Downloaded from YTS.BZ
Official YIFY movies site: YTS.BZ
[Eleanor] So I guess the big question is,
how do you feel before you set off
on this adventure
that's been 30 years in the making?
I think I must be a little afraid,
a little scared, but I think I take that
as a really good thing.
Because if I'm a little afraid,
it shows that I'm...
I'm not just doing something
that is just, I know how to do or... uh...
I have no nerves about it all.
I'm doing something I don't know how to do
and I don't know how it's going to work out,
but I think that's good.
Jacques Tati, for his last film,
put all his money in and lost it and died broke.
But who cares if you die broke
if you made something that you think is beautiful?
[dramatic music playing]
[Figgis] We're heading for the studio.
I'm intrigued.
I've never actually seen
another film director at work before.
I mean, the only time I meet film directors
is at festivals or award ceremonies,
that kind of thing.
I've never seen one actually working.
[indistinct chatter]
Also, I am intrigued to see
how someone can spend 120 million dollars
of their own money on a film.
What advice would you give anyone
who wanted to make a documentary
about your husband?
[chuckles] Um...
That's a tough one.
I think you just observe what's going on
that you think is interesting,
that has life, that has something, uh,
that really interests you as the filmmaker,
because he'll have ideas, and he'll...
everybody's going this way
and he's going to want to go that way.
[jazzy music playing]
I don't really like to shoot this too much,
but if you like, I'm happy to tell you
what it is and we can have a little interview in there.
[Figgis] Yeah, that'll be nice.
The rest of the time I'll be naked
and I'll be in the bathtub and so it's not really--
[Figgis] That's when I should shoot, right?
Oh, no.
[man] Francis is stepping in.
You all have heard of the famous
"lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'entrate'"
Who knows what that is?
Anybody? No one speaks Italian,
obviously, or I don't speak it well.
That's abandon hope, all ye who enter.
That's on the sign of Hell.
If I have a sign and you'll see it,
it's supposed to be up,
which is basically "Abandon worry,
all you in here," because in this space,
during this time, nobody can be bad,
nobody can get in trouble.
Abandon worry, but it's not without its price,
because I'll tell you something.
When you're in this space, you're not you.
You are the character you're playing.
I want you to imagine that you're coming
to a Halloween masquerade party.
Not that you would come as,
that your character would come as.
And not what Shia would think of,
what Clodio would think, right?
So you've got this imaginary costume on
and the game is going to be that we have to guess
like 20 questions who you are.
[laughing]
[guitar music playing]
[Francis] Who knows how to play sound focus?
- Ah! - Ah!
- Back! - Back!
- Circus! - Circus!
- Dock! - Dock!
Yama!
[laughing]
If you do this every day, you'll be great in the movie.
- You do this every day-- - You really will.
Games have rules.
And the rule of this game is that when you get mad,
you dish it off to the guy below you,
which is in fact what happens in life
and what happens in most plays.
Take your hat, and when you throw it down,
you have to tell the second guy to pick it up
and then go back to your improv.
- Pick up my hat! - Pick up my hat!
[jazzy music playing]
And I want you to somehow bring the tone down.
Bring down all of the anger,
all of the rage, all of the vulgarity.
Okay, I'm gonna stop for a second.
I'm gonna be the boss.
You gotta take care of my staff.
You're fired.
Here, I want you to go talk to the mayor.
Tell the mayor, there are three things
- I'm not happy about. - Right.
One is their policy of...
One second.
You're fired. Pay attention! Take a note.
You know what you have to do? You sat in my chair.
- You know what you have to do? - Yes.
It's an old, old rule.
Who knows the rules what happens in movies
when a person sits in the director's chair?
[woman] They have to buy us all drinks.
They have to buy the whole company a drink,
but I'm gonna forgive you
because you didn't know that.
- We're in rehearsal. - Okay.
I've never had an experience like it before.
I feel like I'm in an acting class,
but with these wonderful people,
which is so inspiring and entertaining.
But the whole movie magic can be like that.
[Isabelle] Yeah.
[Shia] Do you lie to make people feel better?
Never.
I-I, you know, I-I-I... believe in the army dictum.
Neither withhold nor volunteer information.
If you ask me a question, I won't withhold the answer.
But all your compliments, all your encouragement,
it's honest.
[Francis] I have to tell you a really honest fact
that I only realized recently
that when I do casting for a movie,
whether-- whether it's an open calling
in this very room, I met about 400 people
and I shook their hand.
Whether it's a newcomer like that
or it's Marlon Brando,
I'm rooting for them when I'm there with them.
I really am.
By the end of that week of rehearsal,
he had created a sense of camaraderie
amongst the principal actors
who had started to enjoy these games.
And they-- and also with deep respect for Francis,
they-- they did whatever he asked.
Are they in character?
Good.
Don't mind the camera. The camera's not even here.
So how close are you guys?
Do you-- do you-- do you get together every week?
[man] Occasionally.
[Plaza] Family's important, isn't it?
[Voight] I think family is everything.
We have a close bond.
We support each other.
And I'm trying to be a proper
captain of the ship to guide them forth into the future.
We have very strong personalities.
[Shia] Very strong.
Look how buff he is.
That's the one compliment I get.
He's so buff.
Buff banker, right?
- Flex for the camera. - Oh.
The actors started, I think, acting with the camera
because I was pretty close and because
I'm a filmmaker, I was getting good angles and everything.
And Francis, I think, liked the fact
that they were interacting in a cinematic way
in a rehearsal, that it took it
to a different level.
And at one point, he started directing me,
which was very funny.
Oh, you don't want to flex for the camera?
Why are you working out so much?
Well, let me ask a question. Do you go to the gym?
- No. - Do you exercise?
- No. - You do nothing.
You know, there's rumors.
I don't know if you guys read those kinds of things,
but there's rumors of, of slight instability.
Instability.
This is an advertisement.
[Plaza] Did you hear that?
Everything all right over there, boys?
Buff grandnephew.
[Plaza] Oh, oh, oh.
He's showing off. He's showing off.
- There we go. - He's getting it down.
[Plaza] Eight, nine, ten, eleven.
[Voight] Oh, man. Look at this.
- Look at this. - 13, 14.
- [Voight] Look at this. Whoa. - 16. Look at him go.
17, 18, 19,
20, 21, 22...
four, five, six, seven, eight, nine,
and that's good form, too.
[Shia] I read the script.
The first version I read was about five years ago.
He did a table read.
- Whoa. - That's not bad.
That is not bad at all.
And in the time from that reading to this film,
I had basically fucked my whole life up.
So I thought, you know, I was in the midst
of doing my ninth step in this program
I'm in, and I had to go make amends to Voight
because I had--
Voight's politics and mine are very different.
I love him very much.
He was like my mentor from a young age.
He was like the first real actor I ever met.
And he's the first one who put me on to
Hoffman's repertoire and, you know,
he would sit in a room with me
and watch all these movies back-to-back
and, like, brought me,
made fall in love with the process
and the craft because before that
I was just a poor kid making money.
We had a big fight on the phone
where I told him I was going to come to his house
and we were going to fist fight.
And I hung up the phone and didn't talk to him for years.
I look at you as a potential heir
to all that I have built.
[Shia] And then when I fell into this program
he was like at the top of my list
of people I needed to make amends to and...
I love you very much.
We get back to the love that we had
and in the midst of that he's telling me
he's getting ready to start prepping this
Megalopolis.
He says, you know, I hope you come with us
and I'm thinking,
"I love you but you're delusional."
Merry Christmas.
I was beyond persona non grata, I was nuclear.
And so in my head there was no fucking way
I was going to be able to take part in this project.
Your sisters want you to come here
to meet someone you don't know.
[Shia] And then maybe two weeks later
I get a call saying,
"Hey, Francis still wants you to do this movie."
But she's a good friend of your older sister, Clodia,
who you're sleeping with, your own sister.
I'm sleeping with my own sister?
Oh, yeah. It's true by the way.
He really was.
Then I heard that eight people wanted to come
so that four bedrooms wouldn't have been enough.
So I looked around at Peachtree City
and I looked at some bigger houses
and then I heard, well, it's really 15 people.
So I said why don't I just buy a hotel?
So I got on the internet and I said a hotel
in Peachtree City and sure enough
one came up called a Days Inn.
These are like a motel.
Bottom line is that I decided,
well, it doesn't only have to have nice suites.
It could also have a beautiful projection room
- if I knocked out-- - [Figgis] Sure.
If I took three rooms and I make a big--
and I can show it to you.
Big screen where I can have the editors
and I could have a recording studio
and I could have a rehearsal room.
It's all show business. It's all the same.
There are sets. There are guests, audience.
There's the crew. They're doing the gardening.
There's the cast.
There are the people who meet the people.
So it's all-- and there's the press.
[Figgis] This project has been around
for a while in your mind.
In my mind, incubating. Yes.
And... I don't know, maybe 30 years.
I'm Bob DeNiro from New York
and I'm happy to be here
and I didn't read the script but I told Francis
that it doesn't matter. I'll still do a good job.
[laughing]
I'm Uma Thurman and I was born in Boston.
My name is Billy Crudup and I thought I was reading Clod.
So this is going to be interesting.
I looked at my calendar.
I think we start shooting in two weeks, right?
Right.
And I'm looking at this and is it going to be ready?
[camera shutter clicks]
Story revolves around Cesar who has invented
a miracle material called Megalon
that will allow him to build a utopian city of the future.
But he has an enemy in the mayor, Cicero,
who opposes this vision.
Caught up in the middle is the mayor's daughter, Julia,
who falls in love with Caesar.
