Francis Ford Coppola Gives a Scathing Response to Winning “Worst Director” for ‘Megalopolis’

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/francis-ford-coppola-megalopolis-razzies-response-1236150373/

35 comments

  1. [Coopola](https://www.instagram.com/p/DGnvW5RprbL):
    >I am thrilled to accept the Razzie award in so many important categories for @megalopolisfilm , and for the distinctive honor of being nominated as the worst director, worst screenplay, and worst picture at a time when so few have the courage to go against the prevailing trends of contemporary moviemaking!

    >In this wreck of a world today, where ART is given scores as if it were professional wrestling, I chose to NOT follow the gutless rules laid down by an industry so terrified of risk that despite the enormous pool of young talent at its disposal, may not create pictures that will be relevant and alive 50 years from now.

    >What an honor to stand alongside a great and courageous filmmaker like Jacques Tati who impoverished himself completely to make one of cinema’s most beloved failures, PLAYTIME! My sincere thanks to all my brilliant colleagues who joined me to make our work of art, MEGALOPOLIS, and let us remind ourselves us that box-office is only about money, and like war, stupidity and politics has no true place in our future.

  2. Angrily responding to the Razzies only makes you look more pathetic.

    Also, stop sexually harrassing teenagers, old man.

  3. Haven’t watched this movie yet but man he owns it. To be fair their are original movies like Oppenheimer and Barbie (not so much but still) which are successful.

  4. Old Man Yells At Cloud. Dude has been shoveling out mostly garbage since the 80s.

  5. Since working on *Twixt*, he has embraced an experimental phase in his career for the past fifteen years. He explores his imaginative world through projects that captivate him, like a child building a fort for imaginary friends. I admire his commitment to pursuing what interests him, and an audience will appreciate these films.

  6. He is so divorced from reality that he actually made that dogshit movie and blew $100M of his own money to do it.

  7. Just because the creator considers what they are doing to be art, doesn’t mean it should be exempt from criticism 

    Art can be adventurous, risky and high quality – this failed miserably on the last, most important measure

  9. Some people think they are owed success, probably because they forgot what it was like to earn it.

  11. Yeah he really went against the grain making a cgi heavy film about a guy with superpowers trying to save his city.

  14. >I am thrilled to accept the Razzie award in so many important categories for megalopolisfilm , and for the distinctive honor of being nominated as the worst director, worst screenplay, and worst picture at a time when so few have the courage to go against the prevailing trends of contemporary moviemaking!

    There’s a lot of filmmakers out there trying new things and desperately trying to get their movies funded and shown in actual theaters. Meanwhile he puts out a $120M budget movie filled with A-Listers that was guaranteed to get a theater showing due to who he is, and now he’s crying that people didn’t like it because we’re all too dumb to “get it”. No, the movie was not good. And yes, I did see it.

  17. His “scathing statement” is basically just a long-winded way of saying “I’m butthurt”.

  19. Who’s gonna tell him pro wrestling doesn’t have scores?

  22. I’m all for people creating whatever art they want but if you’re gonna make an obscenely expensive cgi pet project then you can’t go into it with the idea that it’s something transformative

  23. Coppola needs to go back to grounding himself in Visconti et al. Enough of the fantasy shit, it doesn’t work.

  24. He had the right to swing for the fences. It was his money. The fact that the market rejected the film is a risk one takes when making art.

    Films are inherently risky investments. They mostly have a short shelf life, they are easily pirated, and they compete in a crowded marketplace. The difference between FFC and the talented youth he talks about is that he personally had the wherewithal to make his vision.

    When you stand up and attempt to entertain you take the risk of being mocked. He had a tremendous 12-years from Patton to Apocalyse Now where his talents were revered.

    In addition they had critics back then. The scoring of art has been going on since art was born.

  25. Just because it’s original doesn’t make this movie immune to criticism. His points about current filmmaking isn’t wrong either but that doesn’t take away from how shit the movie is.

  26. Insane amount of self-fellation going on here, Frankie. Your movie was a shitty ego project, take the L. The razzies still suck, fwiw.

  27. I like it when filmmakers take a giant swing for the fences even when they miss. But I also like it when people don’t take themselves too seriously. So I’m torn.

  28. “I hate that we live in a world where people judge art”

    *proceeds to judge other people’s art*

  29. He also directed some of the greatest films of all time. It would only make sense that he’s capable of also making “terrible” films.

  33. I really don’t understand the hate for this film. I unironically loved it. His best since Dracula.

    And it “winning” this of all years… mama mia 🤯

  34. So brave. Making a movie to take shots at the superhero genre that they’ll claim is the boogie man killing the industry.

    The industry is in decline because of streaming services. Not because of the MCU or Disney.

    The MCU and Disney have shown resilience (but still decline) against the fall of the cinema, bit they are not the cause.

    Streaming services are. People got sick of spending $50-100 and leaving their home post pandemic, when we all just spent the lockdowns improving our home theaters. The only movies I will go to a theater to see are blockbusters that deserve a big screen. But the cause isn’t the blockbuster, it is the industry shifting.

    But none of these directors have the BALLS to call out Netflix, Hulu or Amazon Prime because they still want their art projects to go to streaming platforms.

    Bunch of cowards, pretending to be brave. Out of touch is what they really are.

  35. I feel bad saying it, I want to respect Coppola’s ambition of doing pushing cinema beyond the current tired status quo, but I just don’t think he had a vision for how he was actually breaking contemporary convention. Making weird vague shit and waving your arm at civilization and cinema conventions is not innovation. As he says in the statement, “politics has no place in the future”. His movie was a political mess with no thesis beyond “Trump is bad, mass movements are bad, poor people are a lost cause, we should let Great Men do crazy shit again or civilization will crumble”. The dialogue and performances still sucked, the movie was still boring, the story still has no emotion.

    Instead Coppola should invest in producing films for indie auteurs, push them into the mainstream. Get Julia Ducournau in US theaters, throw money to Dev Patel to keep making punk rock action movies. Produce adult animated films where there’s tons of fresh ideas. Idk man.

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