. How we will do it is not so easy to say,” concludes Labadie. So it’s going to be difficult, but there are certainly intentions to Megalopolis can be seen in style beyond Cannes.
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