Wow Platinum is a TV celebrity reporter
who plots to take over the world's biggest bank
controlled by the aging Crassus,
Uncle of Caesar.
And then there is Caesar's cousin, Clodio,
who plots to overthrow him
and take control of everything.
Get the fuck up, and get out!
[Shia] It's bad enough he won a Nobel,
now you've made him a fucking martyr!
Close the door!
Close the fucking door!
[Figgis] How did you get involved with this?
What was that process?
Well, I was in Italy
and I was shooting a television show
called White Lotus.
And I got the call when I was there
that they wanted me to screen test for the movie.
- So, Aubrey? - Oh, Jesus.
Where are you? You're in Sicily?
- I'm in Sicily. - Wow.
[Plaza] So, I had the weirdest Zoom in my life with Francis.
I'm gonna run and get something.
Take your time, sweetie.
I don't... Whatever.
Before the Zoom, he sent me the script because he said,
you know, a lot of people read the script
and they don't like it.
And they don't want to do it.
So, I want you to read it first
before you even try to get the part.
I read it and then I emailed him back
and I said, this is a nightmare
because it was disturbing to me.
And I meant it.
But I liked it, but I was like, this is a nightmare.
And then he wrote me back and he said,
"How could you say my movie is a nightmare?
"My dear Aubrey, how could you say this?"
"I'm writing something about hope."
"This movie will change the world."
"This movie is a positive movie."
"It's got a positive message."
And I had no idea what the fuck he was talking about.
[Francis] Okay, we're gonna play a game.
- All right. - This is gonna be fun.
So, don't worry. You can't do bad in this.
Listen, I can do it. I can be funny.
You know, that's like my thing.
I don't think you're gonna find
anyone else as funny as me.
Come up with just a line.
It could be any line at all. Up to you.
All right.
How about, uh, you want to know why I want this job?
Because I got $70,000 of student loans.
There's your fucking answer right there.
[Francis] I want you to now say this line,
but say it as if you're the mad queen.
You want to know why I want this job?
Because I've got $70,000 of student debt.
There's your fucking answer right there.
[Francis] Good.
Francis, uh, was one of the first to use
videotape auditions.
And often he would have a camera here
and a way to turn it on.
And they wouldn't even know that it was on or off.
I love Harpo.
But I'll kill him dead before I let him beat me.
That was the first line that popped into my head.
And then Francis then gave me all of these scenarios.
Like, say it as if your son
has just come to tell you he's going off to war.
Now you're a stand-up comedian.
You're on the stage.
This is the last joke of the night.
Because I got $70,000 of student debt.
There's your fucking answer right there.
Thank you very much.
Over and over and over.
It was ridiculous.
[Francis] Can you now do it as Hamlet.
I love Harpo.
But I'll kill him dead before I let him beat me.
I've never had this kind of an art department
or this kind of a budget.
But I'm able to be helpful because I know
what the director is trying to do.
And no one else does.
You know how I work.
Sometimes I understand it. Sometimes I don't.
Okay.
I'd like to.
You know, he had a number in mind,
which was a hundred million, kind of in that vicinity,
give or take.
The first pass of the budget,
I came in much leaner before he revealed that number.
I think we were at 60 and Francis
wanted to open up the world and give himself
a little bit more time.
So we sort of, we set a hundred as an initial target.
And we're a little north of that now.
So far, I feel like I'm making a commercial.
Doesn't feel like I'm making a movie,
much less a personal-- which this is.
[Figgis] So going into the shoot, what are the kind
of safety nets that would normally be there
that are missing?
Well, anybody who can say no.
[tense music playing]
[woman] Francis reached out to me, it was an e-mail.
It was one of the most thrilling days of my career.
I took a photo of my laptop screen,
and I sent it to my parents, and nobody could believe it.
And I called my agent to ask if this really could be
the real Francis Ford Coppola.
And it was quite an honor to hear from him.
But interestingly, I was just about to start
Guardians of the Galaxy for Marvel and James Gunn,
which was going to be a year-and-a-half-long project.
You know what that movie cost?
[Figgis] Hm?
I can't even tell you because it's a secret,
but it's north of $375 million
they're saying it costs.
And my initial reaction was heartbreak,
that I wasn't going to be available.
And just much to my thrill and delight,
he came back and said he was in no rush
and that he still had some casting to do
and some work on the script
and said he was willing to hang tight
while I was finishing this movie.
So I read the script.
I thought it was incredibly original.
I'd never read anything like it.
I loved how bold it was.
I loved that he was swinging for the fences
with all the scenes.
And I remember thinking,
I really hope he wants to do that with the visuals.
And fortunately, yes, he wants this
to feel big and wants to feel epic.
But we are still circling around what Mega looks like
and how we're going to approach it.
With the movie being named Megalopolis,
and with trying to get this great big grand vision
of a world nobody's seen before,
it's, I think, equal parts exciting and distressing
that we're still figuring that out at this point.
- I think that's my goal here. - Okay.
Are your ears pierced?
No, they're not.
[Figgis] Cheeky.
- Hi, Mike. - [Figgis] Hi.
I'm here for you.
[chuckles, speaks indistinct]
[man] We have some gentlemen ready for you to review.
If you like, they're back with hair and makeup.
[Milena] The clothes are okay.
- Okay. - And you should do the hair.
[man] How would you like the hair?
[Milena] Short. Roman.
- More cut? - Yes.
We take normal tuxedo,
and then we're done with the facing
with all different type of design.
Most of the design comes from Roman, antique Roman mosaic.
But usually we do a complete look,
makeup and hair and costume.
[Figgis] The way you would always work on a film,
that you'd combine hair and makeup with--
Oh, yeah, always.
Since my first movie, always.
[Figgis] Really?
Well, I mean, how can I do you without knowing who you are?
[Figgis] Sure.
I start with this and then here.
- [Figgis] Yeah. - You know, the same thing.
I think you start with the head.
[bell rings]
I'm here because Francis said some words to me
about six months ago that I really loved.
We were talking about another project,
and then that didn't work out,
and I basically said to him,
look, Francis, anything that heals the world,
I'm going to do.
- [Figgis] Okay. - And so he said, "Oh,
I want to heal the world, too."
Techniques he uses, which are just brilliant
from my point of view,
because I've done a lot of experimentation
with alternate movement and body therapy
and all the games you play in therapy
and all these things are the same games
you play with actors.
He's playing in the one foot in theatrical,
one foot in cinema,
and he's straddling that line, and I do both.
So I understood what he was talking about.
Move! Next one.
Move!
A lot happened where Francis really
was giving an anthropology lesson,
and we just talked about these ideas.
In the Madison Square Garden,
which is also the Roman Coliseum
and all these relationships between
modern-day New York City and Rome,
the Rome Republic.
[hip hop music plays]
The celebration of the wedding of Crassus
and, wow, is a scene where it's like
he's the most powerful person in New York City
and the mayor, and everyone's coming to celebrate,
and they're going to celebrate this whole thing.
And columns come in.
Roman columns come in and float in to cover--
basically the slaves are on stilts.
You don't see it, but then they walk away.
So you go, huh?
It's this theatrical joke
and this punch in the gut at the same time.
I love it because I'm a dreamer as well
as much as I can be, and then there's a pragmatist.
And Francis said, too, I'm a pragmatist.
But when you talk to Francis at times,
he's the biggest dreamer.
And we talked about this being
a very magnificent large scene.
Everything's here for a reason.
I'm here for a reason.
And I guess the reason is to help Francis with his vision,
but also to give this moment
that people may look back in 30 years
and say, God, you got to go back and watch that
Madison Square Garden scene in Francis'
movie Megalopolis.
[woman] George, take one.
[Figgis] So I'm watching Francis in Atlanta
spend $120 million.
That's how I started. That's how I started.
I mean, my whole career is based on watching Francis.
Tell us about your young assistant, George Lucas.
[Francis] Associate, okay.
George won an award to come to Warner Brothers
and observe a film being made there.
And he came when we were making Finnegan's Rainbow.
And I kept seeing the skinny kid with a beard
and he was always looking.
[Lucas] I sort of followed in Francis's footsteps.
What he does, then I do.
Francis produced THX-1138, George's movie.
American Graffiti,
which was, I think, the biggest grossing film
for its budget of all time.
[Figgis] What was your first impression of Francis?
Uh... flamboyant. [chuckles]
He is flamboyant.
You know, he's the opposite of me,
which is I guess why we got along so well.
I'm plodding along, careful where I'm doing,
you know, plan it out,
and he's a jump-off-the-cliff guy.
This is an electronic storyboard.
[Lucas] Francis has been very interested
in trying to advance the medium.
[Francis] What I want to do, I think,
is I want to walk around all of these storyboards.
[Lucas] As I have been very interested
in advancing the medium.
As I'm hearing the movie,
and let's say these all have numbers on them.
[Lucas] You know, the whole,
I'll finance these movies myself,
that started with Apocalypse Now.
13, 15.
[Lucas] And then he said, well, I'll start
a studio and, you know...
Just say these numbers, more or less editing the movie.
[Lucas] He's idealistic,
but idealistic in the artistic sense.
And I said, well, yeah, but
you've got to be practical about it.
Uh, I mean, that's the difference.
I mean, I built blocks, financial blocks,
to be able to get to a point
where I could finance my own movies,
have my own studio, and not listen to the majors.
[Francis] And then people can take this unit,
which is a disc storage.
[Lucas] He just said, no, I'll just
jump off the cliff and we'll do it.
[Francis] Let's say I push button 13,
that will give me that picture on the screen.
And so you can edit with the actual
sketches of the storyboard.
So when you're done, you'll have
a whole little miniature movie.
He had the feeling
that he was sort of invincible.
