IronWatcher’s review published on Letterboxd:
Watched in the cinema (147th visit in 2024)
At least Francis Ford Coppola is gracious enough to state right at the beginning of the film via an off-screen narrator what he is actually concerned with here: his film - titled a "fable" - traces the fall of the Roman Empire in modern times. And to make sure everyone understands, the protagonists also have appropriate names. Caesar, Cicero, ring a bell?
However, these explanations are also the last favor Coppola does us, because afterwards he tells the story exactly as he wants to - and that is extravagant and reckless towards any viewing habits. There is no arc of suspense or coherent dramaturgy in this creative chaos. One begins to suspect why Coppola spent vast sums of private money on this film so that no film studio would interfere. Because, oh yes, there would have been a lot to interfere with. Whether consciously or unconsciously, the director resembles his protagonist Caesar Catalina, played by Adam Driver, in this obsession and uncompromisingness to realize his vision.
It's also part of the program to really go all out with the cast. Dustin Hoffman has a total screen time of perhaps five minutes in the almost two-and-a-half-hour movie. Alongside a permanently stoned Adam Driver and a tense Giancarlo Esposito, Nathalie Emmanuel in the role of Julia is something like the secret leading role and the link that somehow holds this confused plot together. Meanwhile, Aubrey Plaza, Shia LaBeouf and Jon Voight score a laugh or two in the side plot about the filthy rich Crassus family.
Yes, you are allowed to laugh, because you shouldn't take this movie too seriously. It has one or two surprises in store, especially on a visual level, even if it is not "beautiful" to look at in the strictest sense. The images look strangely artificial, like a kind of theater stage. This is probably also fully intentional, because after all, it is also a kind of operatic theater performance that the audience is attending here. It is said that Coppola has been carrying this material around with him for over 40 years and now, at the age of 85, he has finally completed his self-declared magnum opus. In view of the fact that Coppola's oeuvre includes timeless masterpieces such as "Apocalypse Now" and "The Godfather", this description seems rather presumptuous - at least for us film fans. But our opinion is probably of little interest to the master here.
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