At 85, the filmmaker is ready to take on a new challenge: filming an adaptation of The Splendor of Lansing by rubbing shoulders with a genre in which he has never distinguished himself.
Will Francis Ford Coppola recover from the failure that looms for his latest film? Megalopolis ? After investing $120 million from his own pocket, notably by mortgaging part of his Californian vineyards, the 85-year-old director is not short of inspiration. He envisages an adaptation of The Glimpses of the Moon, a novel published in 1922 by Edith Wharton.
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Even before the release of Megalopolis Francis Ford Coppola was already thinking about the sequel. His latest imagination: the free adaptation of The Glimpses of the Moon : a novel published in 1922 by Edith Wharton. In September, during the Deauville American Film Festival, the director ofApocalypse Now had delivered some confidences to Point . His adaptation of The Glimpses of the Moon would be « a tribute to the cinemas of Jacques Demy and Agnès Varda ». The New Wave director Agnès Varda, a figure in world cinema, was the companion of filmmaker Jacques Demy, from 1962 until his death in 1990.
In The Glimpses of the Moonpublished in France in 2000 under the title The Splendor of Lansinga newlywed couple from New York high society, Suzy and Nick Lansing, take advantage of the largesse of their wealthy friends. But they see their union put to the test during their honeymoon in Italy. The author immerses the reader in a dark romance and in the world of society. This is not the first time that the novel has been adapted for film. In 1923, it inspired a silent film of the same name, directed by the American Allan Dwan. In 1993, Martin Scorsese adapted another work by Edith Wharton, The Time of Innocence.
“Conventional” financing?
For this new adaptation, the director could explore the musical comedy register. It would incorporate « elements of dance and music »he told the British daily Telegraph . The filmmaker could also shoot his film in the United Kingdom and Europe, in particular to benefit « national subsidies, because I’m broke ». And the recipes of Megalopolis should not replenish the coffers. After a first weekend of release, the film only collected four million dollars in the United States, against the five to seven million expected by some experts.