On July 26 of 2024, a story was published by entertainment industry trade magazine Variety about Francis Ford Coppola’s alleged behavior on the set of his film, Megalopolis.

Here is an excerpt from the article:

Video has surfaced of director Francis Ford Coppola that shows the legendary director trying to kiss young female extras on the set of his ambitious sci-fi epic. Variety has obtained two videos that were taken by a crewmember last year during the filming of a bacchanalian nightclub scene.

Two sources told Variety that Coppola appeared to act with impunity on set. And unlike traditional movies, Coppola financed the entire $120 million budget himself, so there were none of the traditional checks and balances in place. The videos would appear to corroborate a bombshell report in the Guardian that claimed the 85-year-old director “tried to kiss some of the topless and scantily clad female extras” and told them “he was ‘trying to get them in the mood.’” The Guardian story broke right before “Megalopolis” made its world premiere in Competition in Cannes.

[...]

After reading this story, I immediately experienced disappointment. As a filmmaker, I’ve admired Coppola, and considered him to be a venerable elder of the industry. Beyond disappointment however, I began to think of misogyny in the film industry - a matter of patriarchal society and power, among other things. This brings me to our guest, Mary Wild who, we're happy to say, has been on Film Conversations before to discuss Hitchcock’s Vertigo.

On Mary's bio page at the Global Center for Advanced Studies website she's described as a 'Freudian Cinephile’ and pop psychoanalyst, creating content related to cinema, philosophy, and the modern cultural landscape, founder of the Projections lecture series at Freud Museum London, applying psychoanalysis to film interpretation, which has been running since 2012. She teaches film at City Lit and Picturehouse Cinemas, and has produced events for London Centre for Interdisciplinary Research, Picturehouse Cinemas, White Cube Gallery, and Morbid Anatomy. She also co-hosts Projections Podcast, contributes to Evolution of Horror Podcast.

In this episiode, we use the story of Coppola to examine misogyny in the film industry and beyond.

Variety article on Coppola

https://variety.com/2024/film/news/megalopolis-set-video-francis-ford-coppola-kissing-extras-1236082653/

Mary Wild GCAS Page

https://gcascollege.ie/mary-wild

Projections Lecture Series

https://www.freud.org.uk/tag/projections/

Projections Podcast

https://www.projectionspodcast.com/

Evolution of Horror Podcast

https://www.evolutionofhorror.com/player

Hollywood by Garson Kanin

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1105839.Hollywood

Why women had better sex under socialism by Kristen R. Ghodsee

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53284567-why-women-had-better-sex-under-socialism?ref=nav_sb_ss_1_18