コッポラ監督待望の大作『メガロポリス』 メディアの評価二分 カンヌ映画祭

【カンヌＡＦＰ＝時事】米ハリウッドの巨匠フランシス・フォード・コッポラ監督（８５）が数十年かけて完成させた待望のＳＦ大作『メガロポリス（Ｍｅｇａｌｏｐｏｌｉｓ、原題）』が、開催中の第７７回カンヌ国際映画祭でメディアの評価を二分している。（写真は、『メガロポリス』のプレミア上映会場に登場したフランシス・フォード・コッポラ監督〈中央〉と俳優陣ら。第７７回カンヌ国際映画祭で）
　ＡＦＰが取材したあるプレス向け試写会では、ブーイングと熱狂的な拍手の両方が騒然とわき起こった。
　ニューヨークを思わせる廃退した都市「ニューローマ」を舞台に展開する映画では、俳優アダム・ドライバー演じる不思議な能力を持つ建築家シーザーが、未来的なユートピアを再建しようと奮闘する。
　この作品には古典から啓蒙時代に至る哲学者から現代の小説家、巨匠といわれる他の映画監督たちの作品まで、引用やオマージュが数多く詰め込まれている。
　せりふは現代英語からシェークスピアの詩、ラテン語までが飛び交い、合間に宇宙からナチス・ドイツの集会までさまざまなアーカイブ映像が挿入される。スクリーン上の出来事と現実の上映会場が相互作用する場面さえあった。
　メディアの反応はまちまちだった。エンターテインメント情報サイトのデッドラインは「真の大胆さに慄然とする、まさに現代の傑作」とたたえ、米芸能誌ハリウッド・リポーターは「驚異的な野心的大作以外の何物でもない」と評した。
　一方、英紙ガーディアンは「詰め込みすぎで退屈、不可解なほど浅薄」と冷ややかで、同タイムズは「強烈に鼻につく演技、言葉を羅列しているだけのせりふ、醜悪な映像」と酷評した。
　いずれにせよ哲学的で型破りなこの映画は、気軽に観賞しようとする多くの観客を深く混乱させるだろう。
　１９７０年代の全盛期以降、コッポラ監督には不発だった作品もあるが、いまだ多くの人がその才能を信じている。
　映画祭の総代表を務めるティエリー・フレモー氏は「彼にとってカンヌは重要であり、カンヌにとって彼は重要である」と語った。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2024/05/17-19:22）

Hollywood titan Francis Ford Coppola returned to the Cannes Film Festival on Thursday to unveil his enormously hyped, wildly experimental and deeply divisive Megalopolis.
The 85-year-old director's arrival at the world-famous movie festival -- where decades earlier he twice scooped the top prize Palme d'Or -- has been the frenzied talk on cafe terraces in the swanky Cote d'Azur city.
Would the epic $120-million project that he self-funded, and that has been gestating for some 40 years, be another masterpiece emerging from chaos, like Apocalypse Now all those decades ago?
Or would the film that Coppola sold part of his California wine estate to create be a chaotic mess?
One early press screening attended by AFP was greeted with both jeering boos and enthusiastic applause.
In early reviews, Deadline hailed a true modern masterwork of the kind that outrages with its sheer audacity, but The Guardian called the film bloated, boring and bafflingly shallow.
The Hollywood Reporter said the film was a staggeringly ambitious big swing, if nothing else, while The Times of London ripped into its nails-along-the-blackboard performances, word-salad dialogue and ugly visuals.
The philosophical and unconventional movie will certainly leave many casual viewers deeply confused.
Megalopolis takes place in New Rome, a parallel and decayed version of modern-day New York filled with bacchanalian parties, crumbling ancient statues, and a Madison Square Garden that hosts chariot races and Greco-Roman wrestling bouts.
Adam Driver stars as Caesar Catalina, a cape-twirling Nobel Prize-winning architect hell-bent on using his seemingly magical powers to rebuild the collapsing urban sprawl into a utopian and futuristic Garden of Eden.
Standing in his way is Frank Cicero, played by Giancarlo Esposito (Breaking Bad), an old-fashioned mayor who bitterly envies his visionary rival.
The ensemble cast features Aubrey Plaza as a social-climbing journalist, Jon Voight as a mega-billionaire patriarch and Shia LaBeouf as a bratty scion with a penchant for populist politics.
- 'Prophets' -
Coppola, one of Hollywood's most revered and mythologised directors, was greeted on the Croisette red carpet with a grand reception befitting an old master.
Straw hat and cane in hand, he entered the packed world premiere -- the festival's hottest ticket -- having promised a film of operatic scale.
As the lights dimmed it quickly became clear that Megalopolis was certainly his most ambitious film.
He recently reeled off a list of influences that included Voltaire, Plato, Shakespeare, Hitchcock, Kubrick, Kurosawa, Moses and the prophets all thrown in.
And, indeed, the movie is packed with endless quotes and references from the Ancient Classics to Enlightenment philosophers and modern novelists.
Dialogue flits from modern English to Shakespearean verse, and even Latin, and the drama is interspersed with archive footage ranging from the cosmos to Nazi rallies.
At one highly unorthodox moment, events on the screen interact with those in the real-life theatre.
Although Coppola has created several duds since his 1970s heyday, many still believe in his genius.
Cannes is important to him and he is important to Cannes. He comes as an artist, said festival head Thierry Fremaux.
- 'Fairy tale' -
Megalopolis is one of 22 films competing for the Palme d'Or, facing a jury led by Barbie director Greta Gerwig, who will announce their verdict on May 25.
Also on Thursday, British director Andrea Arnold returned to Cannes with Bird, chronicling a 12-year-old girl as she navigates a world of domestic violence, teen pregnancies and broken families.
Channelling similar themes to her award-winning Fish Tank, Bird adds fantastical, metaphorical and playful elements, including a flamboyant turn from Barry Keoghan (Saltburn) as the girl's young father.
A day earlier Wild Diamond -- also about a fragile teenage girl, but this time desperate to find fame on social media and reality TV -- was hailed by movie magazine Variety as the arrival of a major filmmaker in first-time French director Agathe Reidinger.
There were also great reviews for The Girl with the Needle, a bleak period drama about a factory worker desperately trying to get an abortion -- with a murderous twist.
Still to come are a Donald Trump biopic, The Apprentice, and new films from arthouse favourites David Cronenberg (The Shrouds) and Italy's Paolo Sorrentino (Parthenope).
Former Palme d'Or winner Jacques Audiard will present Emilia Perez, billed as a musical about a Mexican cartel boss having a sex change, starring Selena Gomez.