[Francis] After Apocalypse Now,
my reasons for doing this work
are different than they used to be.
They're not related to career,
or they're not related to be an important film director,
or to continue to be an important film director.
They're more related to my own personal education.
You know, what the nature of existence is,
what the nature of being a human being is.
To do your work as hard as you can
and as passionately as you can,
but to always do it beautifully.
After the studio collapsed, um,
Francis started writing Megalopolis.
It's so much about Francis's dream,
the way it didn't happen, the way it did happen.
And this is a dream Francis
has been revising his whole life.
And that is what Megalopolis really is.
I tell you, between the two of us,
no one I'm working with that I think of
in this whole group realizes
how weird a movie this really is.
[jazzy music playing]
[woman] Good morning.
[Francis] Good morning, good morning, good morning.
We need a big circle.
Everyone stand around and we're going to hold hands
so you're touching everybody on the show.
[woman] Everybody on the show!
All right, listen to this folks.
So we're here to begin this wonderful adventure.
I want to say this is something
I've done since I'm 16 years old
and all my family have done.
It's called the Poabah.
And what it's about, it's about safety
that we work on a show and no one is ever hurt.
[woman] Everybody make sure you're touching each other.
Ready?
[all] Poabah. Poabah. Poabah.
[cheering]
[jazzy music playing]
Okay. Now the bad news.
We're going to get the first shot by 9:30.
- Watch us do it. - [man] Yeah!
[applause]
[woman] All right, guys, here we go everybody.
Let's get in position. Traffic is locked.
Let's roll sound.
Ready and action.
[gunshots]
[engine revving]
[Francis] And cut. Good. Okay. Next case.
Ready, action.
[whistling]
Do pick up my hat.
Throw it on the ground and say "Pick up my hat," okay?
Like we did in the game.
- Pick up my hat. - Pick up my hat.
[Francis] Movie making is not work. It's play.
Everything human beings have ever done
throughout history that was worth anything
came about during play.
Never work, never toil.
Toil gives you nothing.
Play gives you everything.
[dramatic music playing]
[Figgis] His style of filmmaking
is very instinctive.
And it's about having a thing called a script,
which basically gets you to cast the actors,
choose the locations.
It gives you a blueprint of a structure.
Then he builds on top of that.
So when he starts shooting,
he'll do a couple of takes and he'll go
just do a crazy take now.
Let's change this.
So he's building all the time.
Kind of like a jazz musician in a way.
You know, he's like, here's some chords
and now I'm gonna make the melody.
[bell rings]
[Francis] This is your house, your elevator.
Your everything, Wow. This, you own this.
And.... action.
Listen, you little bitch.
You and I ought to have an understanding, okay?
You are on my territory now.
And you'll play by my rules.
- Really? - Yes.
Crass, darling.
The mayor's daughter is here,
she wants to talk to you about Catalina.
[Plaza] He's a really weird combination
of being very open to experimentation...
[Francis Okay, cut, print.
[Plaza] And also very controlled and aggressively
wanting what he wants.
[Francis] Here we go. And action.
[Wow] Listen, bitch.
You and I ought to have an understanding.
[Francis] Okay, cut. Okay...
[Plaza] I hated that.
[Francis] You hated it? That means it's wonderful.
We'll do another one.
Okay, I'm going to give you a last one
here in this take.
And I want you to be able to do
anything you want to do whatsoever.
You don't even have to say the lines.
You can just stand there quietly.
Whatever you want to do, you can do it.
Totally free one.
[Plaza] I feel like I speak the same language.
You know, when he tells me to be a spider, take two.
You know, this time, be a spider.
You know, you're a spider.
She's a fly on the wall.
That really works for me.
[Francis] So now you're Rapunzel,
but you're Rapunzel with a side of Wow.
[Figgis] He's sort of kind of put this kind of weird
experimental theater ensemble together.
[Plaza] That's exactly how it feels to me.
[Francis laughing]
[Plaza] The first time we rehearsed,
we had dinner and he just said,
I, you know, this group of actors
is really crazy.
You know, I like to bring crazy actors together
because you never know what will happen.
And I was-- and going into this,
I thought this is a loaded situation.
So they shot something the other day
called poor man's process in a big studio.
Nighttime, a car driving in rain.
I enjoyed filming that very, very much.
[indistinct chattering]
It's going to be better if we have a guy holding it
so we can put it...
[Figgis] For me, the fascination with
this kind of filmmaking is how do you coordinate
all these people and make them work as one team.
It's better to have your hands on this stuff.
[Figgis] What's going on here, Francis?
This is-- Well, we're experimenting.
Of course, you know poor man's process
where they make it look in the dark.
It looks like there are lights going by.
We're trying to see what we can learn
when it also, there's scenic pieces
and it's all sort of a...
It's really sort of a theatrical concoction
but in the light and the darkness
it's believable as moving through the rain
through these cars and passing buildings,
but the buildings are just sort of scenic,
rolling, as we don't know what we're doing.
But when we look at it what looks good,
we'll do more of
and what doesn't look good we'll do less of.
It's like the old days which is
now producers say, hey, what can we do different?
I say, well, let's just do it for real like we used to.
That's different.
And all of us learn that we can be collaborative
and try ideas and do it together
and learn from each other.
[jazzy music playing]
[Francis on radio] Driving around town,
general's driving, looking anywhere,
looking here, looking there.
She may be anywhere.
Oh, there's Cesar on the other side.
Look at his stupid Citroen. See him?
Take photos, take photos.
There's some headlights coming past there.
Any headlights I can see,
any headlights at all, I don't see any.
Is someone holding them?
Have them come right up to the window with them.
Okay, cut.
This doesn't work.
- Roman. - Yes.
Do any rig you think of, just run it through it.
- Just keep upping the stakes. - Okay.
[Francis] I'm asking them to play at it more
and they want to work at it.
So now we got the idea what we're up against.
We're doing a performance.
We have to have more assets that you could just
go right up and hold them and go away.
So let's do it that way.
[upbeat music playing]
Julia?
I love you, Julia.
Marker.
And ready, action.
Perfect.
Julia?
Come, come.
Forgive the intrusion, I'd hoped to speak briefly
with Mr. Crassus.
Sure.
Cut. Good, print.
[overlapping dialogue]
- Hi, Mike. - [Figgis] Morning, guys.
What's happening with you guys today?
We're experimenting.
We're in the workshop mode.
But my dad called this morning
and said, oh, I want to do an effect
where this character has a sort of multiple facets
and you see multiple imagery.
So we set up these mirrors and experimenting a bit
to try to create a sort of infinity effect
that also includes the background,
which is kind of curious because we have
a 50-50 mirror we can see through them
or have it reflect depending on where the light is.
So the idea is that we'll have a mirror effect,
but when we throw the light,
we'll also see the background.
[Figgis] Have you done this before?
No.
Laura, you're going to be our super amazing...
Can Roman come here?
[woman] Yes.
And... to see what we're doing.
- And Till is here, right? - Yes.
Good.
Francis has this beautiful love for in-camera effects
and trying to do it for real
before going digital.
And so our first idea was me
and Scott Wheeler, the makeup and prosthetics person,
to figure out a lenticular mask.
So to print these postcards that you can shift
and you get perspective and animation into it.
And we worked on that intensely for many weeks
until last week, end of last week,
it fell apart because we could not
physically integrate that into the mask.
It didn't work to cut it and form it.
So Friday we had a meeting with Francis and we're like,
okay, the lenticular mask isn't working.
We need a solution.
And Francis had the great idea to do a projection
and luckily...
luckily I have worked with projection a lot.
I'm usually as a concept artist on this show,
but I had done lots of art installations
with projections.
So I was immediately on it
and then we figured it out over the weekend.
Do you like these things?
Yeah, I like it especially if something spectacular happens.
[woman] Let's try it like this while we wait for the mirror.
Can you adjust the head support?
Make the thing holding his head...
Yes.
So it doesn't show at the top of his head?
Okay.
- And give Till a moment. - Yeah.
[Francis] Not on his lip, Till,
it should be on his bandage.
Is there any kind of a thing you have
where you could put behind it that's like a prism
and you hit a light and it shoots?
Yeah, I was just talking to Jeff
so he's bringing something.
Yeah, you can throw that in, too.
We throw everything but the kitchen sink.
I can adjust the size, the position
and dim it up and down.
The challenge is they're setting up
this special effects shot which always
takes a long time.
They're two big dialogue scenes
with three, four actors.
So we're a little nervous about today to make our day.
It may not work at all.
That's the big challenge.
If we accomplish the shot, we'll have a happy day.
[Francis] Is the mirror okay with the wood that we see
or should we come... What do you think?
[woman] You're doing the diamond thing?
- [Francis] Yes. - [woman] Okay.
[Francis] I can't do much with him because look at him.
I can do the part where you...
[woman] All right. All right. All right.
Okay. So are we ready?
[woman] Yeah. Let's do a rehearsal.
[Francis] I'm going to talk through the numbers.
Ready, everyone? Action.
Two, one, go.
[woman] That was good.
[Francis] That was pretty good.
Personally, I feel like it would be benefited
from a little visual effects enhancement.
[actress] I've done it all for you.
[Francis] Okay. Cut. Good.
Thank you so much.
[woman] Really quickly, Francis?
It was an experiment.
It wasn't 100% what I wanted,
but it was 70% what I wanted.
- I can add the last. - [man] That's fine.
And we learned how to put that mirror in there, which helped.
It was well worth it.
[dramatic music playing]
How do I put this?
You seem to thrive on chaos.
- I don't. - No?
No.
In the world of illusion making, special effects,
there's a lot of technology,
whether it be computer generated material,
or nowadays people talk a lot about the Volume,
which is a big LED video screen
that you can put images on.
