Technology, power, and the city: Megalopolis and the dialogue about the future

Munich, 09 October 2024

Francis Ford Coppola’s new film ‘Megalopolis’ delivers a vision of the city of the future in the field of tension between technology and society: without steel and concrete, it is instead made of the miracle material Megalon. Hosting a film screening followed by a debate, acatech – National Academy of Science and Engineering, the Amerikahaus and the Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film (HFF) took the opportunity to show how the cinematic utopia depicts technology and society and what role dialogue and participation play in this. Around 200 participants were able to take a look behind the scenes of digital effects and future social scenarios.

In their welcoming addresses, Markus Faltermeier (Amerikahaus München) and acatech President Jan Wörner emphasised the cooperation between the three institutions in the Kunstareal München.  The direct neighbourhood of the houses suggests interlinking the topics dealt with in the film, such as ‘City of the Future’, ‘Technology in Society’, ‘Modern America’ and digital effects.

More questions than answers

The 138-minute film polarised audiences at the Amerikahaus and raised numerous questions: Is it a masterpiece or a failure, overwhelming or kitsch? How strong is the contemporary relevance of the state of permanent crisis and civil war shown in the film? Is the film’s protagonist, the architect and Nobel Prize winner Cesar Catilina, serious when he demands a dialogue about the future? Or is he only interested in pushing through his vision of a city of the future and legitimising it in a pseudo-democratic way?

The subsequent panel discussion, moderated by Marc-Denis Weitze (Head of Communication | Society & Dialogue at acatech), started with a look at the digital effects level: Sinje Gebauer (Professor of Visual Effects/VFX Producing at the University of Television and Film Munich) focussed on individual film scenes to explain how film set and projection merge in digital reworking. For several years she was studio manager and managing director at Rise FX South GmbH, which worked on most of the visual effects for ‘Megalopolis’ in Munich and Berlin.

Plurality as the basis for social dialogue

acatech member Helmuth Trischler (until recently Research Director at the Deutsches Museum) reflected on the plot and presentation from the perspective of the history of technology. He identified ‘technology and power’ as the main theme of the film, but was missing a basis for social dialogue with regard to the city of the future, namely: the plurality of technological futures. According to Helmuth Trischler, the film shows only two antagonistic alternatives: the one made of ‘concrete and steel’ and the quite vague one of the visionary. Society does appear in the film, but only in the form of an angry and protesting mob that asserts its own interests.

Courage to leave gaps – more room for discussion

acatech President and civil engineer Jan Wörner pointed out the numerous historical film quotes from Fritz Lang’s ‘Metropolis’ or ‘Modern Times’ by Charlie Chaplin. In Megalopolis, many things remain unspecified, such as the nature of the innovative material Megalon, the structural organisation of the city of the future or the stopping of time. However, leaving these questions unanswered is perhaps one of the film’s strengths. This leaves a lot of room for discussion, says Jan Wörner.

So, will there be cinema at acatech again in three years´ time at the latest? Maybe on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Fritz Lang’s ‘Metropolis’, and looking back on the impact of Francis Ford Coppola’s ‘Megalopolis’.