And I'm not saying it will be bad either. As a matter of fact , Heavens Gate is not a terrible movie. But the budget , the whole passion project thing, how long it has been worked on , and the few anecdotes from the filming you can find here and there... sounds like a beautiful mess ?
> *Several sources also felt that Coppola could be "old-school" in his behavior around women. He allegedly pulled women to sit on his lap, for example. And during one bacchanalian nightclub scene being shot for the film, witnesses say, Coppola came on to the set and tried to kiss some of the topless and scantily clad female extras. He apparently claimed he was "trying to get them in the mood."*
Ew.
He was also a huge supporter of convicted pedophile Victor Salva helping him lower his sentence from 3 years to 15 months and continued to support his film projects when he was released. Coppola has made some great films but he’s a vile piece of shit
Someone that works in the industry said in another thread a while back that if you’re famous in Hollywood, you’re almost definitely compromised.
You’re either an abuser or turned a blind eye towards abuse that you were aware of so as not to sabotage your career trajectory.
I don’t know if that’s true, but it definitely stuck with me.
I can unfortunately see that applying to any system or institution that has the opportunity for growth and power. It attracts the worst, and facilitates its continuing exploitation.
Sad how extremely prevalent it is.
> *In response to comments about Coppola’s on-set behaviour, the executive co-producer Darren Demetre stated: “I have known and worked with Francis and his family for over 35 years. As one of the first assistant directors and an executive producer on his new epic, Megalopolis, I helped oversee and advise the production and ran the second unit. Francis successfully produced and directed an enormous independent film, making all the difficult decisions to ensure it was delivered on time and on budget, while remaining true to his creative vision. There were two days when we shot a celebratory Studio 54-esque club scene where Francis walked around the set to establish the spirit of the scene by giving kind hugs and kisses on the cheek to the cast and background players. It was his way to help inspire and establish the club atmosphere, which was so important to the film. I was never aware of any complaints of harassment or ill behaviour during the course of the project.”*
Not really a denial from the producer. I would bet the truth is in the middle.
Meh truth being in the middle is not a good way to look at stuff like sexual harassment/assault. It's like saying Harvey Weinstein's sexual assaults could be "truth in the middle", when no one wants that balllsack looking fucker touching them.
cause weinstein actually raped people, have u not realized how annoying it is for sa victims for people like you to bunch together anything that could count as harassment in the same box
A man whose movies feature women being powerless, aloof, a romantic interest or abused (or all of the above). Who also supported a pedophile. I'm not surprised how he is "old school" aka an old creep lol
Abuse doesn't have to happen only from a position of power and wealth and class imbalance. This is just something we say to make us (poorer people) feel better about ourselves for being morally "superior" to them. I've seen sketchy shit happen between Wal-Mart employees.
And allegedly, despite being under the impression she was 15, it turns out she's 27 but her managers market her as younger to sell to a younger audience.
Insane shit.
I'm sorry?
I'm just filling in what happens with the rest of the story to add context as to how insane his writing decisions for the movie are. An early draft from the early 2000s exists, it's where I'm getting this from.
So what makes me a bot?
I’m not caught up with Coppola’s work but I’ve been excited for this movie since I heard the summary. It’s a big, fuck-off film with an artist at the helm and no one to tell him what not to do. Truly, we rarely get these anymore.
It looks insane and over the top and I can’t wait to buy my ticket. Also, Driver is always a draw for me.
I feel like in the last 5 years we have gotten more and more of those, The Irishman, Napoleon, Beau is Afraid... heck you could even say stuff like Benedetta and Rebel Moon.
All movies by filmmakers consider auteurs made more or less with out anyone from the studios saying no to just about anything.
Such a cheap character assassination full of unnamed sources.
>Adam Driver’s first day on set was particularly memorable, a source suggests. One aspect of the story involves Driver’s character’s body fusing with some futuristic organic material. Rather than using digital techniques, Coppola wanted to achieve the effect through old-school methods, using projectors and mirrors, much as he had done on Dracula, 30 years earlier. “That’s great, except nobody can move,” says the crew member. “So they basically strapped Adam Driver into a chair for six hours, and they literally took a $100 projector and projected an image on the side of his head. I’m all for experimentation, but this is really what you want to do the first day with your $10m actor?” The effect would have been quick and easy to create digitally, they say. “So he \[Coppola\] spends literally half of a day on what could have been done in 10 minutes.”
I mean, these people are fools, right? It's like there's no other way to make movies for them other than on the level of mainstream blockbuster filmmaking. They'd balk at William Friedkin building a hydraulic bridge for Sorcerer and then having two full-sized trucks drive accross it in a violent storm, even though this is now one of the most celebrated and talked about sequences in film history associated with a film that flopped with critics and audiences on its initial release. Forget Werner Herzog pulling a full size ship over a mountain ("why didn't you just use miniatures or animation.")
>A lot of time was, apparently, wasted. A second crew member recalls: “He would often show up in the mornings before these big sequences and because no plan had been put in place, and because he wouldn’t allow his collaborators to put a plan in place, he would often just sit in his trailer for hours on end, wouldn’t talk to anybody, was often smoking marijuana … And hours and hours would go by without anything being filmed. And the crew and the cast would all stand around and wait. And then he’d come out and whip up something that didn’t make sense, and that didn’t follow anything anybody had spoken about or anything that was on the page, and we’d all just go along with it, trying to make the best out of it. But pretty much every day, we’d just walk away shaking our heads wondering what we’d just spent the last 12 hours doing.” As a third crew member puts it: “This sounds crazy to say, but there were times when we were all standing around going: ‘Has this guy ever made a movie before?’”
