When Francis Ford Coppola finally started work on his retrofuturist ancient Rome drama-parable Megalopolis (the self-funded passion project he had been nurturing for decades), he invited another director to be a fly on the wall and make a record of his work in progress. This was Mike Figgis, whose limber digital film-making skills were ideal for the task. The result is a thoroughly watchable, respectful, valuable and intimate account of a great film-maker at work – particularly rehearsing actors, a part of directing very rarely shown. (Coppola takes his cast through some wacky exploratory games, like an experimental theatre company.)
It’s always impressive to see the indomitable Coppola in full rhetorical flow: holding forth, opining, schooling one and all on what happens when a film is made and how glorious it is to spend and even lose money in the service of cinema. Coppola is always entrepreneurially magnificent on this subject. And before this documentary, I had thought that Alfred Hitchcock was the last director on earth who came to work in a collar and tie. No: it’s Coppola.