So I think at the very beginning of the process,
there was a curiosity about how this new technology
could serve him to make this big, ambitious movie.
But then I think some of the team
assumed everything would be done in that way.
[Francis] I just wonder, is it really necessary
to have an army of such trucks?
But maybe it is.
- It's industrial filmmaking. - [Figgis] Yeah.
But even Apocalypse Now wasn't on this scale.
We're way beyond Apocalypse Now.
- [Figgis] This is? - Yeah.
We had helicopters and stuff, but it wasn't like this.
[Figgis] Yeah.
So is this your biggest film?
By far.
[door creaking]
- Question? - Yeah.
We're going to see how it feels.
Okay, yeah, 'cause it...
Yes, okay.
In other words, his line is... coming out he says,
"I hope you had nothing to do with that shooting."
"You've been trying to get that cousin of yours
- since you were six." - Yeah, okay.
That almost feels like chapter two.
Like, like... that almost feels very intimate, all that.
No, he's right there next to you.
He's in there the whole time?
No, he's right next to you.
- Next to me. - He's coming out.
And as he passes you, he says,
"I hope you had nothing to do with the shooting."
"You've been trying to get your" thing...
very intimate.
And then he walks out and you're left with the response.
Okay. Okay.
Is there a...
Oh, yes. Okay.
Can I just throw out an idea?
Okay.
Is it possible also that the reveal happens
and we have our banter and then maybe I move to the desk?
[Francis] No.
Oh, my God. I've got to go in now.
This is very hard for me.
I know I'm toward the end of my career.
This could be the ending.
He's going over here.
Yes, okay.
I need a little bit of...
I still need something in my cards to get me here
because I actually want to get here.
Well, he's just accused him of shooting your thing,
so... you can do it the way you want.
Okay, fine. I know what you want.
It's just that that's a great...
- I know what you want. - Shot.
I know what you want. I know what you want.
Say a prayer.
What if you say you're going to have
to prove yourself to me, son.
And then there's a break in the action
as opposed to saying it all at once.
And I'll sit and I'll say, I can't.
Yeah, okay?
And then you can say the rest of that on the other side.
- Yeah, sure. - Okay.
Does that mean I'm off the list?
What list?
Your list of heirs.
[Francis] So, you, no, would you want
to do all that without him behind your desk?
Just that little piece.
- Yeah. - He's got to get over there.
[Voight] You don't like it?
I'm trying to...
[Voight] I'll be at the desk.
Whatever. Whatever.
[Voight] Okay, so I'll be at the desk and let's say...
I mean, if there's a reason why I have
to have a shot over here
when I'm planning to have a shot over there
because then I have the shot over there,
then the scene's over.
My action's no different no matter what he does.
[Francis] Yeah, so what are we inventing a whole step for?
Where did that come from?
Who is the director who came in here
and started to stage this scene?
[Shia] You're obviously the director.
Yeah, but I'm not having a chance to.
Let's try it behind the desk.
Yeah, the whole thing behind the desk.
We're just sketching now.
Just show you something so you can say no to that thing
that we showed you.
Okay, I'm happy to do that.
I only hope you had nothing to do with that shit.
Of course not. How--
How could you say that?
So what happens now?
Am I off the list?
What list?
Your list of heirs.
You're going to have to prove yourself to me, son.
[Francis] Now I'm having... Now I'm having fun.
[woman] Good.
It's Francis, you know.
It's cinema.
It's not...
It's not necessarily, um...
the easiest environment for a performer like me.
Maybe it is for other people,
but for me it's very difficult.
[Figgis] Tell me more in what way.
Well, I like when you get to play a whole song.
I don't like playing one note at a time,
and he's got images in his head
that he's dead set on,
and sometimes there's not enough dance floor.
When there's marks on the ground,
it's inhibiting.
Once you get what you want, can I be a little bit looser?
It's so fucking rigid.
[Francis] You can be very loose now, if you want.
[Shia] For anybody else, I probably would fight it.
You've got to let me have some of these takes
are just straight trash.
You know, it takes a minute to work up.
But I know where I am, and I know it's the Super Bowl.
Did you see it?
[Shia] No, I haven't seen it.
You don't know it's the trash.
[Shia] All the characters in this...
[Francis] That's it. That's the scene.
Good. Let's try to shoot one.
My guy has to stay off the tracks.
- [Figgis] You're bouncing. - Yeah.
Which is interesting, because I have
the least job security
of all the fucking actors on the show.
So having the least job security
and the one job where you got a rebel a bit,
it's turned him into real Crassus
and me into real Clodio.
[Francis] Do you know why I'm doing this movie?
- [Shia] Because you love it. - No.
What do I get out of it? What am I looking for?
[Shia] This is what you do, man.
No, I can do...
I have wine. I have hotels.
[Shia] Who gives a fuck about all that, though?
This is what you... this is your thing.
What am I paid in?
What currency am I paid in?
- [Shia] Love. - No.
There's only one thing I get.
I don't get money. I don't get fame.
I already have fame.
I don't get Oscars. I already have Oscars.
- What do I get that I want? - [Shia] Tell me.
Fun. I want to have fun.
I'm feeling everything I'm supposed to be feeling.
Good.
I'm not really worried about shit really.
I'm worried about getting fired all the time.
I'm serious.
Every day I think I'm out of here.
[man] Why?
Because Keitel got fired and he got fired a month in.
We're a week in and I'm thinking, oh fuck,
I just got to get to a month.
I just got to get to a month, man.
A month on Apocalypse Now is like 5% of that schedule.
- [Shia] That's true. - They shot for 240 days.
[Shia] Yeah, crazy.
You're good. I think you're past the danger zone.
Yeah, I guess when you fraction it out that way.
- Did you guys have tension? - Tension?
[Shia] Did you guys have a wrestling match?
No.
[Shia] No. Okay, then I heard wrong.
[Voight] Well, it was...
I had written a few other lines.
[Shia] Which he loves.
- Which he really... - [Shia] Which he loves.
And so I wanted to express myself
to what I felt this and everything.
And he was locked into everything.
What it finally...
We had to fight a little bit. You know what I mean?
He had tension and I had tension.
And at one point he said,
all right, well you do what you want to do.
I'm going to go over here. And he left the room.
So I said, all right, I'll do it his way.
So when he left, I did it his way.
He saw it. He was just sitting there watching.
And he came back in.
And then he made an adjustment.
And I made an adjustment.
I just dropped quite a lot of what I was thinking.
But he took a couple of things that I had put in.
And we worked it out and the scene took place.
It actually was pretty good.
[woman] Let's cut, technical issue with camera. Stand by.
I tell you, Mike, I'm too old
and grouchy for this kind of work.
Now let me do a documentary on your film.
This is ridiculous.
[Figgis laughing]
What I'm discovering is that
when you make a documentary about filmmaking...
what you're looking for are tensions
and, um, possible things that can go wrong.
[woman] Hand me that. Thank you.
Um, can you...
[Francis] Ready, action.
It can all be yours... darling.
Everything.
These mean nothing...
Nothing to me.
We had a necklace that was set to open easily.
And unfortunately, something happened
and the clasp got closed.
And so, she pulled the necklace and it broke.
And it came unstrung.
So there's a lot of quick work that needs to happen.
- [Francis] Oh, the necklace. - [woman] Yep.
They're doing reconstructive surgery.
[Francis] I take it there's one necklace.
[woman] There's only one necklace.
Helena only gave us one.
We're moments away. She's working furiously.
- Thank you, Lily, - [Lily] Yes.
[woman] She's nearly there.
[Francis] Can I shoot or I can't shoot?
[woman] Less than two minutes, you'll be able to shoot.
This is a prop. This is not a costume.
It's a breakaway prop.
[woman] Yes, she closed it.
But it was rigged not to be closed.
How am I going to do five takes one after another?
It's got a magnet on it. So it'll work.
[Figgis] What is the secret to keeping peace on the set?
What's the secret?
I don't know if there's necessarily a secret.
I just think it's a peace of mind
where everyone just needs to take a deep breath
and realize that we're creating a movie
and that we're not curing cancer
and that no matter what, we'll fix it.
We get wrapped up in our jobs and our position
and to make everything fit and force it to fit.
And then sometimes you just have to let go.
I've worked with a lot of directors
who are like Francis, believe it or not.
[laughing]
[Figgis] Tell me more, tell me more.
[Mariela] Well, just, you know,
that don't really like to prep
and like things to be organic
and feel it and find it
and not worry about what's to come
and just focusing on what's today.
Yeah, just try and anticipate what he wants
and you can't.
- Nobody really can. - [Figgis] Yeah.
[Mariela] He gets in the moment and he gets upset,
rightfully so.
And then he, you know, like you said
he recognizes it and does apologize.
But that doesn't affect me.
He can yell and storm off
and do everything that he needs to do
to get the frustration out. It's okay.
[Figgis] 'Cause it's only a movie.
[Francis] What I was seeing was fine.
Let's go back to what I was seeing.
Let's not reinvent...
Francis, can we try with a longer lens?
'Cause I think we might have a better chance of seeing
the reflections and all that.
[Francis] Can we just do one last one immediately?
- We can. Okay. - [Francis] Let's try to do it.
Do it again the same way.
I don't know where I am.
[Francis] This is looking good.
Is there any way to reflect Jon's moving?
Well, no, we want to audition how to get
Wow and Felix in the mirror for you.
Please, just calm down.
[Francis] Ready? And action!
This is hostile.
This is treacherous!
- I didn't mean it-- - Villainous!
I didn't mean it to be hostile.
Whose name is this?
I thought it was inevitable.