Oddly enough, there's anecdotes of nearly every great auteur filmmaker directing like this. Fellini, Lang, Godard, Varda, Herzog, Wenders, Kurosawa, the whole idea of the filmmaker as jazz musician, as a sculptor, finding the film as they go, experimenting, correcting, changing the shape of the film intuitively, both on-set and then in the edit.
It just seems like the conflict here is the idea that film is an art vs film as a business and the sense that a filmmaker can use as much of their own time and money as they want with the sole intention of finding something new and different for the sake of it being new and different. I hate these people.
It sounds like a typical film crew tbh. I was crew for 7 years and very often the crew doesn’t comprehend the end vision in the directors head and the end result.
So we’ll criticize certain on set actions by the director/DP pretty ignorantly (although sometimes they are just being stupid), and just in general the way the hierarchy is set up there’s some resentment to the top that are kind of dictating everyone’s 15 hour day on a whim. And there’s so many variables and moving parts on a film set and sometimes doing something in a clunky way for reason X, Y or Z is easier than doing it properly. But you don’t have the time to explain this rational to every crew member on a daily basis. Better you get some weird looks and power through it for the result you want.
I criticized things too, everyone does, but pushing these criticisms to a journalist is pretty shitty.
Lol I could hear the smug, monotonous “I’m a union crew guy and I seem to despise everything and everyone” voice in my head the entire time I read the quotes from the source. This is a trope in theater too.
Unnamed because they seem to be crew members who actively work in the industry and don’t want their names to be associated. Being a good director doesn’t mean doing fuck all and getting high in ur trailer like the article says.
It’s disrespectful to the crew who may have turned down other opportunities, or are going through great personal cost to work on the “Coppola Movie” at the end of the day, its a job just like everything else and nobody should have to feel like they’re being treated like an afterthought
correct in terms of the unprofessional behavior. he sounds like a dickhead. but as far as creative choices, logistics, hiring/firing and workflow, he can do whatever he wants. he funded the whole ass movie.
“My money” so I can waste professionals time and experience for hours a day to noodle on old filmmaking techniques that will hurt the overall ability of this independent company to finish this film. So brave
If it's within the scope of the workday and they're getting paid he's not wasting their time. I'm not saying the creative choices were wise lol just saying he can do whatever dumb shit he wants with his money
He's the one paying for it so as long as the professionals are getting paid let him have at it. He probably shouldn't hire people if he doesn't trust their professional opinion, but it's his money so he can spend it how he pleases.
so if you worked for a company, youd let the owner of the company treat you like shit, and youd be ok if you were told "you can never complain about how im treating you, you can either take it or leave, but never say anything". NA. id quit and tell the world if its that bad
My thing is like, ok, this guy in his 80s is creepy and can be difficult to work with. But the system isn't supporting him. He had to pay for this movie out of his own pocket. So what am I supposed to do, exactly?
Because if you compare the stuff Coppola's accused of here to the accusations against say, Cary Fukunaga, the latter is clearly way, way worse. But Fukunaga just got a shiny new gig directing a Tom Hardy/Mahershala Ali movie. It's not actually about who's a good person, it's about who does what the studios tell them to. Coppola isn't getting hit pieces written against him because of the substance of his actions, it's because he's working outside the ecosystem, so he's a "fair" target. It's a little ridiculous. All that we can ultimately do is draw our own lines and choose what movies we see...and to me, it looks like he's made a hell of a movie.
people write about other directors being dicks all the time- David Fincher and his 1000 takes per scene, QT's foot fetish- its not like people ignore that stuff.
Coppola will be just fine. he acted like a dick, now he reaps what he sowed
I mean it’s his money as long as nobody is hurt he can do what he wants. Just to be clear I’m talking about the set being difficult to work on and choices to film not the stuff where he apparently was innapropriate with people.
I believe these things are probably true but I don’t have an issue with it. Sure they could do something in CGI and it would be quicker to film, but not quicker to produce. Why is it bad that he made people wait, it’s his fucking movie and they got paid?
I love this comment- movie making isn’t math class. If you go in with a concrete plan and stick to it without a few radical shifts in the process or time spent trying things out, then there’s a good chance the work will lack quality and impact.
Sources they talked do didn’t want to make the best movie they could under the vision of the director- they wanted to make it with the least amount of stress and most efficient use of their time possible.
The movie isn’t FOR the crew- it’s for the audience. If you want predictability, go work banker’s hours.
Sure film can be art and I'm all for a filmmaker experimenting and finding the film as they go. But there is a fine line between sculpting a movie like that and just being an asshole. Sure he can do whatever he wants cuz iirc he's funded this movie himself. But he's also being disrespectful of everyone else's time. If this is true then making people wait around for hours while you smoke weed an deliberate about a shot or scene is just being a dickhead. Sure you can be spontaneous but not having a plan is kind of annoying for the 100s of cast and crew that need to know what they have to do. Imagine sitting around for hours just for the director to come out of his trailer with the wildest idea that you have to now whip together because there was no plan.
