Filmpocalypse How? Francis Ford Coppola’s failed experiments in ‘live cinema’
An aura of intrigue, mystique has always surrounded Francis Ford Coppola and, yes, madness. Arguably, no other filmmaker in history has defied critics, audiences, studio executives and even his own incredibly high expectations with such panache. Endlessly raising his middle finger to the voices of derision and doing precisely what he wants, when he wants, Coppola is no stranger to failure or disaster among his many endeavours in cinema, which is exactly why he continues to fascinate well into the twilight years of his life and career.
Indeed, in his latest attempt at self-pastiche (or self-immolation?), the most recent trailer for Coppola’s behemoth, life-long-passion-project, Megalopolis, features scathing reviews from (AI-generated) critics throughout the decades who lambasted some of his most acclaimed works upon release. Well, as a marketing ploy, it was a great way to attract all the wrong kind of attention to a film that has been set up for a catastrophic failure at the box office, but this kind of brazen behaviour is what we have come to expect from Coppola.
So what if this move, designed to draw the audience’s attention back to a project that Coppola is banking on being as big a film as The Godfather and Apocalypse Now, turned out to be as effective as a misfiring rocket made in North Korea? Coppola is that guy who always doubles down when he is losing, and for better or for worse, that’s his way. We have long held him in high esteem, partly because of it.
In a past interview with the Directors Guild of America, which happily coincides with shortly after Coppola went into wine-making, the move that would lead to him being able to self-fund Megalopolis as another joyful reminder of how little fucks this man gives and his undying determination to do things his way – the legendary filmmaker was reflecting on his career and incidentally, some of his misadventures in filmmaking. Perhaps most perplexing of all is his quest for ‘live cinema’ in the 1982 musical romance One from the Heart.
One from the Heart is the story of a failing relationship set against the glitzy backdrop of Las Vegas, which was a total disaster. It was made on a bloated $26million budget and grossed just $656,095. The film bankrupted Coppola, forcing him to lose his beloved Zoetrope Studios after being unable to repay film backers. But what exactly was the acclaimed director thinking when he tried to make this picture?
Coppola wanted to combine old-school studio filmmaking with modern equipment and techniques, including live sound mixing and live editing, to blur the lines of performance and deliver a unique cinematic experience. The soundstage at Zoetrope was completely taken over by the production of the film and transformed into a replica of the strip in Las Vega—including building a runway to match the city’s airport. The complete picture was supposed to be shot and edited live. Bearing in mind that the concept of ‘live cinema’ has still not yet been fully realised to the extent Coppola was hoping for more than 40 years ago, you begin to understand just how much of an undertaking this would have been at the time.
Coppola, for his part, admits to being swayed away from enacting his dream of ‘live cinema’ for One from the Heart by his collaborators. He said: “The cinematographer, Vittorio Storaro, who was my dear friend, came to me and said we should do it one camera at a time. Both he and the art director wanted to make more sets and shoot one camera at a time because you can light one camera more beautifully”. Coppola admitted that he gave in to the pressure from his colleagues despite going against his better judgement and that, in his opinion, if he had stuck to his guns, the film would have turned out fine, and he would never have gone bankrupt.
If the ongoing attempts to produce Distant Vision are anything to go by, perhaps this is an experiment that will always fall tragically out of the maverick director’s reach.
