10 · 22 · 24

MEGALOPOLIS Press Conference: Francis Ford Coppola Is Not Afraid to Take Risks

Omar Sosa

Acclaimed director Francis Ford Coppola, Guest of Honor of the 22nd Morelia International Film Festival (FICM), gave a press conference about his new film Megalopolis (2024), which will premiere in Mexico at this year's festival. Among those in attendance were Daniela Michel, founder and director of the festival, Alejandro Ramírez, president of the festival, Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas Batel, vice president of FICM, Hugo Villa, General Director of Film Activities at UNAM, and Alonso Díaz de la Vega, writer and film critic, who also moderated the conference.

Before beginning, Hugo Villa presented Coppola with the UNAM Film Archive Medal in recognition of the director's incomparable career. “I hope everyone understands that the silver in this medal was taken from the silver extracted in the process of developing the films, I am literally holding the heritage of Mexican cinema in my hands,” Coppola told the audience as he gratefully clutched the medal.

“We are extremely honored to have you here with us in Morelia to present yet one more installment of your incredible film career,” Alejandro Ramírez said to Ford Coppola, officially kicking off the conference. Coppola took the opportunity to clarify certain rumors about the development of his film, denying that it had taken him 40 years to make it. He placed the audience in 1997, after he finished The Rainmaker (1997), an experience that motivated him to return to school and temporarily pause his production projects.

“I wanted to be a student for ten years and see what filmmaking could teach me again,” he explained. This phase helped him hatch ideas for future projects that he planned to get to when he reached a more mature stage.

Alonso Díaz de la Vega asked about Adam Driver's character in Megalopolis (2024) and the significance of his ability to stop time, to which Coppola replied, “Today's cinema accepts the idea that there are superheroes who fly or throw spider webs, but they find it unusual that someone can stop time when that is not a superpower. Artists have always been able to stop time."

The director then chose to open the floor to questions from the audience. A young fan enthusiastically asked him about his vision for the future of cinema. Coppola reflected, “Cinema is going in a direction that decentralizes the character's story and will concentrate on a methodology closer to video games: a live cinema." 

“You can imagine the cinema of the future trying to imagine the technology of the future, which is very difficult because human technology evolves very fast” the director continued, commenting on the capacity of humans to invent everything, as it happens in Megalopolis (2024), because we are a "family of geniuses."

Another attendee asked why Coppola decided to make a “strange” film like Megalopolis, when in the past he had directed classics like The Godfather (1972), The Godfather II (1974) and Apocalypse Now (1979). Mindful of his filmography, Coppola responded, “The films of the past were not considered great when they were released.” He even shared how those films initially failed to connect with audiences. “There is only one critic that matters for cinema, it's the passage of time. Only time will tell which is a good film and which is not,” he mused on the untimely opinions that tend to emerge.

Someone else from the audience mentioned that family is a recurring theme in Megalopolis and asked what family means to the director. Coppola, inviting the audience to perceive themselves as family, replied “There is no one in this theater who is not my cousin, there is no one in China who is not my cousin, there is no one in Africa who is not my cousin.” Then, he added, “Nothing is happening in the world that we can't solve if we perceive ourselves as a family of geniuses.”  

A young man asked the director if he has considered retiring, Coppola remarked that his wife was also asking him to allow himself a break. “I don't know how. The only way I can find rest from one project is to invent another project, but then I have two projects.” And so, thanks to this situation, we'll have more Coppola movies.

“Francis Ford Coppola leaves Sofia Coppola, Roman Coppola and Gian-Carlo Coppola,” the director replied when asked about his legacy to the world. For him, young people are not just the future but the most important legacy we leave. “Children are our jewels, grandchildren are the dividends, but great-grandchildren mean immortality itself,” he added.

Another journalist asked him about his search for utopia, a constant theme in his films and one that is not absent in Megalopolis. Coppola returned to the idea of the family: “When we can talk to each other and ask questions without fear, we will have reached utopia."

Of the challenges the flm industry faces, Coppola said, “Journalism is beautiful and extremely valuable, but in order to stay relevant it is succumbing to unsourced information or giving in to clickbait. It's a tragedy. I think journalism is going to die, but it will be reborn in a form we don't yet know. The same thing will happen with the Hollywood studio system, it's dying.”

“I love the Hollywood system, I wouldn't exist without it, but it doesn't want me anymore because I don't believe that making money is the end of filmmaking,” he said of his estrangement from the current industry, which rejects the creative risks he champions. “Art is only art when it is free enough to take risks.” 

Taking advantage of his stay in Mexico, he was asked about his opinion of Mexican cinema. Coppola responded: “Who can ignore the presence of Iñárritu, Del Toro or Cuarón?” he encouraged Mexican audiences to be proud of their cinema.

In closing, Coppola asked anyone who didn't like Megalopolis for their opinion. A young man raised his hand and asked “If this were your last film, would you regret making it the way you did or would you be proud of what you did?” Francis Ford Coppola replied “I feel very similar about Megalopolis to how I felt about Apocalypse Now or The Godfather II, when they said it had terrible performances. I clearly failed to make you believe the illusion. On the screen there is nothing, all the emotion and thought is in you, the audience, and if the illusion doesn't work, you're going to hate it.” He then urged the young man to watch the film one more time, hoping the illusion would work then. The press conference closed with applause for the director, who charmed with his charisma, wisdom and openness when answering questions.