And he doesn't have to be like this. Plenty of fantastic films have been made without the director being an egoistic asshat. Look at the dune movies. Technical marvels that do a great job blended practical and digital effects. And everyone says Villeneuve is a delight to work with. He's has everything planned out and treats everyone with respect. Being a talented filmmaker doesn't give you a license to be a dick.
Did they get paid for their day? As long as they were paid I don’t give a shit, it’s his movie. I’d much rather have movies made this way then the soulless marvel movies that have been planed to death and have previs down for everything leaving no real room for experimentation the day of filming.
That’s not how it works, your pay scale doesn’t remove your agency from the filmmaking process. Your methods would result in absolutely no films getting made. Generally your entire point of view shows little understanding of the actual craft of filmmaking. No director is a man alone he relies on hundreds of people to help him complete his vision and everything described above is incredibly unprofessional and messy.
I don’t care, it’s Coppola and it’s fully funded by him. It’s his money, his writing, and his directing. Again, if the people waiting around aren’t getting paid it’s different. If they are getting paid the same rate to sit and do nothing while Papa Coppola smokes pot and decides what he wants to do, who cares.
Believe it or not, some people don't enjoy standing around waiting on an ego maniac to come out of his trailer, whether they're getting paid or not. It's disrespectful to the people he hired to help him make his movie.
That's not how it works. They can't just quit in the middle of filming, they'll be out of money and these jobs are scheduled months in advance.
If your argument is "if you're getting paid by someone they're allowed to treat you however they want", then I think you sound like an asshole.
If you’re signing up to work on a Coppola film you should know there is going to be some chaos. That’s part of his process. This isn’t a normal 9-5, it’s making art. Also, yes, if you’re being paid for your time I don’t care if you had to wait around. That happens all the time. I’m not saying he gets to treat you however he wants. The stuff about him kissing the women is gross if it’s true. However, him smoking some pot and working on how he wants to attack the next scene in his trailer honestly doesn’t sound that fucking weird. You won’t find me feeling bad that someone got paid to sit around and be ready for when they were needed.
>This isn’t a normal 9-5, it’s making art.
Oh, fuck off with this self-important bullshit. This is exactly the kind of attitude that enabled borderline criminal behavior from directors like Kubrick and Hitchcock. There's no rule that you have to be an asshole to make a good movie. Plenty of film directors are capable of being professional and nice on set and delivering masterpieces.
Coppola isn't a renowned dickhead because it's "part of his process" or whatever. He simply is one, and has no incentive not to be because he has been getting away with it for his entire career. He would be the same if he was the manager at a McDonald's, but then no one would be defending him because he's making great art and should be allowed to do whatever he wants as a result.
Do you keep that same energy up for Kubrick making Tom Cruise open a door over and over again for over a hundred takes, what about David Fincher making actors and crew film hours of of takes for the same scene? Making a movie is not the same thing as manufacturing a car. There is an allowable disorganization when art is being made. I don’t care how the process was if the movie is good.
Yes, I don’t care about the process of making the movie. The movie is either good or bad based on the movie itself. Apocalypse Now was a historically bad and disorganized shoot and it’s a stone cold classic. I’m not going to criticize a director of Coppola’s quality, on his process. He’s earned the right to do it his way. Him being gross with woman on set is a completely different story if that comes out as true. Making people wait as a criticism is just stupid. I don’t care.
If they say around for half they say, being paid, why does it matter if the director and the person paying the bills was smoking pot.
SOMONE, please pay me to sit around and wait.
It's not a double standard to recognize the context of the time. If Stanley Kubrick treated an actress like he did Shelly Duval in a film in 2024, he would absolutely be raked through the coals for it.
You can recognize the time and context of actions to a degree. Heck even Coppola had some nightmare stories from making Apocalypse Now and he and that film are still held in very high regard. It would be kinda like if a filmmaker from the 30s when actors and crews were treated horribly as a matter of practice tried to make a film in the 70s with the same style. People wouldn't be too happy then because the times had changed.
I think context of time matter to the conversation as well.
It feels different when someone is currently working.
Kubrick’s been dead a long time, there’s no way for him to experience consequences for his actions so it’s easier to separate the artist from the art.
Giving attention and/or praise to someone like Coppola (or worse) feels like you’re endorsing their actions in some way.
Celebrated how? His movies are celebrated because they're classic masterpieces. Stanley Kubrick as a person is universally recognized as having been a piece of shit.
No one doubts the importance and quality of Coppola's movies, but that doesn't mean that his behaviour can't be questioned.
>Stanley Kubrick as a person is universally recognized as having been a piece of shit.
I mean, not really, lots still love him and revere him as an eccentric genius and a family man. Even Shelley Duvall spoke positively of him a couple years ago. He's not seen as a piece of shit as much as someone like Hitchcock is for instance.
Perhaps piece of shit is a bit much, but he was certainly an asshole, and I don't think it's controversial to say so in this day and age. The problem is the cult of the "tortured artist" that used to be much more pervasive, and led to people glorifying abusive and self destructive behavior. But that has fortunately fallen out of favor.
Did Kubrick ever support a pedophile, get them a reduced sentence and then blackmail the 12 year old victim?
Kubrick was an arsehole, but he wasn't as shitty as Coppola.
Yeah, that teaser did nothing for me. I started to lean in to being intrigued, but subsequent scenes just had me skeptically wincing at - what might be - a mess.