- Who signed this? - I did what you asked!
No!
Get off me!
- [Francis] Wow. - Breathe.
What's happening?
- You! - Call an ambulance!
- No! - Now!
[Francis] Go back and do that all again
on Wow's entrance, let's try again.
Get away from me! Get away from me!
[Figgis] Is Francis all sweetness?
No, Francis is not all sweetness.
No great artist is, I think.
He's very demanding.
He demands a lot of himself.
And Francis's intentions in the film
are really quite monumental.
I don't know, you know...
[Figgis] Did you fully understand the script
the first time you read it?
Well, it's not something you understand.
It's something that you see as a possibility.
That's what he's doing. He said it.
He said the script is just the bones
and we're going to have to find out what it is, you know?
And that's the way he works.
The great thing about it is we're all
as involved as he is.
And Eleanor says this, Francis's wife.
You know, she says, Francis, the beginning of a film
is Francis asking a question
and the making of the film is finding the answer.
[Francis] There's no movie I've ever worked on
where I wasn't scared.
[siren sounds]
The scene is really between Hart and Julia
and Fundi by the fence. That's the talk part.
The context is the sight of these cops
bringing a strong man from there to here.
So that's the scene.
[man] Do you mind having the other police car there?
[Francis] Totally. I don't understand.
[man] Because in reality they shine those big lights.
[Francis] Would you want to have
another car over there for lighting?
For lighting, but also my fear is that
the handheld flashlights,
they will have to fight with him.
They won't have time to shine.
No, no, no, no, no.
The flashlights, he's not going to fight with them.
You don't see how many cars.
[Mihai] No, but you feel the light.
You honestly think inside the car...
I think one of my jobs is to match stuff
from one shot to another.
If you don't want that, I don't have to do it,
but I think my duty is to tell you what we did.
Mihai, we made three movies together.
There's never been an issue of your job is to get one shot.
You don't know how it's going to be cut.
That's true.
The way it's cut determines it.
But part of my job I think it is to make sure
that lighting wise from one shot to another,
it's as similar as possible.
[Francis] To me, your job is not to match all the light,
your job is to get beautiful images
of the scenes that we have, which you do.
My opinion on this movie
is we always have too many people,
too much stuff, too many equipment,
too many everything.
Everything becomes hard.
This is simple.
[Mihai] Okay.
[Francis] I don't want to frustrate you.
[Mihai] No, no, no, no.
[Francis] Cinema is the only art that kills
what it's trying to preserve.
[Figgis] How would you define kill?
[Francis] Anesthetize it.
It's injected with drugs that make it freeze
and be inanimate and be controllable.
It's because they don't understand
that it's not necessary.
The low budget people, Irvin Kirschner
and those... and John Cassavetes
and all those people taught us that
if you capture what's alive,
that's more beautiful
than if you capture what's dead.
[Figgis] You watched him through the whole
One From the Heart period and that
must have been very tough to watch.
Well...
[Figgis] Did you say, yeah, I saw it coming?
Yeah, I said... No, I saw it coming.
He sort of went up against a few brick walls
and I managed to push through,
although to me my fate wasn't dependent
on making it through the brick wall.
[Figgis] So is getting through the brick wall
part of his thing?
- Well, it's-- - Does he like brick walls?
Yeah.
So when he lands on his head, I'm not surprised.
[jazzy music playing]
[man] Three, two, one!
[dramatic music playing]
[woman] Go get 'em!
Hello, all. How are you guys doing?
[women] Hello.
What I would like is to get a little more artsy fartsy
with the cyclone fence and have it twisted
as though a really cheap labor...
- [man on PA indistinct] - [crowd cheering]
[honking]
[girls screaming]
[indistinct chatter]
Okay, Huey?
You're looking for someone, some girl
- that you can sell that to. - Okay.
[Francis] Go ahead.
Working quietly, please.
[Francis] I'm worrying about costume matching problems
I shouldn't worry about.
Doesn't it work even if they don't know?
Why is that so important?
This is some shit from your childhood.
It doesn't really matter.
You're full of shit.
Let me explain. Let me explain something.
You see a guy in a military band?
Yeah.
You see a guy in a military band.
Yeah.
he goes AWOL and just quits
and he walks off in his uniform
The next time he shows up,
you have no idea who he is.
I'm gonna have a shot where he at least
has the jacket that we saw him in.
You fixate...
I'm not gonna talk to you. You're wrong.
I've done this for 50 years.
I know what happens in the editing room
when they don't know who the hell he is.
- Hey. - Hey, I was thinking of you.
How are you doing?
Ah!
Film is one of the hardest media to improvise in.
I mean, it's so expensive.
I'm not used to this costume thing,
where every time I say costume,
- three hours goes by. - [woman] Yep.
I don't want it anymore.
I need help.
I know exactly what I'm trying to do.
And somehow, everything I try to do,
it takes, oh, it's got to come up from there,
or they got to do the thing.
I feel like I'm working in fast speed,
and everyone's working in slow motion.
I mean, all I need is my regular kind of crew
that's not so immense.
Every decision has to go up and down the art department.
The danger is, I'm going to get really mad.
I know what I'm talking about. Give me what I want!
I don't know what you want.
[indistinct chatter]
If you're like looking at all that way, you know,
it feels like we would do blue screen
on that side of the screen.
Well, the blue screen also could be next to...
because that could be a...
In other words, I want Times Square,
the magic Disney now Times Square,
all that stuff to be there. Where he's pointing.
The purpose of that screen is so that we can isolate them
without having a foreground piece.
So if you don't want it, if you like the aesthetic
of them over Megalopolis.
[Francis] So how do the heads all get put into...
it's just the green screen?
[Mark] The green screen allows us
to put the heads on top of it.
What I'm suggesting is I don't mind
if you construct something that imposes in there,
but if I don't have a problem,
then that all above their heads
and stuff could be green screen.
And that could be a real...
That could be a real... thing.
I'm anxious to get to anything in your mind
is not a done deal, because here we are.
We're a few days before Thanksgiving,
and I feel that-- and I've set for myself
really as a financier
to tell you in advance what the done deals are
so that you know and you can continue and have them ready.
So what...?
[Mark] It's going to be very difficult
to do good visual effects if we don't have something
that we can separate them from,
because if you don't put anything there,
you're looking at the--
[Francis] Let me understand specifically
what we're talking about,
because I'm going to say yes or no.
Right now, I'm going to say yes or no.
Not the whole thing, just enough so that when
people are standing in front of it.
All we want is the door.
That's really all I want is the door.
Don't give me what I don't want.
Oh, light there. It's more...
I interpreted it as being romantic.
Don't try to anticipate what I'm going to do.
You'll only get me in more trouble.
Really, don't.
Let me do it.
I don't want that look.
I don't want what they can give me.
This gets back into why I like live effects,
because although, in your opinion,
they're not as extraordinary
and wonderful as the other kinds,
I don't agree with you.
That's just my philosophy.
It might be wrong, but it's what
I'm banking on, literally.
[Figgis] The big story in The Hollywood Reporter
was then picked up by all the international press
and stories of disasters on the set,
et cetera, et cetera.
Adam Driver made a statement saying he'd been
on some pretty crazy sets, but this was not one of them.
[Francis] They pass you, they come here, they stop.
[Figgis] Already this has become a myth,
so I'm trying to get to the truth.
I think everybody very much had the best of intentions
and really did want to serve Francis
and really did want to serve the film,
but I think we all still wanted to make sure
that we were trying to honor
what was initially asked of us.
The Hollywood article just said,
okay, same thing happened on Apocalypse,
same thing happened One From the Heart.
It's sort of open season to speculate on my craziness.
To achieve that epic scale and this big vision
that's in all of his key frames
while still doing it with a really lean art department
that he was more accustomed to.
Well, you know, basically cost overruns.
In other words, the art department of the film,
the last film they did was Guardians of the Galaxy.
I've wondered if we missed the signs earlier on
that he wanted to approach the movie differently.
I do wonder if he didn't communicate it as clearly.
One department needed to eliminate one person
for constantly going over budget, yeah.
Knowing what I do now about how Francis prefers to work,
I really do feel like we would have built this film
very differently.
We're on schedule, I love the actors
and the look is great.
I don't know what anyone's talking about.
I thought long and hard about it.
It was very upsetting and I felt like, um...
I felt like I was put in a position
where there was no way forward.
No one says who these sources are.
Just sort of, oh, we heard some gossip.
To that I say, ha-ha.
Wait and see.
[gargling]
My observation of Francis was that he was suddenly
incredibly cheerful.
[Francis] Okay, we're going to go for it, Shia.
We're going to shoot because we're ready to shoot.
We're born ready.
Action.
Whoo!
[screaming]
Again, again!
[Francis] Okay, cut.
I'm Giancarlo Esposito,
born in Copenhagen, Denmark,
raised in Rome, Italy.
I guess you'd call me a Black Italian.
I still don't know who I am, still trying to find out.
[Francis] What's going on in this scene
is the crux of the matter.
- Got it. - You're a good honest man.
Yes, I'm frustrated in this moment that I can't.
Because the people of the city have real needs.
They need the garbage picked up.
They need this. And you don't have the funds,
but he does.
You're playing this as if you can get this
because it's for the people's need.
- Yes. - And that to you
trumps everything.
And he believes sincerely,
what's the difference if we pull this off
for this generation and our grandchildren
end up with nothing?
And action.
[Cesar] Here is my plan...
That city that people can dream about.
People don't need dreams.
They need jobs, sanitation,
teachers and police.
No time to talk to people's future.
Yet there's always time to convince them
to use money they don't have
to buy things they don't need
to imitate people they don't like.
