What to expect from the participants’ live performances

Francis Ford Coppola Megalopolis, the film, which the 85-year-old director began making decades ago, focuses on the future. The heroes of the film, all members of the legendary elite of the city-state in the moments preceding the fall of the American empire, constantly philosophize on this topic: who will rule, what civilization will look like such as matters of inheritance, succession, rise and fall. However, the most effective expression of the film’s futurism is not the dialogue, but Coppola’s filmmaking and technical experimentalism. Throughout the film’s 138 minutes, he plays with triptych split screens and surreal, groovy CGI, and in a postmodern time warp he combines these overtly digital techniques with more blatant, old-fashioned effects, such as iris shots used to mark focus or ending scenes.

The one effect that seems to capture the imagination of movie nerds more than any other is a “live” fourth-wall break in which Adam Driver’s character, Cesar Catilina, answers a question asked by a real performer in a theater where Megalopolis there is a film adaptation. When word spread about this reality-distorting moment Megalopolisworld premiere in Cannes, it was unclear whether this element would carry over to public screenings outside the festival. As the film began rolling out across the country, Lionsgate announced a list of select screenings and theaters across the country where you can watch the moment live will be be turned on during the opening weekend. In addition to special shows, regular shows will take place entirely in two previously recorded dimensions.

I attended one of these special shows Megalopolis on Imax on Monday, September 23, which began with a conversation between Francis Ford Coppola, Robert De Niro, Spike Lee and Dennis Lim of NYFF and was simulcast in Imax theaters across the continent. Coppola commented on the mixed reactions to his work, suggesting that perhaps this is valid too forward-thinking, with too many is happening so that viewers can appreciate it after just one show. “There are films that, especially when they have something more to them, don’t quite grab you the first time, and that only last because you get more out of them every time you watch them. I hope so. Because people love it and people hate it. That’s the best reaction you can get after a movie,” he said. (“My films are a bit prophetic,” he added later.)

Love it or hate it, my audience was completely focused on the live performance. Just over half of the film (I think …time really moves differently at 9 p.m Megalopolis), after an ecological disaster that harms the mythical city of New Rome, the film fades to black. Moments later, the lights came on in the 512-seat auditorium, and near the front of the screen, a man stood with his back to the audience, toward the projection, speaking into a microphone stand. The screen showed Cesar Catilina sitting at a desk and looking towards the live performer or “reporter”. The reporter at our show had a few tricks: he wore a fedora and pretended to take notes in a reporter’s notebook. Perhaps each of these performers was allowed creative freedom, as I haven’t seen similar prop work in social media videos from other cities.

Reports coming from Cannes showed that the “reporter” was asking the character of The Driver a question, but subsequent screenings for the press and the public (including mine) showed that the reporter’s question was in fact a sound recording embedded in the film. The microphone, however, really creates the illusion that the question is alive. Many of my colleagues who saw the film thought that the recorded voice sounded like it belonged to Jason Schwartzman. He plays a small role in the film as “Jason Zanderz”, a tunic-wearing purveyor of gentle comic relief surrounded by Mayor Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito). The vulture held out its hand Megalopolisthe band’s press team to get to the bottom of this, and to our surprise, they confirmed that the voice was not Schwartzman’s, which adds an extra layer of mystery to the moment.

As for the content of the scene itself, the “reporter” asks (via the recording): “You said that if we jump into the future, there is nothing to be afraid of. But what if we jump into the future and it turns out there is something to be afraid of?” Catilina pauses for a moment and responds in vague Randian pontifications. During my show, the house lights dimmed, the performer raised his stand and went backstage, and the screen went black before the next scene began and the movie continued. It was an electrifying moment, a novelty, and ended up lasting just under a minute, all-in. The scene itself is so inconsequential that I can imagine it being either removed entirely in future cuts of the film or – given that the reporter’s voice is not live – played out without the live performance element. Would you feel a little uncomfortable? Yes. But the same is true for many Megalopolis. This is more of a feature than a bug, and I applaud your boldness. They’re not building statues of critics, they’re building statues of Jon Voight in a toga on the eve of his wedding to Wow Platinum.

Will you have the opportunity to see the fourth wall breaking scene in its intended form live? Yes, if you act quickly. In selected Imax and PLF cinemas in selected cities during the film’s premiere weekend, viewers will be able to purchase tickets for the Ultimate Experience version Megalopolis, which will include what the film’s official materials call “Live Participant.” The Ultimate Experience screening lineup includes 34 theaters in 23 cities on September 27 and 28.

If you’re excited about the strangest cinematic minute of 2024, you should get your Ultimate Experience ticket now. If you can’t make it to one of them, well, you can always be fooled at a local show Megalopolis and imitate the live performance yourself. To be the futuristic utopia you want to see in the world.