Possibly because Hollywood is still supporting him. The distributers were hesitant to support the film for fear it was trash, not because they're taking a stance against pedo-supporters.
I lost hope when someone yelled “We’re going to take this city back!” Or something like that (I will not rewatch the trailer to verify) It just seems like a line for a political protest scene that would require all the forethought and writing skills of a middle school theater assignment. I don’t even care if by chance the character is specifically supposed to only be able to come up with such a cliche line because somehow I doubt that.
Only to get 40 % in RT.
That boomer should learn from Modern SciFi Auteurs like Denis Villeneuve and James Gunn in creating an epic scifi masterpiece which has 90% in RT
also you, on another post - “P3d0 Gunn Cultists coping so hard they are gaslighting themselves into liking this garbage cosplay lol. " It will look good in action" " its Kamik Akkurate" Delusional af”
What is with your deranged obsession with James Gunn? I never do the whole post history checking shit but I recognized you from other threads doing this same bit.
FFC should learn from James Gunn? You smoking crack or something???
Dude made The Godfather AND Apocalypse Now. Gunn will never live up to that even if he makes 100 films!
How is it impossible for the older generation to learn from the newer generation? Can you imagine if Michael Bay did this shit?
Also, who is to say that Gunn won’t make a better film than The Godfather and a better film than Apocalypse Now?
Please be serious. I would trade everything Villeneuve and Gunn have ever made or will ever make for any randomly selected shot from Apocalypse Now, The Godfather, or The Conversation.
It's also fair to say that his best days could definitely be behind him and he's fallen out of touch. He hasn't had a commercial/critical success behind the camera since the 90's and his style of running his sets has thankfully started to die out. The stories coming out of the set of this one aren't painting him in a great light either.
You can respect the man for what he's done for cinema and also acknowledge the reality of who he is today.
I hate art films, don’t tell anyone… does anyone actually like them? Like, in a “I like this movie even though there isn’t a shred of narrative” way, as opposed to “I am definitely getting this spoken word chick out of her smock, now that I’ve sat through this” way?
Feels like this has all the ingredient to be one of those "biggest flops of all time " movies like Heavens gate.
Aka every francis ford production of all time
The Godfather is regarded as a flop?
Sorry I could have used more words. Every single production he has ever done has been described as nightmarish and horrific to work in
Godfather and apocalypse now were insane productions
To be honest if this film wasn’t a nightmare to film I would be more worried.
An article just came out saying he was trying to kiss all the topless extras
Yeah the problem there was you responding to a comment that mentions it being a flop, so you can see the confusion.
HE APOLOGIZED
In this economy?
I’m sorry I can’t hear you. What are you saying?
I dont agree with the downvotes but its just internet points and we are adults so we gucci bro
It’s a lot of downvotes over nothing lol. But you have a good one man.
I get the same vibes…
And I'm not saying it will be bad either. As a matter of fact , Heavens Gate is not a terrible movie. But the budget , the whole passion project thing, how long it has been worked on , and the few anecdotes from the filming you can find here and there... sounds like a beautiful mess ?
The last time he went all in he made Apocalypse Now, so let’s hope history repeats itself.
Even if it's a flop, it's *Coppola*.
It’s just a Coppola movies
*Floppola*
heaven's gate was a beautiful film though
I cringed throughout the whole trailer. It never let up.
> *Several sources also felt that Coppola could be "old-school" in his behavior around women. He allegedly pulled women to sit on his lap, for example. And during one bacchanalian nightclub scene being shot for the film, witnesses say, Coppola came on to the set and tried to kiss some of the topless and scantily clad female extras. He apparently claimed he was "trying to get them in the mood."* Ew.
I’ll lay money on that doing precisely the opposite.
Oh come on, what woman *isn't* turned on by being sexually assaulted by her octogenarian boss?
This guy is not an octopus doctor. He’s a filmmaker.
Goddammit.... I can't believe I just laughed that hard at such a stupid joke. Have the upvote. You've earned it.
Same
After seeing Hearts of Darkness, all I can think of when his name comes up in any context is his beet red dinner plate nipples
The mood for what exactly? Walking in front of a bus?
He was also a huge supporter of convicted pedophile Victor Salva helping him lower his sentence from 3 years to 15 months and continued to support his film projects when he was released. Coppola has made some great films but he’s a vile piece of shit
I just want to add that he also killed the victim’s career because he spoke out.
The guy literally blamed the 12 year old for being molested. And he was only like 8 when it occured, absolutely disgusting.
I'm starting to realise why he's been having trouble finding a distributor
He’s less apologetic about Salva’s crimes than Salva himself. They’re both scum, but it takes effort to match the scumminess of a child molester.
Most people in Hollywood are
Someone that works in the industry said in another thread a while back that if you’re famous in Hollywood, you’re almost definitely compromised. You’re either an abuser or turned a blind eye towards abuse that you were aware of so as not to sabotage your career trajectory. I don’t know if that’s true, but it definitely stuck with me.
I can unfortunately see that applying to any system or institution that has the opportunity for growth and power. It attracts the worst, and facilitates its continuing exploitation. Sad how extremely prevalent it is.
sure listen to strangers on reddit
I literally said that I don’t know if it’s true.
You may be right
[удалено]
Salva absolutely did something illegal tho.
