Francis Ford Coppola drew gasps and groans for a prediction he’s now made about the upcoming presidential election.
The filmmaker joined his friends and collaborators Robert De Niro and Spike Lee for a Q&A livestreamed from New York’s AMC Lincoln Square to 65 IMAX theaters across the U.S. on September 24 before a New York Film Festival screening of “Megalopolis.”
The trio, in conversation with New York Film Festival artistic director Dennis Lim, shared reminiscences from their friendship before Coppola went deep on how “Megalopolis” can be seen as a metaphor for the fall of Rome — and explained why he thinks America is headed down the same path.
“My films are a little prescient, they relate to the future,” Coppola said, noting that people asked him “Why are you making a movie about eavesdropping?” when “The Conversation” came out. And then the Watergate tapes dropped shortly thereafter.
“And people always said, ‘Why do you want to make a movie about America as Rome?,’” Coppola continued. “Um, today America is Rome. And we’re about to go through the same experience, for the same reasons, that Rome lost its republic and ended up with an emperor.”
The auteur added, “This movie is perhaps very prescient to do, a movie about America, because it’s going to happen in a few months.”
Coppola’s clearly given this a lot of thought, and “Megalopolis” even features Shia LaBeouf becoming a villainous Trumpian figure trying to harness populist rage for his own gain. The film takes place in an allegorical version of New York City called New Rome, and indeed a “Make New Rome Great Again” cap can even be glimpsed at one point.
“And it was [for] the same reason,” Coppola said, as to where America is and where Rome ended up. “Rome was so prosperous, Rome was making lots of money. So the senators were actually very interested in their power and their own wealth. And they weren’t managing the country. Well, the same thing has happened here. Our Senate and representatives are all manipulating their own power rather than running the country. And we’re in danger of losing it.”
The crowd could be heard gasping on the livestream (as they also did in-person in Tampa, where this writer was watching it). And so Spike Lee immediately cracked a joke to try to lighten the mood?
“Back in Rome were they eating cats and dogs?” Lee quipped, citing Trump’s outlandish and offensive comments about immigrants made during the second 2024 presidential debates against Democratic nominee and current Vice President Kamala Harris.
Coppola used that opportunity after Lee’s joke to speak to how shameful he thought the recent demonization of Haitians and Haitian immigrants to the U.S. has been, as he did recently in an Instagram post, and shouted out a Haitian film he supports called “Freda,” directed by Gessica Geneus.
De Niro, one of the most enduringly vocal anti-Trump critics, did suggest he didn’t think having an emperor is a fait accompli at this point, with around 40 days to go until the election.
“It’s not over ’til it’s over,” De Niro said. “And we have to go at this wholeheartedly to beat the Republicans — those Republicans aren’t real Republicans. Beat Trump. It’s that simple. We cannot have that type of person in office in this world. That’s simple. Everybody has to get out there and vote. And we have to make it very clear what America is. It’s not what that other thing is. It’s just not. It’s just not what we are about. And everybody knows that. Even people that are doing wrong know that.”
To this writer, “Megalopolis” is ultimately a film about how we approach the future and how we envision it. Coppola is clear that America has to face that future united. That’s why he even made certain casting choices, such as Trump supporter Jon Voight, who plays the banking mogul Crassus in the film.
“I deliberately got people to make this who disagree,” Coppola said. “I mean, there’s actors in the movie that are moving another way, and there are people in there who have been canceled which way and right. And we in the movie, we all work together. Together. Happily and creatively. So it shows that we’re… I didn’t want them to say, ‘Oh, it’s some you know, woke movie that’s just a political thing.’ We’re above the politics in making the film I thought. And yet still we all liked each other, and make this film together. So I’m hopeful that we can work even when people disagree with us. To a higher goal.”
De Niro then replied to Coppola, “Can you imagine Donald Trump directing this movie? It would never go anywhere. It’d be total craziness. He cannot do anything. He cannot do anything together. He wants to destroy the country. And he could not do this movie. He couldn’t do anything that has a structure.”
And if Trump, a “Home Alone 2” actor who then went on to serve as the U.S. president, can’t direct an ensemble cast for a film, how could he bring a nation together?
Coppola wrapped things up with a fun anecdote about the former president.
“So you know I went to military school with Donald Trump?” the filmmaker said. “I went to military school with Donald Trump. We went to the same military academy. Not at the same time. I was a little older… But I was poor. So I was a tuba player in the band. And he was rich. So he was in the headquarters where they could keep their lights on after 10:00.”
And that’s probably the last time Coppola and Trump were on (literal) common ground.
“Megalopolis” opens in theaters September 28.
