Megalopolis — Cannes 2024 Movie Review — Sucharita Tyagi
This is the ONLY film I watched twice at Cannes.
Last day, flight se 2 ghante pehle, Megalopolis ki aakhiri screening, jismein Coppola ji khud prakat ho gaye. More on that in a bit.
Nothing one has read or heard about this film that’s been cooking inside the filmmaker’s head for about 50 years, can prepare one for what one is about to experience. There is not a lot of time to kill at Cannes, and to watch a movie twice means you’re certainly making a mad dash from place to the next. But I ABSOLUTELY could not leave without a second viewing, so I found 2 extra hours on my last day, for which im glad.
We are in New Rome, 3rd Millenium, 21st century. I think. Make of that what you will, but yeh film aisi hai ki do baar aankhein gada ke dekhne ke baad bhi poora yakeen nahi hai mujhey apne hi dimaag par ki joh dekha woh sahi tha ya nahi. The film opens with an inscription asking you ki “insatiable appetite for power of a few men” ke liye kya aur empire girenge? Girne chahiye? Girne denge? As you ponder over this question, election mein netaaon ki campaigning bhi aur Gaza mein chal rahe narsanhaar ke visuals bhi aankhon ke saamne tairte aate hain, fataafat mulaakat hoti hai with the protagonist, Ceaser Catalina. Yeh Design Authority ka chairman hai, nobel award winning architect, jisney banaya hai ek naya material called the Megalon — iss se buildings bhi bann sakti hain aur kapde bhi. Jaise jab plastic ka aavishkar hua hoga and people must have lost their minds about this material that will last forver only to later realise omg its actually going to last forever and kill the planet, Megalon is also hotly debated. Perhaps it’s because architects create buildings and structures that become emblematic of the time period for people to see for centuries and millenniums, Catalina in this universe has the literal ability to stop time. Burdened with the responsibility of his own gift, in the very first scene he is about to jump off a watch tower, but as he steps off the ledge, he stops time and steps back.
He’s also standing for mayoral elections. Catalina’s opposition is Franklyn Cicero, played by Giancarlo Esposito. Cicero is an old school conservative, a fan of tradition, but not one to shy away from bending a few rules himself. The two are at each other’s throats, but things get complex when Cicero’s only child, his daughter Julia, played by Nathalie Emmanuel, gets romantically involved with Catalina.
As you can tell, most if not all names of the main characters are taken from famous Roman historical figures, means Coppola is not making it easy on his viewers. Every name, every outfit, every head gear, stroke of eye liner has significance to it, and hence the only way to breeze through Megalopolis is if you already know everything about everything and have read every book in existence.
For lesser mortals like me, two viewings are a must. The first to absorb the shock, and the second to follow the plot, which mercifully and almost magically simplifies once you get over the initial jaw-dropping reaction to this gigantic film.
Writing about Megalopolis is like being in a relationship with an actual human. It’s the most wonderous, most beautiful sight you’ve ever laid eyes upon, sunlight and beauty emanating from each pore, but there are also moments you want to have nothing to do with it, sleep on the sofa, wishing you’d never met. Adam Driver yelling a “to be or not to be” speech unprovoked is beautiful to witness, because of the sheer power this man exudes, but it does hit you like a ton of bricks. Aubrey Plaza as a go-getter media vixen stereotype is every crazy woman written by a man you’ve ever seen before. She has ambition and uses sex as a device to get where she wants. However, the actor, who is named Wow Platinum here is magnetic, and despite the 1.5 note character given to her, it is impossible to look away each time Wow is on the screen, pulling a face at someone.
Megaloplis demands to be experienced and surrendered to…as cliché perhaps this description may sound. The irony isn’t lost on me because the film is anything but a cliche. The actors themselves seem to be treating it like a sum of its parts, taking it a day at a time. Nathalie Emmanuel ‘s dialogue seems like its veering more towards a live operatic performance, while Shia Le Bouf as a popular Trump-esque political figure whose entire campaign is hinged on talking in rhymes and provocative slogans, is pulling out all the dramatic acting for cinema stops. The film itself exists in the past and the future, a warning and a directive. Coppola is addressing nearly every thought that’s perhaps crossed his mind — he has questions about science, purity, capitalism, modern-day royalty, ambition vs greed, the importance of an unbiased media, and do our existing systems and structure need an overhaul because our institutions are just so burdened?
That Megalopolis might be deeply personal to Coppola became even more evident when the filmmaker SHOWED up before the final screening and made everyone take a pledge with him? About justice, peace, humanity. In the film Catalina wants to name his son, Francis! The filmmaker wants to enter his world of Megalopolis, come alive in it once again from childhood, and live through it, till the end of time, as the world revolves on the same axis, as history repeats itself, tyrants rise and are defeated, and people who think outside the box are vilified for being too disruptive. Another Francis must be born to tell these complex stories again.
Yeh film kab release hogi kab nahi one doesn’t know, but if you enjoy movies as puzzles, and like to find your own meanings, infer, and fancy yourself a bit of a sleuth, there will hardly be a more enjoyable 2 hours 18 minutes you might ever spend.
So, on a scale fo 1 to 10, Megalopolis is….85 years, that’s his age.