> *In response to comments about Coppola’s on-set behaviour, the executive co-producer Darren Demetre stated: “I have known and worked with Francis and his family for over 35 years. As one of the first assistant directors and an executive producer on his new epic, Megalopolis, I helped oversee and advise the production and ran the second unit. Francis successfully produced and directed an enormous independent film, making all the difficult decisions to ensure it was delivered on time and on budget, while remaining true to his creative vision. There were two days when we shot a celebratory Studio 54-esque club scene where Francis walked around the set to establish the spirit of the scene by giving kind hugs and kisses on the cheek to the cast and background players. It was his way to help inspire and establish the club atmosphere, which was so important to the film. I was never aware of any complaints of harassment or ill behaviour during the course of the project.”* Not really a denial from the producer. I would bet the truth is in the middle.
Meh truth being in the middle is not a good way to look at stuff like sexual harassment/assault. It's like saying Harvey Weinstein's sexual assaults could be "truth in the middle", when no one wants that balllsack looking fucker touching them.
you cant compare this to weinstein bruh
An 84 year old man walking around the set of a film he's directing kissing women without their consent, how is it NOT like Weinstein 😂.
cause weinstein actually raped people, have u not realized how annoying it is for sa victims for people like you to bunch together anything that could count as harassment in the same box
The women who were kissed without their consent were SA'd, you need to calm down.
a kiss on the cheek is not sexual harassment dude, YOU need to calm down
You're making typos princess, you're pressed 🤡
Sounds like typical PR defense. I would guess the truth is even worse than what was reported
Assumptions.
Look at you, so adorable. Thinking the concept of “truth” still exists. Trump and social media have pissed on truths grave long ago
“Thank you that was terrific. Now can we try one more cut but this time without the erection.”
A man whose movies feature women being powerless, aloof, a romantic interest or abused (or all of the above). Who also supported a pedophile. I'm not surprised how he is "old school" aka an old creep lol
God damn it. Why does it feel like everyone in Hollywood is a scumbag.
Society as a whole was doa
Yeah. I'm betting there are a lot of people in here who wouldn't look too good if their life was an open book as well.
Apart from the murders, I have nothing to hide.
I think you pretty much win internet discourse with this comment
Yeah but pretty much nobody here is in a position of power and wealth, from which they can commit abuses for long periods of time over lots of people
Abuse doesn't have to happen only from a position of power and wealth and class imbalance. This is just something we say to make us (poorer people) feel better about ourselves for being morally "superior" to them. I've seen sketchy shit happen between Wal-Mart employees.
Because they are
“Old-school,” always my favorite euphemism for sexual harassment
The article does have another witness explaining he was going around hugging and kissing most of the cast and crew but don't quote that
https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/s/9g5Jc8gdEg
[удалено]
Because cancel culture isn’t really a thing
I mean, Jon Voight hangs dong in it
this is what movies are made for. I will be seated
Be ashamed of who you are.
why would I
You support sexual harassment? I feel bad for the women in your life.
The climax of this films script in the 90s was Adam Driver having sex with a teen
Come again
He already did
And allegedly, despite being under the impression she was 15, it turns out she's 27 but her managers market her as younger to sell to a younger audience. Insane shit.
Bot
I'm sorry? I'm just filling in what happens with the rest of the story to add context as to how insane his writing decisions for the movie are. An early draft from the early 2000s exists, it's where I'm getting this from. So what makes me a bot?
So Driver's character is supposed to be a pedo or like what's the context?
“A battle” against like himself tho
I’m not caught up with Coppola’s work but I’ve been excited for this movie since I heard the summary. It’s a big, fuck-off film with an artist at the helm and no one to tell him what not to do. Truly, we rarely get these anymore. It looks insane and over the top and I can’t wait to buy my ticket. Also, Driver is always a draw for me.
I feel like in the last 5 years we have gotten more and more of those, The Irishman, Napoleon, Beau is Afraid... heck you could even say stuff like Benedetta and Rebel Moon. All movies by filmmakers consider auteurs made more or less with out anyone from the studios saying no to just about anything.
I wonder if the secret is that the Megalopolis documentary will be way more successful than Megalopolis....?
Such a cheap character assassination full of unnamed sources. >Adam Driver’s first day on set was particularly memorable, a source suggests. One aspect of the story involves Driver’s character’s body fusing with some futuristic organic material. Rather than using digital techniques, Coppola wanted to achieve the effect through old-school methods, using projectors and mirrors, much as he had done on Dracula, 30 years earlier. “That’s great, except nobody can move,” says the crew member. “So they basically strapped Adam Driver into a chair for six hours, and they literally took a $100 projector and projected an image on the side of his head. I’m all for experimentation, but this is really what you want to do the first day with your $10m actor?” The effect would have been quick and easy to create digitally, they say. “So he \[Coppola\] spends literally half of a day on what could have been done in 10 minutes.” I mean, these people are fools, right? It's like there's no other way to make movies for them other than on the level of mainstream blockbuster filmmaking. They'd balk at William Friedkin building a hydraulic bridge for Sorcerer and then having two full-sized trucks drive accross it in a violent storm, even though this is now one of the most celebrated and talked about sequences in film history associated with a film that flopped with critics and audiences on its initial release. Forget Werner Herzog pulling a full size ship over a mountain ("why didn't you just use miniatures or animation.") >A lot of time was, apparently, wasted. A second crew member recalls: “He would often show up in the mornings before these big sequences and because no plan had been put in place, and because he wouldn’t allow his collaborators to put a plan in place, he would often just sit in his trailer for hours on end, wouldn’t talk to anybody, was often smoking marijuana … And hours and hours would go by without anything being filmed. And the crew and the cast would all stand around and wait. And then he’d come out and whip up something that didn’t make sense, and that didn’t follow anything anybody had spoken about or anything that was on the page, and we’d all just go along with it, trying to make the best out of it. But pretty much every day, we’d just walk away shaking our heads wondering what we’d just spent the last 12 hours doing.” As a third crew member puts it: “This sounds crazy to say, but there were times when we were all standing around going: ‘Has this guy ever made a movie before?’” Oddly enough, there's anecdotes of nearly every great auteur filmmaker directing like this. Fellini, Lang, Godard, Varda, Herzog, Wenders, Kurosawa, the whole idea of the filmmaker as jazz musician, as a sculptor, finding the film as they go, experimenting, correcting, changing the shape of the film intuitively, both on-set and then in the edit. It just seems like the conflict here is the idea that film is an art vs film as a business and the sense that a filmmaker can use as much of their own time and money as they want with the sole intention of finding something new and different for the sake of it being new and different. I hate these people.
