‘Megalopolis’ and the Second Life of a Box-Office Flop

Francis Ford Coppola had a plan—or appeared to have one, at the very least. When the famed director of The Godfather walked onto the stage of San Francisco’s Palace of Nice Arts Theatre after a screening of his newest movie, 2024’s Megalopolis, he informed the viewers that he meant “to alter the world tonight.” An assistant wheeled out a whiteboard itemizing the ten matters Coppola needed to debate: time, work, cash, politics, schooling, legislation, struggle, artwork, faith, and celebration. By the point the discuss ended two hours later, nevertheless, the 86-year-old filmmaker had coated solely 5 of the objects; virtually half of the viewers had trickled out; and the world appeared regrettably unchanged.Billed as “An Night with Francis Ford Coppola,” the occasion earlier this month was the final cease in a six-city highway tour meant to honor Megalopolis by indulging in an in-depth examine of its themes. The whiteboard, the 10-pronged method to fixing human society, the hours of unmoderated dialogue—all of it was an obvious try to construct the mythology of a movie launched lower than a 12 months in the past that had already gave the impression to be forgotten. Motion pictures have been resuscitated earlier than: Now-beloved movies similar to The Rocky Horror Image Present, The Princess Bride, and The Large Lebowski have for many years been embraced by audiences after being missed throughout their preliminary releases. However as a lot as Megalopolis suits the imprecise outlines of notoriety that might at some point make it a cult basic—Coppola’s epic movie, which envisioned America as a retro-futuristic model of the Roman empire, was critically derided, dramatically underperformed on the field workplace, and endured a shaky behind-the-scenes manufacturing that concerned the director plopping down $120 million of his personal cash—its revival feels completely different.Certainly, the response to Coppola’s cross-country tour got here off much less just like the beginnings of an underground fan base, and extra like a movie group tolerating an auteur’s exhaustive protection of his work. “The Coppola factor’s a bit uncommon,” Jamie Sexton, a movie professor learning cult cinema at Northumbria College, in England, informed me. The director appears to be a one-man military who’s trying, Sexton stated, “to facilitate a cult following.” After all, the notion of a “cult movie” has grown nebulous over time: Many motion pictures which were bestowed the title, similar to Blade Runner and This Is Spinal Faucet, gained widespread reputation anyway, and the proliferation of streaming providers makes it simpler for individuals to find almost any film on their very own. However slightly than enable audiences to organically discover Megalopolis, Coppola has made it arduous to display legally. (The movie is at the moment unavailable to stream in North America.) Somewhat than anticipate reevaluations of it to emerge over time, Coppola initiated the dialog from his finish.Learn: The Megalopolis that Francis Ford Coppola needed to makeCoppola, for his half, leaned into the weirdness of his endeavor. Through the reside occasions, he coated matters as various as schooling reform, the advantages of jury obligation, and the oppressiveness of time—solely very loosely linking all of them to Megalopolis. The director, who wore mismatched socks onstage, beseeched his viewers to ask him something. One attendee pressed him to debate the attract of natural structure. One other thrust a hand into the air for a two-part query: First, did Coppola have something to share a couple of third minimize of Apocalypse Now, and second, may Coppola please signal the customized Harley-Davidson bike he’d designed to honor the director’s filmography? (It was parked proper outdoors!) Coppola answered most queries patiently, however at all times turned again to the guiding ideas on his whiteboard.His efforts to reintroduce Megalopolis to the general public reveal the problem of remodeling a flop right into a cult basic. No components exists for that course of, however the constructing—and sustaining—of underground-hit standing, Sexton informed me, requires audiences to take full management of a piece’s legacy. No matter cinematic high quality, such tasks are typically transgressive in some compelling method, sufficient to encourage devotion: They’re thematically controversial, stylistically difficult, or just pleasurable in ways in which followers need to passionately defend. “There’s a particular taste to the cult following when the artwork isn’t thought-about mainstream, as a result of that fills you with a way of just about conspiratorial-style consolation,” Amanda Montell, the writer of Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism and a co-host of the podcast Sounds Like a Cult, informed me. “Like, I’ve entry to one thing that the sheep don’t.” Viewers grant these motion pictures a rarefied standing by repeatedly rallying behind them and pushing for them to be reconsidered by critics and mainstream audiences. When studios attempt to mobilize area of interest fandoms, nevertheless, by rereleasing much-memed motion pictures, fast-tracking sequels, and coining portmanteaus, that curiosity seldom interprets into sustainable, influential communities. The facility to outline a movie’s destiny after its launch rests with the customers, not the creators.Even so, Coppola’s resolution to take the reins seems to have labored to some extent: A number of stops on the tour offered out, and a handful of attendees the night time I went shouted on the filmmaker to launch Megalopolis on Blu-ray in North America. However none of it proves that Megalopolis has lastly received audiences over. If something, the continued fascination with the movie illustrates the enchantment of self-mythology—of watching a filmmaker outline the private stakes of his work, study his profession, and tie his personal worldview so intently to a single challenge. Montell defined that Coppola’s technique appeared to contain “Frankensteining” the practices that materialize round cult motion pictures (hard-to-access screenings, dissections of their manufacturing) with the circuitous chatter that may encompass cults of character. By exhibiting as much as recognize the issues of the movie—and of its maker’s aspirations—the viewers countered essential consensus and displayed unconventional style. A few of that entails direct participation, which, for a lot of cult movies, can flip into rituals: Throughout screenings of The Room, audiences toss plastic spoons on the display. Throughout The Rocky Horror Image Present, they sing alongside. Throughout Megalopolis, at the very least on the San Francisco exhibiting, an particularly passionate group within the viewers cheered throughout a scene that had gone viral, chanting “membership” alongside the protagonist, the visionary inventor Cesar, performed by Adam Driver.Learn: After 40 years, Rocky Horror has develop into mainstreamSpontaneous responses similar to which will point out the beginnings of a cult legacy. However for all of Coppola’s insistence that his movie’s themes are massively related to as we speak’s society, answering the query of whether or not a film as unusual and impressive as Megalopolis will actually discover a fervent viewers, Sexton stated, requires persistence: “For me, there needs to be some sort of endurance past the thrill.” An upcoming making-of documentary will additional take a look at the movie’s potential longevity. Till then, what Coppola has carried out is willed an ephemeral following into being, for simply six nights—and perhaps, for him, for now, that’s sufficient. In spite of everything, Sexton identified, “he doesn’t have to do that.”​​If you purchase a e-book utilizing a hyperlink on this web page, we obtain a fee. Thanks for supporting The Atlantic.