Cannes 2024: Francis Ford Coppola hits out at the state of modern cinema
At a press conference at Cannes Film Festival following the world premiere of Megalopolis, director Francis Ford Coppola lamented the current state of Hollywood, which he feels is on the brink of collapse.
For his new movie, which Coppola has dedicated decades of his live to creating, the filmmaker circumvented the traditional Hollywood system. While this came at great personal expense, reportedly costing Coppola over $120 million, it did award him with creative freedom. Although, most directors can’t afford this luxury.
Coppola first conceived of Megalopolis while making his celebrated Vietnam War film Apocalypse Now over four decades ago. The project finally came to life when Coppola opted to fund it himself, which he believes could be the way forward for creators.
In the eyes of Coppola, the studios are only focussed on making money due to their high levels of debt reducing art to be a secondary focus. “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 at the press conference.
However, Coppola believes streaming services interrupting the old system could potentially have positve repercussions, stating, “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.”
Elsewhere during the press conference, Coppola shared his fears about the rise of right wing politics globally, remarking, “Men like Donald Trump are not at the moment in charge, but there is a trend happening in the world toward the more neo-right, even fascist tradition, which is frightening because anyone who was alive during World War II saw the horrors that took place and we don’t want a repeat of that.”
While he didn’t intend for Megapolis to have a relevancy to the modern world when he first started work on the project, Coppola added, “So again, I think it’s the role of the artist, the films, to shine light on what’s happening in the world.”
As of yet, Megapolis hasn’t been given a release date and the reaction to the movie at Cannes was divisive.
As the screening came to an end, the crowd reportedly booed the picture at first. When an ‘In Memoriam’ dedication to Coppola’s wife, Eleanor, appeared on screen, the crowd adopted their response and cheered. Eleanor Coppola, who was a director in her own right, passed away earlier this year at the age of 87.
The cheers then turned into a seven-minute standing ovation, following which Coppola took the opportunity to thank the audience, devoting the film to family and to hope. “Thank you all so much, it is impossible to find words to tell you how I feel,” he began.
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