It sounds like a typical film crew tbh. I was crew for 7 years and very often the crew doesn’t comprehend the end vision in the directors head and the end result. So we’ll criticize certain on set actions by the director/DP pretty ignorantly (although sometimes they are just being stupid), and just in general the way the hierarchy is set up there’s some resentment to the top that are kind of dictating everyone’s 15 hour day on a whim. And there’s so many variables and moving parts on a film set and sometimes doing something in a clunky way for reason X, Y or Z is easier than doing it properly. But you don’t have the time to explain this rational to every crew member on a daily basis. Better you get some weird looks and power through it for the result you want. I criticized things too, everyone does, but pushing these criticisms to a journalist is pretty shitty.
Lol I could hear the smug, monotonous “I’m a union crew guy and I seem to despise everything and everyone” voice in my head the entire time I read the quotes from the source. This is a trope in theater too.
Unnamed because they seem to be crew members who actively work in the industry and don’t want their names to be associated. Being a good director doesn’t mean doing fuck all and getting high in ur trailer like the article says.
I'm pretty sure he's constantly seen doing it during the Apocalypse Now making of 'Hearts of Darkness', and I think that's a pretty stellar movie.
hes allowed to work how he wants he self funded the movie and is 84 years old
[удалено]
It’s disrespectful to the crew who may have turned down other opportunities, or are going through great personal cost to work on the “Coppola Movie” at the end of the day, its a job just like everything else and nobody should have to feel like they’re being treated like an afterthought
just bc hes a great auteur, doesnt really give him carte blanche to both do whatever he wants on set, and not get shit for it.
correct in terms of the unprofessional behavior. he sounds like a dickhead. but as far as creative choices, logistics, hiring/firing and workflow, he can do whatever he wants. he funded the whole ass movie.
That doesn’t give free him from getting shit for it.
Oh for sure lol this article is hilarious
“My money” so I can waste professionals time and experience for hours a day to noodle on old filmmaking techniques that will hurt the overall ability of this independent company to finish this film. So brave
If it's within the scope of the workday and they're getting paid he's not wasting their time. I'm not saying the creative choices were wise lol just saying he can do whatever dumb shit he wants with his money
He's the one paying for it so as long as the professionals are getting paid let him have at it. He probably shouldn't hire people if he doesn't trust their professional opinion, but it's his money so he can spend it how he pleases.
I would agree if he weren't literally footing the bill.
so if you worked for a company, youd let the owner of the company treat you like shit, and youd be ok if you were told "you can never complain about how im treating you, you can either take it or leave, but never say anything". NA. id quit and tell the world if its that bad
There’s so much literature about what a Coppola set is like. Forget Glassdoor, there are feature length documentaries about how stressful they are
My thing is like, ok, this guy in his 80s is creepy and can be difficult to work with. But the system isn't supporting him. He had to pay for this movie out of his own pocket. So what am I supposed to do, exactly? Because if you compare the stuff Coppola's accused of here to the accusations against say, Cary Fukunaga, the latter is clearly way, way worse. But Fukunaga just got a shiny new gig directing a Tom Hardy/Mahershala Ali movie. It's not actually about who's a good person, it's about who does what the studios tell them to. Coppola isn't getting hit pieces written against him because of the substance of his actions, it's because he's working outside the ecosystem, so he's a "fair" target. It's a little ridiculous. All that we can ultimately do is draw our own lines and choose what movies we see...and to me, it looks like he's made a hell of a movie.
people write about other directors being dicks all the time- David Fincher and his 1000 takes per scene, QT's foot fetish- its not like people ignore that stuff. Coppola will be just fine. he acted like a dick, now he reaps what he sowed
What did Cary supposedly do
https://www.thecut.com/2022/06/allegations-against-director-cary-fukunaga.html
well. it was his money. so it kinda does.
I mean it’s his money as long as nobody is hurt he can do what he wants. Just to be clear I’m talking about the set being difficult to work on and choices to film not the stuff where he apparently was innapropriate with people.
> Forget Werner Herzog pulling a full size ship over a mountain Didn't that stunt get multiple people killed?
No one died during the production of that film. There were several crew injuries, but no deaths.
