Megalopolis offers an abundance of striking images and ideas about this juncture in the historical moment, its relation to the past and future(s). It’s also, often, quite funny, and I’m…

Megalopolis offers an abundance of striking images and ideas about this juncture in the historical moment, its relation to the past and future(s). It’s also, often, quite funny, and I’m surprised, when Coppola talks to me from California, just how convivial the old man is. His answers are punctuated with laughter, often at his own expense. He sometimes rambles, but his digressions – about Russian nuclear fusion, for instance – are always fascinating. He’s made a film about the courage required to take the next leap, a film about the paradigm shift society will need to take in the very near future, and the movie itself embodies that leap of faith in its very DNA. What more can we ask of a filmmaker?

On the cover: Francis Ford Coppola on Megalopolis and his storied career

Also in this issue: Martin Scorsese on the hidden gems of British Cinema – Retro horror – Coralie Fargeat on The Substance – a classic article by Sergei Eisenstein