The city of New Rome faces the duel between Cesar Catilina, a brilliant artist in favor of an Utopian future, and the greedy mayor Franklyn Cicero. Between them is Julia Cicero, with her loy... Read allThe city of New Rome faces the duel between Cesar Catilina, a brilliant artist in favor of an Utopian future, and the greedy mayor Franklyn Cicero. Between them is Julia Cicero, with her loyalty divided between her father and her beloved.The city of New Rome faces the duel between Cesar Catilina, a brilliant artist in favor of an Utopian future, and the greedy mayor Franklyn Cicero. Between them is Julia Cicero, with her loyalty divided between her father and her beloved.
- Awards
- 2 nominations
- Huey Wilkes
- (as Bailey Ives)
- Director
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaFrancis Ford Coppola wrote the script in the early 1980s, but the film was kept on the back-burner partially due to his financial debts. Pre-production finally began in 2001 after filming 30 hours of second unit footage and holding table read with Paul Newman, Uma Thurman, Robert De Niro, James Gandolfini, Nicolas Cage, Leonardo DiCaprio, Russell Crowe, Edie Falco, and Kevin Spacey, but the project was scrapped after the September 11 attacks, because a scene from the script (page 166) "predicted" the attacks. Coppola fully abandoned the project in 2007, and didn't begin developing it again until 2019.
- GoofsAt 21:40, Catilina's character says the phrase "Holy Jesus Christ!" in amazement. Yet, within universe, the city of New Rome stems from a culture based on Roman Mythology (example: 54:47, the dedication to Vesta; 01:55:51, someone says "The will of Cronus", or at 01:56:49, a statue of Saturn is displayed prominently, while there are many more depictions of Roman deities). In this universe, Christianity doesn't exist. There's no reason Catilina would use the phrase "Holy Jesus Christ!" and in such context.
- Quotes
Cesar Catilina: *You* wanna help me?
Julia Cicero: Yeah. And, well, I... well, I want to learn.
Cesar Catilina: And you think one year of... medical school entitles you to plow through the riches of my Emersonian mind?
Julia Cicero: Entitles me?
Cesar Catilina: Yes.
Julia Cicero: [scoffs] Entitles me?
Cesar Catilina: Yeees!
Julia Cicero: Entitles me?
Cesar Catilina: YEEEEEES!
Julia Cicero: You have no idea about me! You think I am nothing, just a socialite?
Cesar Catilina: No, not nothing, but I reserve my time for people who can think. About science. And literature, and... architecture and art. You find me cruel, selfish and unfeeling? I am. I work without caring what happens to either of us. So go back to the cluuuub, bare it all, and stalk the kind of people that you enjoy.
Julia Cicero: Fine! I will.
Cesar Catilina: Come back when you have more time!
- Alternate versionsThe "Ultimate IMAX Experience" version of the film features a live actor asking questions during the filmed press conference.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Amanda the Jedi Show: MEGALOPOLIS is my Nightmare | Explained (2024)
- SoundtracksMy Pledge
Written by Grace VanderWaal
Performed by Grace VanderWaal
Courtesy of Columbia Records
By arrangement with Sony Music Entertainment
Produced and Orchestrated by Kris Kukul
That said, it is natural to be skeptical of what is essentially an admiring biopic of Robert Moses. Especially when it has apparently been written by Ayn Rand as a reply to METROPOLIS and then handed to Abel Gance after convincing him he's making a movie about Julius Caesar instead of Napoleon. And don't forget the quotations from Marcus Aurelius.
It is, in sum, a very learned movie. To appreciate the details, you need to have read extensively in Roman history, seen a lot of silent films, and be familiar with New York City in the second half of the 20th Century, including the flight of the middle and upper classes from the 1950s through the 1980s. Through the vagaries of my upbringing and a chaotic course of self-education, I can claim those things. So. What do I think?
The performances are fine. However, I am left with the question, as I am about so many movies these days, of who Coppola made this movie for. It is claimed he spent about $140 million of his own money on this feature. The general rule is that a movie has to gross about twice its production cost to break even. I can't see a large enough audience for this to produce $300,000,000 in tickets and secondary rights. It is simply too long, a shaggy dog story about love and artistic vision being more important than anything else.
This would not, of course, be the first time that Coppola has let his artistic ambitions explode on him; even though it is claimed APOCALYPSE NOW eventually made its money back, I have my doubts about that if you add in interest costs. Certainly ONE FROM THE HEART was a disaster, and he spent a couple of decades making nicely commercial movies from other sources to dig his way out, and let the wineries and restaurants make him money. Neither do I believe this movie will ruin him. There are certainly enough movies buffs around to make the net loss from this bearable.
All of which goes a long way to answering my question of who Coppola's intended audience was. It was Coppola himself, an attempt to prove himself the complete film maker, instead of the fine translator of others' well told tales. I hope he likes what he has wrought.
The Year in Posters
The Year in Posters
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Details
Box office
- Budget
- $120,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $7,629,085
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $4,007,797
- Sep 29, 2024
- Gross worldwide
- $13,784,520
- Runtime2 hours 18 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 2.00 : 1