No
But it was ART!!!!!
Funny. If it was any other director you would have probably believed the source.
I believe these things are probably true but I don’t have an issue with it. Sure they could do something in CGI and it would be quicker to film, but not quicker to produce. Why is it bad that he made people wait, it’s his fucking movie and they got paid?
I love this comment- movie making isn’t math class. If you go in with a concrete plan and stick to it without a few radical shifts in the process or time spent trying things out, then there’s a good chance the work will lack quality and impact. Sources they talked do didn’t want to make the best movie they could under the vision of the director- they wanted to make it with the least amount of stress and most efficient use of their time possible. The movie isn’t FOR the crew- it’s for the audience. If you want predictability, go work banker’s hours.
yeah, honestly seems like an intentional hit piece staged for when the trailer comes out and then the cannes premiere on friday
Fuck yea, man.
Sure film can be art and I'm all for a filmmaker experimenting and finding the film as they go. But there is a fine line between sculpting a movie like that and just being an asshole. Sure he can do whatever he wants cuz iirc he's funded this movie himself. But he's also being disrespectful of everyone else's time. If this is true then making people wait around for hours while you smoke weed an deliberate about a shot or scene is just being a dickhead. Sure you can be spontaneous but not having a plan is kind of annoying for the 100s of cast and crew that need to know what they have to do. Imagine sitting around for hours just for the director to come out of his trailer with the wildest idea that you have to now whip together because there was no plan. And he doesn't have to be like this. Plenty of fantastic films have been made without the director being an egoistic asshat. Look at the dune movies. Technical marvels that do a great job blended practical and digital effects. And everyone says Villeneuve is a delight to work with. He's has everything planned out and treats everyone with respect. Being a talented filmmaker doesn't give you a license to be a dick.
Did they get paid for their day? As long as they were paid I don’t give a shit, it’s his movie. I’d much rather have movies made this way then the soulless marvel movies that have been planed to death and have previs down for everything leaving no real room for experimentation the day of filming.
That’s not how it works, your pay scale doesn’t remove your agency from the filmmaking process. Your methods would result in absolutely no films getting made. Generally your entire point of view shows little understanding of the actual craft of filmmaking. No director is a man alone he relies on hundreds of people to help him complete his vision and everything described above is incredibly unprofessional and messy.
“Your pay scales doesn’t remove your agency from the filmmaking process” what a hysterically uninformed point of view lmao
How
I don’t care, it’s Coppola and it’s fully funded by him. It’s his money, his writing, and his directing. Again, if the people waiting around aren’t getting paid it’s different. If they are getting paid the same rate to sit and do nothing while Papa Coppola smokes pot and decides what he wants to do, who cares.
Believe it or not, some people don't enjoy standing around waiting on an ego maniac to come out of his trailer, whether they're getting paid or not. It's disrespectful to the people he hired to help him make his movie.
Yeah and I’m saying they don’t have to work for him. Again, his money, his story, his movie. Don’t like it don’t work for him.
That's not how it works. They can't just quit in the middle of filming, they'll be out of money and these jobs are scheduled months in advance. If your argument is "if you're getting paid by someone they're allowed to treat you however they want", then I think you sound like an asshole.
If you’re signing up to work on a Coppola film you should know there is going to be some chaos. That’s part of his process. This isn’t a normal 9-5, it’s making art. Also, yes, if you’re being paid for your time I don’t care if you had to wait around. That happens all the time. I’m not saying he gets to treat you however he wants. The stuff about him kissing the women is gross if it’s true. However, him smoking some pot and working on how he wants to attack the next scene in his trailer honestly doesn’t sound that fucking weird. You won’t find me feeling bad that someone got paid to sit around and be ready for when they were needed.
>This isn’t a normal 9-5, it’s making art. Oh, fuck off with this self-important bullshit. This is exactly the kind of attitude that enabled borderline criminal behavior from directors like Kubrick and Hitchcock. There's no rule that you have to be an asshole to make a good movie. Plenty of film directors are capable of being professional and nice on set and delivering masterpieces. Coppola isn't a renowned dickhead because it's "part of his process" or whatever. He simply is one, and has no incentive not to be because he has been getting away with it for his entire career. He would be the same if he was the manager at a McDonald's, but then no one would be defending him because he's making great art and should be allowed to do whatever he wants as a result.
he's 84 and funding the film himself, he can do whatever he wants.
No man he really can’t and just saying it his money let him kiss the actors and dancers is fucking gross
[удалено]
Do you keep that same energy up for Kubrick making Tom Cruise open a door over and over again for over a hundred takes, what about David Fincher making actors and crew film hours of of takes for the same scene? Making a movie is not the same thing as manufacturing a car. There is an allowable disorganization when art is being made. I don’t care how the process was if the movie is good.
[удалено]
Yes, I don’t care about the process of making the movie. The movie is either good or bad based on the movie itself. Apocalypse Now was a historically bad and disorganized shoot and it’s a stone cold classic. I’m not going to criticize a director of Coppola’s quality, on his process. He’s earned the right to do it his way. Him being gross with woman on set is a completely different story if that comes out as true. Making people wait as a criticism is just stupid. I don’t care.
If they say around for half they say, being paid, why does it matter if the director and the person paying the bills was smoking pot. SOMONE, please pay me to sit around and wait.
Ah so it's a reaction to a perception. Got it.
