MEGADOC. How Did Coppola Create “Megalopolis”

In the book The Path to Paradise: A Francis Ford Coppola Story, Sam Wasson sketches the portrait of the legendary director through the prism of two films: Apocalypse Now (1979) and One from the Heart (1981). No wonder — the turbulent (to put it mildly) production history of both titles concentrates, like a lens, all the key aspects of Coppola’s directorial method: his unrestrained idealism and his drive for constant experimentation and pushing the boundaries of the cinematic medium, but also his tendency to endlessly modify his artistic vision, explain it vaguely to collaborators, and (likely unintentionally) push the entire crew to the boiling point. And while Apocalypse Now instantly earned the status of a masterpiece, the financial failure of One from the Heart led Coppola and his company American Zoetrope to bankruptcy.

The epilogue to Wasson’s book is a brief report from the set of Megalopolis — a project Coppola had been trying to make for four decades. As Mike Figgis shows in his film Megadoc, the process of creating the director’s dream project was in many respects a repeat of the productions mentioned above. Figgis, much like Eleanor Coppola during the making of Apocalypse Now, was present with his camera throughout the entire production of Megalopolis, meticulously documenting every rise and fall of the project.

Now, with the screening of Coppola’s final film behind us, it’s easy to approach Figgis’s documentary with a dose of irony — as if the former visionary had turned into a grandfather detached from reality, spending 120 million dollars to bring his anachronistic concepts to life. Yet the matter is not so simple. Although Figgis’s documentary is, on a technical level, little more than a standard making-of from the set, it is precisely this raw form that allows all the contradictions of Coppola’s character to come to the forefront.

In his book, Sam Wasson (who also appears in Megadoc) portrayed Coppola in a rather unambiguously positive light — as an idealist unwilling to bow to the big-studio bigwigs, dreaming of tearing down the ossified Hollywood system. Figgis, however (perhaps unintentionally, though it doesn’t really matter), also shows the darker side of this idealism — the disregard for the crew’s opinions, the lack of clear communication, and the resulting growing chaos on set.

Ultimately, it depends on our own viewing attitude which image of Coppola we take away from Megadoc — that of a bold and charismatic visionary, or a madman detached from reality. This divide was already visible after the premiere of Megalopolis, and it is also evident in Figgis’s behind-the-scenes account. On one side: Giancarlo Esposito, Jon Voight, and choreographer Daniel Ezralow, expressing boundless faith in the director’s vision. On the other: cinematographer Mihai Mălaimare Jr. unsuccessfully trying to reach Coppola with his concerns, Shia LaBeouf entering into constant disputes with the director, and Dustin Hoffman candidly admitting that he still doesn’t quite understand what he had just taken part in.

Perhaps the most telling example is production designer Beth Mickle, who left the set along with the entire art department due to irreconcilable conflicts with Coppola. While in the pre-production footage Mickle speaks about Megalopolis with excitement, her later comments clearly reveal her frustration with the director’s lack of communication.

Figgis’s account therefore reveals both genuine admiration and frustration toward Coppola — and the fact that the filmmaker gives voice to both sides of the discussion is arguably Megadoc’s greatest strength. I wasn’t, and still am not, a fan of Megalopolis, but after watching Megadoc I think I understand a bit better the passion with which some viewers and members of the crew are willing to defend the film (even if I personally sympathize more with LaBeouf’s or Mickle’s frustration). Figgis’s documentary will likely never earn a reputation comparable to Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse, the classic chronicle of the making of Apocalypse Now. Still, watching Megadoc may help us better understand the conflicting opinions about Coppola’s auteurist methods — regardless of where we ourselves stand.