Which makes you the chief slumlord
and the mayor of the city of nothing.
[Cicero] Slumlord!
You will not call me a slumlord!
[Francis] Photographers, yell at her! Get mad.
Tell her to get the hell out of the way.
She's ruining your shots.
Excuse me.
[Cicero] You will not call me a slumlord!
I read the script 23 years ago,
maybe 25 years ago.
I think there's always a question about,
you know, genius at work
you know, who not many of us understand or get that.
Like, what is going on right now?
Well, you know what? That guy knows.
Or he doesn't know.
And for him to allow the space for himself
to do this for himself
by his own hand, handmade,
is a beautiful thing.
Like, when you think about that,
this is an 83-year-old man
who's lived such a beautiful life
doing a passion project on his own.
I mean, come on.
When chaos throws a lot of difficult options at me,
my imagination usually comes through
to suggest an alternative
that doesn't have to stop.
And that's what seems like thriving on chaos,
rather than what really is happening,
is that I am confronting chaos.
[dramatic music playing]
[Figgis] What does it cost to hire this space--
for how many days?
It's about ten days
at a cost of about a half a million dollars.
- [Figgis] How many extras? - 150 times several days.
In terms of manpower and rentals,
another half a million dollars.
[Figgis] What about feeding everybody?
[Michael] $15,000 to $20,000 per day.
We have a lot of costumers.
We have a lot of hairstylists.
We have a lot of makeup artists.
And Milena meticulously signing off on every performer
and every background performer.
It takes a lot of time.
There isn't a need to be here
to accomplish what he wants to accomplish.
But Francis insisted on filming here.
And I think having spent the amount of time with him
I have now, I think he really needs
to feel physical space.
- Hi. - Goodbye.
Oh, my titty.
Whoo!
[woman] Go Grace!
Look at this... Whoa... shit.
[Francis] To give Osvaldo an idea
of what this weird movie is like
so he knows how to write the music.
And we saw this thing, and it was like...
- Holy shit. - [man] Oh, that's great.
[Francis] I was amazed.
[Figgis] Francis, what surprised you the most?
How it gelled.
How it wasn't a lot of parts,
it was... it was a unified vision.
It's like I almost feel I saw a glimpse of the movie.
I didn't say, oh, isn't that photography
in that shot good?
Oh, isn't Adam in that shot good?
Aren't the costumes interesting?
But all these disparate elements
didn't come to me as separate,
oh, that's good, that's good,
it came like, holy shit.
It's like I've got a peek of something
that never existed before.
I'm only happy because it looked like I'm not dead.
I mean, there have been times when I said,
how am I going to get out of this mess?
As you know, I worry about am I
bankrupting my family on some crazy thing?
Anyway, you know, I have-- I've alternated
by being very depressed and very elated.
It's typical manic depressive behavior.
But Richard Strauss said, you know,
compared to Mozart and Beethoven and Haydn
and Mendelssohn, I'm a second-rate composer,
but I'm a first-rate, second-rate composer.
I say, me, Francis I'm a second-rate director,
but I'm a first-rate second-rate director.
[Figgis] How's it going?
It's, it's going well, actually.
It's going pretty well for the three weeks or so
I've been a part of this.
[Figgis] How did all this come about?
Well, I've come in, in my position in this,
I've been able to take advantage of
coming in naive and new
and inquisitive about a lot of things
where I have his most latest thoughts and insights
into what that space or environment
is that he's expecting,
where maybe there were conversations
six months ago and no one's had a chance
to follow up with him about,
because they had a plan that he said yes to
that maybe now has changed his mind.
Or if we have the background over here,
it gives you space.
In his approach to be saving money,
the schedule has changed around.
So one set that was only designed
for the Clodio's loft
we're now making into two or three different sets.
So it's been fun to go repurpose
as much as we can.
I came into an understanding that it's his money,
I'm not going to be the no-person,
I'm going to be the yes, but it's going to cost you this.
Do you want to do that?
How long does it take to activate?
[Bradley] He's still trying to figure out what, in his mind.
That's the Megalon.
[Bradley] This Megalopolis city
and Megalon material looks like.
We're not really sure what it is.
It's a Francis question.
I think everybody's still trying to figure that out.
[Figgis] Have you got like a tight remit of like
what it needs to do within this small space of time?
No... No, and I think a lot of it...
I'm not frustrated by it, frustrated,
because I know it's in his own mind
he's still trying to figure out what he wants.
And part of my job is to help
find what he wants.
Uh... but there's also a really clever way
in which I don't think we have to make
that decision on the day-to-day
in the scenery that we're developing
that includes a lot of that organic and magical material
that will be more in the distance
and behind as a set extension
rather than something tactile
that we need to develop.
And he also doesn't quite want to spend
the money on what that is.
So pinning this down will be
kind of a challenge going forward.
[Shia] Can we just have one rehearsal?
- One rehearsal. - [man] It looked really good.
[woman] I don't make those calls, you guys.
[man] All right, to key one.
[woman] For my money, that means that Madeleine
is entering first so that people are moving behind her.
Maybe just standing up, we just kiss...
The grapes are really good.
And then...
- Get on top of me, whatever. - I'll try.
I mean, I feel like if it's too much.
What do you think?
Should she get on top of me?
Should I get on top of her?
[Figgis] I don't think, I just observe.
- Okay, that's fine. - Well, okay.
What would you like to observe?
[Figgis] Anything you like.
That's a very Werner Herzog of you.
I don't think, I just observe.
My job, in a way, is to make a good documentary.
But the thing is, you start a documentary,
you don't know what it's about.
Is it just about making the film?
Or is it about Francis?
Or is it about the actors?
In fact, is it about all those things?
But where's the story?
Because all the really good documentaries
about filmmaking has actually
been stories about disasters.
So, you know, every time something negative happens,
I think, oh, that's good for the documentary.
So that's a weird feeling by itself.
And obviously, it's got a lot of actors in.
And I have different relationships
with all of the actors.
From the very beginning,
Shia LaBeouf was super friendly.
From the very beginning, Aubrey Plaza was fun.
Like she would pretend to be pissed off,
but she wasn't really pissed off.
Those relationships have continued to build.
Jon Voight from the very beginning
super, super friendly.
Most of the actors are very friendly.
And then there was an interesting moment,
because Adam Driver came on the set
much later than everybody else.
So this time, two things happened.
Because the other actor that I'm having
some problems with is Nathalie Emmanuel.
She also-- I got a little message from her agent.
She doesn't like to be filmed
when she's eating, blah, blah, blah.
And Francis was doing theatre games
involving them all eating,
so that was a bit limiting, too.
And then one day she was talking to Adam.
They play a couple in the film.
And Adam looked at me and said,
first time I made eye contact.
So I said, Adam, it's Mike.
Mike Figgis.
And he went, oh my God, Mike, how are you?
Did you just get here?
And I said, no, I had sort of been here
for quite a long time,
but I didn't want to get in your space.
And then I asked him, I said,
I have heard you don't want, you don't like being filmed.
And he said, oh well, as it's you, no, that's okay.
But every time I have been in the space with him,
he's kind of got Mike, sorry, can you-- do you mind?
But I get it.
I do understand there's a difference
between the camera that's filming you for the film
and the camera that's recording your relationship
with the camera. That's very different.
So I do understand it and I respect his space.
Whilst it's a little bit annoying
for whatever I want to do, at the end of the day,
I'm the documentary. I'm the fly on the wall.
I am not the film.
And sometimes it's quite difficult for me to--
I have to remind myself that I'm not
the director of the film.
I'm making a documentary.
So I have a plan.
I think I'm going to just go to Adam and say,
look, I think you're uncomfortable.
I don't want to compromise what you're doing.
But it's also kind of compromising what I would do.
So it's probably better that if you're in a scene,
I just don't come.
On the other hand, you could then do an interview
for me one on one.
Off the set, so I'm not distracting your acting.
And we could do some interesting stuff
for this documentary
just between you and me,
an actor talking to a director.
[man] Cut to, interior, the four seasons, night.
Gift.
The guests are enjoying the lavish wedding meal.
Gift.
Hamilton Schuyler sits with his new wife
at the bridal table with Serge,
the groomsman and the bridesmaids.
I'd like to propose a toast to Wow Platinum
and my dear Uncle Hamilton.
Together they represent the big three:
economics, journalism, and sex appeal.
[laughing]
To the future of our families.
[Francis] Are you guys in character?
Yes.
I'm afraid Hamilton's not paying attention
to his bank these days.
He's... how shall I say?
- How shall I say? - [Uma] Distracted?
Distracted?
I guess by me.
By me, I guess.
[Uma] He doesn't realize how weak he is at this moment.
He has no idea how weak he is at this moment.
- [Uma] A perfect target. - A perfect target.
[woman] Let's start just clearing
so we can find a frame, everybody.
We're going to be super wide.
[Figgis] What are we doing?
Putting the arrow just for the stunt.
When he gets shot in the butt.
[woman] Are we rigged with the arrow?
- [man] Yes. - [man 2] Marker.
[Francis] Ready and action.
[grunting]
[shouts]
This is your closing bell, honey.
Bang!
He's like Willy Wonka, you know?
He comes out with the cane,
and then the cane goes away,
and you're like, oh, you didn't need the cane?
Oh, so he really, oh, okay,
because I thought he was...
he's like a mad scientist, you know,
with like mismatching socks.
[Francis] Okay, one second.
[Plaza] He works from a place of just pure passion,
and he's a romantic, and he's very repressed.
- [Figgis] He's very what? - What?
[Figgis] What was the last phrase?
Um, I don't remember what I said.
Your old town, master of the known world.
[Plaza] We all are.
It's finally...
