With the money obtained from his winemaking activity, Francis Ford Coppola financed Megalopolishis grand return to directing, after thirteen years of absence. Filmed outside of ” Fast food “ In what Hollywood has become in his eyes, the film can be savoured as an atypical vintage, with long, heady notes. In an interview, the 85-year-old filmmaker seems to be the same as his drinks: strong on the palate, intoxicatingly erudite, it ages well.
The images are projected onto the buildings of the “Megalopolis”, whose walls look like screens. What is the relationship between cinema and architecture?
At the beginning of Eight and a half [1963]In Fellini’s film, the protagonist suffocates in a car, trapped in a tunnel: the setting is above all a metaphor. This is also the case in Megalopolis. If Catilina, the character played by Adam Driver, kisses a woman on top of a skyscraper, it is because it is an extremely dangerous act, which will turn his life upside down. For the Indians, opposites come together: creation equals destruction. However, our brain interprets everything in terms of our survival: falling, for it, is not synonymous with elevation but with mortal risk. Who knows if it is wrong? It is up to artists and mythologists to enlighten us on the true meaning of things.
Is “Megalopolis” a peplum?
It is a peplum in which America would be Rome. The United States was strongly inspired by ancient Rome: its institutions, its laws, its architecture. In 509 BC, the Romans overthrew their monarch and invented the Republic; likewise, our founding fathers refused to allow us to be a colony of the King of England. Pennsylvania Station, a magnificent New York train station demolished in 1963, was modeled after the Baths of Caracalla… I always wanted to make an epic, because this genre has the best ingredients: battles, strong women, slaves, mad emperors… Peplums resonate with the ideology of their time: Spartacus [1960]Kubrick’s film evokes the African-American civil rights movement. When I discovered the story of Catiline’s conspiracy against Cicero, I thought of the conflict between New York’s elected officials and the city planner Robert Moses. [1888-1981]…
Legend has it that, in preparation for the film, you visited Arcosanti, a utopian town in the Arizona desert. Is this true?
I stayed there for two weeks, I cooked. I was interested in the way the city adapts to the climate: houses are ventilated at night, without wasting energy. I have been everywhere where there was a demonstrable utopia: in Arcosanti, in Curitiba, in Brazil… I learned that the more a city resembles nature, the better. Instead of making it concrete, we could live in flowers, pine cones and forests, especially since we now have control over the genome of plants. I dream of a living architecture, which loves you and helps you, like a friend: if it rains, your home protects you; if the weather is nice, it lets the sun through.
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