Even with multiple iconic films on his track record, Francis Ford Coppola continues to defy the standards of the movie industry – this time not just with what’s on screen but also with how he brings it to audiences.
The legendary director showcased his latest project, “Megalopolis,” at the Chicago Theatre on Friday, July 25. The event, titled “An Evening With Francis Ford Coppola featuring ‘Megalopolis,’” is part of a six-date national tour, with the Windy City location being hosted by Columbia College Chicago.
Attendees not only got to see his latest creation but also received an unscripted conversation with the director. The discussion provided guests with access to the filmmaker’s process, vision and philosophy.
“We’re the ones who, in our earlier history, decided that time should be broken up in minutes and days,” said Coppola.
“Megalopolis” is a movie four decades in the making. The film stars an architect who desires to progress “New Rome,” an alternate version of New York City, into the future by creating a utopian city. With an atypical narrative supported by its stunning visuals, the film invites viewers to question the very structures – economic, civic and moral – which built modern life.
In one scene, it showed a traditionally animated sequence of the future, which transitioned to a dialogue scene through film tape being burned.
“Megalopolis,” which is two hours and 18 minutes long, was originally released in theatres in 2024 but hasn’t been available to the public on any streaming service.
One reviewer for Time magazine wrote, “I’ll take a messy, imaginative sprawl over a waxen, tasteful enterprise any day.”
As the movie screening came to a close, thunderous applause filled the theatre, and Coppola, the visionary behind films like “The Godfather,” “The Outsiders” and “Apocalypse Now,” took the stage for a post-screening discussion.
The talk began with a question-and-answer session where audience members asked questions to the director.
One attendee asked Coppola what he was most excited about.
The director replied, “that people are going to begin to process and look at our current situation in a way that we evolve quicker than we ever did towards a situation, a state of affairs, where we can make a beautiful world.”
Coppola addressed various topics such as the flow of time and the future of humanity. In one part of the conversation, he even talked about the possibility of life expectancies increasing with how the current world could impact future generations.
“Is it going to be a beautiful world that we can make, that they can make and enjoy, or is it going to be a terrible, hard, mean, awful world?” Coppola told the audience, which included members of the Columbia community.
“Events like this reinforce Columbia College Chicago’s position in the vanguard of cinema education,” Carolina Posse, an associate professor in the School of Film and Television, told the Chronicle.
The film and television program is the largest at the college.
Jacob Oesterwind, a Coppola fan from Detroit who now lives in Chicago, said he appreciated that the director was willing to provide his perspective on ongoing real-world issues.
“It was nice to have someone being able to not just talk about the problems but also the solutions,” said Oesterwind.
One of the main points of the movie was the idea of pushing towards the future despite resistance to remain complacent with the present.
Originally from Germany, brothers Tobias and Florian Balzer were also in the crowd to see the movie and have the opportunity to interact with Coppola.
Tobias said he enjoyed the visuals of the movie “because of the pictures of the future and the nice art.”
For the Balzer brothers, they agreed on the aforementioned theme about wanting to create change.
“I think it’s possible to make the world better every day,” said Balzer.
At another point in the discussion, the director talked about how every movie he’s created has been a passion project, in addition to the importance of keeping one’s work personal.
“What I want you to take away from ‘Megalopolis’ is you don’t have to play by somebody else’s rules,” Coppola said.
This story was updated July 29, 2025, to correct a misquote from a Time magazine review.
Copy edited by Vanessa Orozco
