After decades of development, Francis Ford Coppola’s self-financed epic Megalopolis is finally in theaters. Set in an alternate America, the bewildering film explores the power struggle between visionary Cesar Catilina (Adam Driver) and corrupt mayor Franklyn Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito). During its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, an actor in the crowd stepped up to the screen and addressed Catilina directly in a fourth wall-breaking press conference that stunned audiences. It’s a showstopping experience unseen in a Hollywood production since William Castle was pulling tricks on audiences in his low-budget horror films back in the 1950s and ’60s.
It would be a mistake to call this brief sequence a gimmick, though. It’s fully in line with Coppola’s late-period work that emphasizes technical innovation and privileges the…
