New 'Megalopolis' trailer!!!
Hello friends and enemies,
Well, the Cannes Film Festival has begun! Meryl Streep got an honorary Palme d’Or, Greta Gerwig wore couture, and Furiosa is screening as I type.
But the most important thing that has happened (perhaps in all of history) is the second Megalopolis teaser, which Francis Ford Coppola dropped at like 9pm Pacific Daylight Time on Monday night, for some reason. He said of the film:
Our new film MEGALOPOLIS is the best work I've ever had the privilege to preside over.
Huge statement coming from the director of The Godfather, Apocalypse Now, and Jack.
There have also been reports of bad behavior on set, about which I will say only this. The sexual impropriety allegations should be taken seriously! They should be independently investigated and if actions must be taken after that, then that’s what should happen.
However, the allegations that he would smoke pot in his trailer and spend hours of every day not filming anything should absolutely not be taken seriously. Anyone who has a problem with the weed of it all… grow up.
Anyway—the teaser.
The trailer opens with a SIREN over the American Zoetrope logo (which fucks, first of all) and then there is a shot of bombs or meteors or aliens or comets etc. raining down over New York City New Rome, specifically, first, over the Statue of Liberty.
A narration from I believe Laurence Fishbourne (who plays “Fundi Romaine”) begins: “When… does an empire… die… does it collapse in one terrible moment? No… no… but there comes a time when its people no longer believe in it.” Whoa. Sounds almost like this is actually about the world we really live in…
Under the narration are more shots, as you might expect. When one of the fiery objects connects with earth, it casts the shadows of humans in distress against the skyscraper, as distorted screams resound—[Josh O’Connor voice] “wow… incredible!” We are 16 seconds into a teaser and already there are three or five more arresting, captivating shots than in the whole of Civil War, now in theaters.
There is a shot of Shia LaBeouf (who plays “Clodio Pulcher”) in the backseat of a car. Arrested? We aren’t sure, but we presume. He has a long, ratty wig and wears what appears to be a Hot Topic style bedazzled jacket (I have no idea what to call those little chrome squares on the jacket—Clare, lmk).
And then the statue of Justice is moving! She puts her arm up against a skyscraper and leans into it dramatically like a Victorian matron. She is blind but she weeps for America… for New Rome.
And then the bacchanal begins. There is an indoor chariot race at Madison Square Gardens! There are people wearing togas on chaises eating fruit from the vine! There is an orgiastic rave. All to be expected. This is a Roman Epic fable set in an imagined Modern America, after all.
There is a fruit stand that appears to be bioluminescent. There is a building crumbling. There is Aubrey Plaza (who plays “Wow Platinum”) looking cunt. There is a guy with maybe a bullseye tattooed on his forehead? Clodio Pulcher yells “we are taking our city back!” wearing Caesar laurels, flanked by the NYPD NRPD in riot gear and the revolution begins! This shit is nuts.
But in all seriousness, I am about as hyped for this picture as I’ve ever been about a new release. It may be messy, it may not even be good in the end, but I have a feeling that we will certainly not be bored, and that would be enough.
“Is this way we’re living the only one available to us?” Adam Driver (the lead, who I’ve not mentioned until now, who plays “Cesar Catilina”) asks. “When we ask these questions, and there’s a dialogue about them, that basically is a utopia.” I have a feeling that may not be true, I worry that things are about to get a lot worse for Cesar Catilina… But I do not know for sure, and I look forward to finding out.
they are called rivets
My first reaction is to worry that FFC tried to put in everything he could, and movies that are crammed with Everything You Can Put In (e.g. "Argyle") are usually not great. I hope that isn't true here.