Filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola on Thursday will premiere at the Cannes Film Festival a film on which he has risked everything, one that's arriving clouded by rumors of production turmoil. Sound familiar?
On Thursday, Coppola's self-financed opus 바카라Megalopolis바카라 will make its much-awaited premiere. Other films are debuting in Cannes with more fanfare and hype, but none has quite the curiosity of 바카라Megalopolis," the first film by the 85-year-old filmmaker in 13 years. Coppola put USD 120 million of his own money into it.
Forty-five years ago, something very similar played out when Coppola was toiling over the edit for 바카라Apocalypse Now.바카라 The movie's infamous Philippines production, which would be documented by Coppola's late wife, Eleanor, was already a legend. The originally planned release in December 1977 had come and gone. Coppola had, himself, poured some USD 16 million into the USD 31 million budget for his Vietnam-set telling of Joseph Conrad's 바카라Heart of Darkness.바카라
바카라I was terrified. For one thing, I was on the hook for the whole budget personally 바카라 that's why I came to own it,바카라 Coppola said in 2019. 바카라In addition, in those days interest was over 25, 27 per cent.
So it looked as though, especially given the controversy and all the bogus articles being written about a movie that no one knew anything about but were predicting it was the heralded mess of that year, it looked as though I was never going to get out of the jeopardy I was in. I had kids, I was young. I had no family fortune behind me. I was scared stiff.바카라
Gilles Jacob, delegate general of Cannes, travelled to visit Coppola, hoping he could coax him into returning to the festival where the director's 바카라The Conversation바카라 had won the Palme d'Or in 1974. In his book, 바카라Citizen Cannes: The Man Behind the Cannes Film Festival,바카라 Jacob recounted finding Coppola in the editing suite 바카라beset by financial woes and struggling with 20 miles of film.바카라
By springtime 1979, Coppola had assembled an edit he screened in Los Angeles 바카라 much as he recently did 바카라Megalopolis." When Jacob got wind of the screening, he threw himself into securing it for that year's Cannes.
바카라Already considered an event even before it had been shown, Apocalypse Now' would be the festival's crowning glory," Jacob wrote. He added: 바카라Ultimately I knew it was Cannes' setting 바카라 more than a match for his own megalomania 바카라 that would convince him to come.바카라
But Coppola wasn't so sure. The film was unfinished, didn't have credits yet and he still was unsure about the ending. But after some back-and-forth and debate about whether 바카라Apocalypse Now바카라 would screen in or out of competition, it was decided: It would screen as a "work in progress" 바카라 in competition.
At the premiere in Cannes, Coppola carried his daughter, Sofia, then 8, on his shoulders. The response to the film wasn't immediately overwhelming.
바카라'Apocalypse Now,' one of the most ballyhooed movies of the decade, got only a polite response at the Cannes Film Festival on Saturday," wrote the Herald Tribune.
At the press conference, Coppola was defensive about the bad press the film received and the attention given to its budget.
바카라Why is it that I, the first one to make a film about Vietnam, a film about morality, am so criticized when you can spend that much about a gorilla or a little jerk who flies around in the sky?바카라 asked Coppola.
But 바카라Apocalypse Now바카라 would ultimately go down as one of Cannes' most mythologised premieres. The president of the jury that year, French author Francoise Sagan, preferred another entry about war: 바카라The Tin Drum," Volker Schlondorff's adaptation of the Günter Grass novel. The jury, split between the two, gave the Palme d'Or to both.
바카라Megalopolis," too, will be premiering in competition on Thursday.
The day after the 1978 Cannes closing ceremony, Jacob recalled running into Coppola at the Carlton Hotel, just as he was leaving.
바카라A big, black limousine was about to drive off. The back door opened and Francis got out," Jacob wrote. 바카라He came up to me, held out his hand and, as he removed a big cigar from between his teeth, said, I only received half a Palme d'Or.'바카라