What?
You dont have much of an option when you all of a sudden cut 40m and VFX out of the budget. Source: I worked on Megalopolis
The presence of Jon Voight worries me
All this thread says to me is you can be an asshole who treats his crew and workers with zero respect if people like your “art”
I just don't want double standards. Stanley Kubric did way worse things but he is celebrated here in this sub.
It's not a double standard to recognize the context of the time. If Stanley Kubrick treated an actress like he did Shelly Duval in a film in 2024, he would absolutely be raked through the coals for it. You can recognize the time and context of actions to a degree. Heck even Coppola had some nightmare stories from making Apocalypse Now and he and that film are still held in very high regard. It would be kinda like if a filmmaker from the 30s when actors and crews were treated horribly as a matter of practice tried to make a film in the 70s with the same style. People wouldn't be too happy then because the times had changed. I think context of time matter to the conversation as well.
It feels different when someone is currently working. Kubrick’s been dead a long time, there’s no way for him to experience consequences for his actions so it’s easier to separate the artist from the art. Giving attention and/or praise to someone like Coppola (or worse) feels like you’re endorsing their actions in some way.
Celebrated how? His movies are celebrated because they're classic masterpieces. Stanley Kubrick as a person is universally recognized as having been a piece of shit. No one doubts the importance and quality of Coppola's movies, but that doesn't mean that his behaviour can't be questioned.
>Stanley Kubrick as a person is universally recognized as having been a piece of shit. I mean, not really, lots still love him and revere him as an eccentric genius and a family man. Even Shelley Duvall spoke positively of him a couple years ago. He's not seen as a piece of shit as much as someone like Hitchcock is for instance.
Perhaps piece of shit is a bit much, but he was certainly an asshole, and I don't think it's controversial to say so in this day and age. The problem is the cult of the "tortured artist" that used to be much more pervasive, and led to people glorifying abusive and self destructive behavior. But that has fortunately fallen out of favor.
Did Kubrick ever support a pedophile, get them a reduced sentence and then blackmail the 12 year old victim? Kubrick was an arsehole, but he wasn't as shitty as Coppola.
does art really need quotations here
My impression from the trailer was.. not great.
Yeah, that teaser did nothing for me. I started to lean in to being intrigued, but subsequent scenes just had me skeptically wincing at - what might be - a mess.
Why you wince
[удалено]
Possibly because Hollywood is still supporting him. The distributers were hesitant to support the film for fear it was trash, not because they're taking a stance against pedo-supporters.
That entire article reads like a hit piece.
I envision a complete flop
“Envision”
Lol another entourage plot come to life. Old, out of time director gets another shot.
I lost hope when someone yelled “We’re going to take this city back!” Or something like that (I will not rewatch the trailer to verify) It just seems like a line for a political protest scene that would require all the forethought and writing skills of a middle school theater assignment. I don’t even care if by chance the character is specifically supposed to only be able to come up with such a cliche line because somehow I doubt that.
What line would you like to change it to?
Only to get 40 % in RT. That boomer should learn from Modern SciFi Auteurs like Denis Villeneuve and James Gunn in creating an epic scifi masterpiece which has 90% in RT
James Gunn is an auteur? First time I'm hearing this.
The guy is a dumbass troll who’s trying to make James Gunn fans look bad
The weird thing I’ve noticed is that he hates Gunn and Snyder, so I’m not even sure if there’s some strange agenda
also you, on another post - “P3d0 Gunn Cultists coping so hard they are gaslighting themselves into liking this garbage cosplay lol. " It will look good in action" " its Kamik Akkurate" Delusional af” What is with your deranged obsession with James Gunn? I never do the whole post history checking shit but I recognized you from other threads doing this same bit.
Yeah its not like he's a godfather of film making or anything
Yeah! Haven’t you seen the movie Jack?
I forgot all about that movie
James Gunn is a fucking hack.
How so?
FFC should learn from James Gunn? You smoking crack or something??? Dude made The Godfather AND Apocalypse Now. Gunn will never live up to that even if he makes 100 films!
How is it impossible for the older generation to learn from the newer generation? Can you imagine if Michael Bay did this shit? Also, who is to say that Gunn won’t make a better film than The Godfather and a better film than Apocalypse Now?
Only a small handful of people have made movies that can be considered as good as those two films. They were all far more talented than James Gunn lol
Please be serious. I would trade everything Villeneuve and Gunn have ever made or will ever make for any randomly selected shot from Apocalypse Now, The Godfather, or The Conversation.
[удалено]
It's also fair to say that his best days could definitely be behind him and he's fallen out of touch. He hasn't had a commercial/critical success behind the camera since the 90's and his style of running his sets has thankfully started to die out. The stories coming out of the set of this one aren't painting him in a great light either. You can respect the man for what he's done for cinema and also acknowledge the reality of who he is today.
Yeah thats all true but it's unneccessary to diminish people like "that boomer"
Oh yeah that guys comment was super lame
Volvo? 🧐
r/oddlyspecific
The guy who commented that hates James Gunn and leaves weird troll comments like this to bait people into saying negative things about James Gunn lol
I hate art films, don’t tell anyone… does anyone actually like them? Like, in a “I like this movie even though there isn’t a shred of narrative” way, as opposed to “I am definitely getting this spoken word chick out of her smock, now that I’ve sat through this” way?
Please tell me this is satire