[Plaza] All of us Catholics, you know.
We're all just good old Catholic boys and girls
getting together, making a little play.
Who was your favorite dance partner?
Who elevated you?
[Hoffman] The second film I did was Cowboy,
and I guess it was Voight,
because we improvised in rehearsal
for about three weeks in a room,
and the times that we weren't in that room,
we hung out together, and we would go to places
that we thought the characters would go to.
There had to be a click because of how far
that character is from your natural,
uh... just even mannerism.
It wasn't for me.
[Shia] To go from Dustin into Ratso?
I was Ratso.
[Shia] With all the mannerisms, though,
- There's a certain-- - No, not with the mannerisms.
But going through junior high school,
high school, city college.
I was an outsider.
I was funny-looking. I was short.
I had a lot of acne, so...
[Shia] You had the soul of him down.
- I felt I was Ratso. - Ratso.
[Figgis] Tell me a little bit about Francis
and your relationship with Francis.
Well, that's a quick answer.
He never asked me to work with him.
In fact, I appreciated his honesty when he called me,
which was a shock to me,
to ask me to be in this film.
Clodio and Huey are basically seeing
that there's this popular uprising...
[Hoffman] And he said, I just want you to know,
I wrote this part for Jimmy Caan,
but, unfortunately, he passed away.
And, of course, I took the part,
not even having a clue what it was.
And now that I finished it,
I'm not sure I feel any differently.
Who is this? What is this?
Not so fast.
[woman] Catilina leveled their neighborhood...
Turn and then listen.
Catilina leveled their neighborhood
for his fucking Megalopolis.
[Figgis] You know, I've been here for months,
and I'd notice a repetition of him saying,
I just want to have fun.
[Hoffman] I think he means it.
See, this is power, man.
That exchange, this. This is where we find power.
[Hoffman] I've always felt that
there's two kinds of directors,
those that like actors and those that don't like actors.
A psychological interpretation could be
that a director is kind of a father figure.
And the father wants to have the final say,
and he wants to be the one who knows when it's the best.
So when you ask for one more,
after you've done all the ones he likes,
and you want to do it differently,
there's something, an emptiness,
that comes across some of these guy's faces,
and you know that you've insulted them.
And Francis, I find, is the opposite of that.
He loves actors.
And I feel that that's what Francis wants,
as much as anything.
It's just to enjoy it and have the actors enjoy it.
It's important to him.
These are immigrants.
They believe in citizenship and speak their vote.
You understand?
[man] Okay, got it.
[Francis] Begin.
Vamanos Brooklyn.
[Francis] Si, senor.
You know, Anton, my old chum.
Interesting thing about immigrants?
Paying attention?
Is that they actually value their American citizenship.
They feel like it's their patriotic duty
to their new country.
No.
You see, I'm a citizen and you're a citizen.
I'm a citizen, you're a citizen.
This is non-Roman filth.
Anti-Roman garbage.
Okay.
You cast this money out, and you give me your fur.
You see that sign written up in the sky?
Look really hard because it says city for sale.
Let's go out and knock on some guys.
- What do we want? - Homes!
- When do we want them? - Now!
- What do we want? - Homes!
- When do we want them? - Now!
- What do we want? - Homes!
- When do we want them? - Now!
[chanting]
[Gosling] I just found a way to become
the king of New York City.
I'm going to control the immigrant votes
in all five boroughs.
I must speak all their tongues.
I'm going to lay my hands upon them
as though they were little sheep.
And I'm going to become their messiah.
Are you excited?
[Clodio] Huey, look at me.
You made him a martyr.
It's bad enough he won the Nobel.
Now you've made him a martyr
because you're a fucking idiot.
You're an ignoramus.
Ignoramus! It's ignoramus.
[Clodio] I told you. I said to you.
I said I don't want you to hurt him.
I said that to you.
I'm in a situation now where I've spent my whole life
trying to prove something.
And now he's not here to see.
Do you understand?
[Huey] Listen, you shouldn't have...
Get the fuck out.
[indistinct chatter]
Get the fuck up and get out now!
Sic semper tyrannus!
[Clodio] Close the door.
Close the door, please.
[Francis] Okay. Cut.
- [woman] Cutting. - [Francis] Let's do it again.
I'm not doing any of that.
[Francis] Yeah, don't do that.
Let's do it once again.
- Shia... - Give him a second.
Look, we're going to go work through this.
It'll be fine.
[Shia] How do you go from where we're starting
to anything other than straight-up fisticuffs?
[Francis] Okay, let me explain it. Why?
He's sitting in my desk with his shoes on my desk.
[Francis] Yeah, but let me explain something.
He's been doing that for a year.
So you're using this really as a pretense of,
in other words, it's-- all right, I come,
I'm working on a picture, and you're in my chair,
and you're talking to Anahid,
and I come and say, hey, wait a second, you know,
this is my chair.
Can I have my chair?
And he's like, well, in other words,
it could be moderated at that earlier level.
You just, in other words, you can't just
start a fight at that point.
Play it like a chess game that gets heated,
but it's over a piece of property
which is the desk space.
Okay, let's try it again.
Here. I'm ready. Let's just do it.
God help us.
All right, so go ahead, background action, and Huey.
I walked in here with reverence, you know,
but I found that not to be
an effective way to work with him.
It's shit, isn't it?
Yeah, it's really, it's so bad, man.
- It's really... - [Shia] You wouldn't say.
Fuck what people think about it.
You know, I prayed for this opportunity, and it happened,
and God placed me in a position with a director
who I was going to respect.
If I didn't like it, I would do it again a different way.
He's just talking shit.
No, he's not talking shit
because he would ask for more takes
if he wanted something else.
[Shia] My relationship to him is really about, like...
- What'd I promise? - It's a pinky promise.
[Shia] You're my dude.
[Francis] When you see a movie, Kramer versus Kramer,
you're looking at flickering light.
You're not looking at anything real.
There's no real people up there.
When he filmed that movie, he was going through a divorce.
And they caught it. They captured it.
But you don't think in one line.
You jump.
All I'm saying is, what's on the screen?
Is it real or is it flickering light?
It's real.
Okay, it's not real.
In a movie, the only real thing is the audience.
[Shia] Okay, but we're having a real conversation.
My hand's really on your shoulder.
- Figgis is filming it. - Right.
Okay, so what they watch when we talk is real.
- No, it's not. - Okay, well, we disagree.
[man] And action.
One, two, three.
Oh!
Ugh!
Ah!
Help.
I've never worked with a more open process
once he gets going.
He, you know, the things that
I've done in the piece so far,
some of the spontaneous moments
that have occurred couldn't have happened
under other circumstances.
But it's drama. You know what I'm saying?
It's not... sometimes it's not easy.
I feel like we're rehearsing all day long,
which is, which is I would,
and in a sense that's what he's doing,
you know, he's... he's...
because he's, he can cut and he's watching his box
and he's got that, told my wife, he's got the six images,
you know, what's there and he's saying,
okay, I could cut-- I could use that,
then I could cut here, then I could cut here.
So in a sense, he's rehearsing
at the same time that he's-- that he's shooting.
Francis loves story, but he doesn't want
to be confined by it.
I mean, he loves structure,
but he needs to be free, you know? I mean...
He's got a big dream. It's a dream.
He sees it, he feels it, it's visceral,
and, and he can voice it,
but he still, I believe, has something else up his sleeve.
[Fishburne] I was so young
when I started working with him.
You know, my relationship with Francis
is very much father and son.
He is my godfather.
When we were doing Apocalypse Now,
I would come onto the set and I'd be going,
Francis, you're full of contradictions.
What's with all the contradictions?
You know, he never denied it.
He was just like, that's just-- that's just how I am.
You look at him and you go,
I don't know how that's going to work.
Well, I can tell you, he doesn't know
how that's going to work either,
but he's brave enough to risk it.
Francis' vision was really about changing,
not just the way movies are made,
but changing the way that we can communicate.
You know, the beauty of movies is,
is that, I mean, at their purest,
they're not verbal.
[dramatic music playing]
Cut.
And where's my little wife? She's not here.
[all laughing]
As you know, this is the, uh...
- She's coming. - Today, actually,
today is the 60th anniversary of our marriage.
[all cheering]
Whoo!
I'm notoriously tardy.
[all laughing]
[Roman] Eleanor and Francis.
Dad, can I make a little toast
or at least welcome everyone to celebrate?
[all cheering]
I have to say I've been on a great 60-year adventure.
It began because, uh, I asked for a job on that first film,
and he, uh, I was the assistant
to the art director and the art department
consisted of two people,
the art director and me.
[Francis] How much did I pay you?
[Eleanor] $100 for four weeks work.
[all laughing]
I've had so many extraordinary adventures
in this family of film life.
You know, it's been kind of a circus life.
This is the first time I haven't stayed on a location,
because I had some issues in California,
but it's just really a thrill every time
I come and see what's going on
and how everyone's rallied around to do his film.
So I thank all of you.
I'm so appreciative that you're here
supporting Francis.
[all cheering]
[Figgis] As an actor, you've worked
with lots of different directors.
How would you characterize Francis
in relation to the other experiences you've had?
Well, I've had this conversation
with another director before,
but Francis really embodies it more.
There's the logic of a scene
when you're playing it with the text,
but then there's also the emotion of a scene,
which I feel Francis is more interested in.
I see that as a theme in watching his movies
before we start working together
and watching some of his movies
as we're working together.
He's more interested in what's more alive.
You know, that to him is way more interesting.
And I feel like you have a lot of people talking about that.
That's like a thing that you learn
in drama school again to go back.
That, like, you know-- But rarely do you find people,
I think, who live up to that discipline.
But he said something the first day
where I think I was wearing
like a bandage on my head
and he was like, we're not risking enough.
It wasn't a condemnation of the actors.
He said it in a way that you felt that
it was for everybody, including himself,
or at least that's how I took it.
And that for me was like, oh, that's
the kind of movie we're making.
But he's structured his day,
and that's why he's paying for it.
He's... to make sure that he can control
how to give the actor, to trust his cast,
and give them total control to come up with something
that he hasn't thought of.
It's an incredible act of generosity.
We're all related. We're all cousins.
Oh, that's it, that's the spirit.
We can have lunch here.
Okay, Jerry, what's going on this?
I don't want to hurt you, Nash.
I don't want you to hurt me.
[Wow] First ever in the history
of the Wow Platinum Show,
Wow Platinum is now arm wrestling a political relic.
You know how to grab. You know how to take the arm.
Yes, I do.
I'm not going to hold back now.
- That's all right. - Really?
Yeah.
Okay, Jerry, let's-- count us out, Jerry.
We have to look each other in the eye all the time.
[Jerry] One, two, three.
You fucker.
Tell me when you want to end this fiasco.
Are you serious?
Oh... I'm not gonna fucking...
You... can I touch your bicep as we play?
You are very strong.
- Yes, I am. - All right.
You know what I'm going to do,
because it's your show?
What?
Don't you fucking let me win.
Oh, that's what I was going to say.
Don't.
Don't care how long this takes.
I think you're very sentimental
underneath all this toughness.
I am not. I have no feelings.
How would you feel about us being romantically involved?
I'm open to it.
Come on.
- You're my kind of girl. - Oh, God.
[siren chirps]
Let's get on a loudspeaker.
Let's announce that there's a surprise in Atlanta
that Donald Trump is having a mini-rally
- in front of the courthouse. - Yeah.
And first come first served.
I want that kind of excitement.
We don't have permission yet to have
any vehicles on the park.
We have a problem because the truck
pulling the float is too heavy, they think.
The float isn't that heavy.
- It's just the truck. - The truck that pulls it.
Yes, sir.
What if the float wasn't pulled
but was just put there by hand?
[man] Again...
Now, if we did that, would we need
the permission to put the float without the truck?
[man] We still would, but I think I might...
So here's what I'm proposing is if...
if I could pull one in a favor...
We've added some buttons on to some of the people
if you're okay with that.
[Francis] Oh, it's great.
[man] You know, like campaign buttons and stuff.
Yeah, make it as real as you can for when...
I just wanted to make sure you're aware of it.
- That's all. - Oh, good.
Yeah, let's make this a real big event when the whole...
[woman] All right, let's start sweeping, everybody.
I would like two motorcycle cops
come up and one of them is the actor
who just tells him from a perch...
You know, says, by the way,
sorry, but this has been booked and...
[chanting] Power to the people!
- Power to the people! - Power to the people!
Power to the people!
- Power to the people! - Power to the people!
Power to the people!
- Power to the people! - Power to the people!
Power to the people!
[shouting, cheering]
[Figgis] We're approaching the end of the shoot.
For me, it's been a unique experience,
and I've really loved being a member of the crew.
And I made friends.
Something you don't normally do
when you're a director.
I got to know Francis.
But at breakfast, people are already
talking about their next job.
It's always a sort of...
kind of a sad moment on the film, but inevitable.
The process has been intense, exhausting,
and people are very tired.
Francis...
I just don't know where he gets his energy from.
I have inherited a billion dollars here...
that's what I cashed...
Julie?
I thought I asked you not to ride in police cars anymore.
Now that last scene...
Well, we didn't shoot the last scene.
I know, but I tell him to take him
not in my here, but over here.
Take him there.
- We'll try it that way. - Yeah.
Okay, no you can be able to sit.
You don't have to sit into it.
You can already be sitting here.
Action.
Have a seat.
Clodio is a close friend of your daughter, Julia.
So I wanted to come to you first because, you know,
he, he faked that--
Got eye-line problems here.
Frank, uh...
I'm aware that this kid, Clodio,
is a close friend of your daughter, Julia.
Hmm?
There he goes again. He can't--
[Francis] They're walking around. Is that Trevor?
Who's in the red sweater?
Just stop. Everyone sit down and don't do anything.
[Giancarlo] You know, I grew up practicing this:
quiet silence, but because we haven't practiced it
in all these weeks, we're not used to doing it.
But this is what we're here for.
And the most important thing is what's happening right now
between this group of people right here.
So I know we haven't practiced it,
but now let's start to practice it.
Because once we get it, we're done and we're out of here.
Frank...
[Figgis] It was an immense privilege to watch you acting
today as a member of the crew, actually, you know.
Oh, well, thank you.
I mean, it's not-- I'm not aware of any of that.
All I'm thinking of is fuck, I'm fucking this thing up.
That's always what you're thinking
is what you got wrong.
And at the same time, I want to be aware of,
of, of what I'm feeling about the crew.
That's always where I am.
I'm always-- the crew is intrinsic in my working.
I think I learned that from Brando,
who was a hero of me and Duval
and Hackman back in our time,
because Brando said once that
he loves to talk to members of the crew.
And he said that once, he says, you can even roll.
And they start rolling and say action.
And he tries to see that the way he is talking
to this person from the crew,
can he keep that same reality
and switch it straight to the so-called character
that he's talking to.
Otherwise, he knows he's acting,
which is what he doesn't want to do.
And I thought that was-- that was really wonderful.
The joke I always make is that if Brando were in a scene
and herd a buffalo ran through the-- the room,
he wouldn't say, holy shit, I'd better get out of here.
He'd say, oh, look at the buffalo.
That's what's extraordinary about film
is that it's the only medium that I know of
that catches what we do in life.
We're not listening to what people say.
We're looking at what they don't say
and what they reveal.
[Figgis] Okay.
The last time I saw you,
I think you were about to pull an arrow out of your ass.
Oh boy.
[Figgis] And then get Mussolini'd, right?
Dude, Mussolini'd is right.
We're off the street and they're saying he owns a bank.
- He's a banker? - He's a banker.
- Yeah, that's all you, right? - That's all that, that, yeah.
Yeah, but they've always known that I'm a banker.
So I don't know what this discovery is.
They know you're the banker's grandson.
That you have been a rich kid, but also...
Yeah, there's a million reasons. You own the bank.
Everyone knows, you're on television.
There's a whole movie about how you own the bank.
So the fact that the guy says you own the bank,
someone told him that that's who you really are,
that you're a traitor.
I'm not going to talk about it.
I tell you, I'm going to go and wait
until someone tells me what to do
because I am absolutely ex--
All day long, I just worked on stuff on this movie.
And I don't want to have the typical games.
You hear the crowd is coming in here.
He's backed up. They know he's a fake.
He's backing up.
One guy, he shoots. Then he's out of bullets.
He throws the thing at him.
And then they're going to come after you.
What is your question?
I don't know why previously they were with me
and now they're not with me.
Because in the course of the thing
when they were with you previously,
the reality of who you really are
and how you basically are a privileged guy
who's taken over, all has become disseminated.
Okay.
That's it.
If you don't need me tonight, I'm happy to go home.
At this point, our communication
has become so blunt.
There's no more like cutesy pie diplomacy.
It's just like we're at the end of our rope.
He's exhausted.
That's my weapon.
If they drive me crazy, I'm just going to leave
and watch from the Silverfish.
It's my polio mentality.
That's me watching from the iron lung or something.
I have to insulate myself because it's not reasonable.
He drove me nuts, but his performance is great.
[Figgis] Yeah.
And I'll say it's great.
But I mean, I was in the Silverfish,
saying I'm not even going to deal with them.
He says, "You know, I have one regret on this show."
I said, "Okay, what's the one regret?"
He goes, "You. You have been the biggest pain
in my fucking ass," the only time he cursed.
"You've been the biggest pain in my fucking ass
of any actor I've ever worked with."
I said, "Really, really? Any actor?"
"Did I show up fucking 700 pounds overweight
in the jungle?"
"Really, any actor?"
"Did I quit ten days before we wrap?"
"Really, any actor? You're just being dramatic."
He's like, "I'm not being dramatic. Get out."
Do what you want.
I wake up in the morning, there's this long email.
I'll read it to you.
"Of course, I feel badly about my reaction last night."
"Many crises hit the fan all at the same time."
"My default reaction was to quit."
"On The Conversation, you must know,
I quit ten days before finishing
for similar reasons."
"Just know I didn't quit the shoot this time."
"Nonetheless, as usual, you've done good work
and I thank you for that."
"However, we remain two totally different viewpoints,
which of course is how people tend to be."
"I love you."
[dramatic music playing]
[Cesar] Man. What do we know of him?
His gods: liberty, love,
mind, death, destiny.
We're in need of a great debate about the future.
We want every person in the world
to take part in that debate.
But first, we have to tear down conventions.
Tear down an antiquated mindset.
Tear down our inhibitions.
And tear down debt!
Tear down the world of ready-made slums
by the men who run the world shove you into.
You were born with the option
to be what you want to be and must.
Let it not be said that we reduced ourselves
to be brutes
and mindless beasts of burden.
The human being shall once again
be called a great miracle
and a living creature for all to admire.
[Francis] Bravo, yeah.
The human being is that. God damn it.
[dramatic music playing]
[muted dialogue]
You know, I had no idea what was going to happen.
I was happy with the movie I had made.
My life is extended time. I'm 85.
You know, a man, if he makes it to 85,
probably is going to make it to 90-something.
So, I have no idea.
But whatever it is, I'm going to be having fun
playing with theater and movies
and the combination of the two.
I like that.
[applause]
[jazzy music playing]