Coppola Delivers Wild Speech on “The Joy of Sleeping by a River” and “The Torment of Inventing Time”
According to CinemaDrame news agency, following the commercial failure of his $120 million self-funded film Megalopolis, Francis Ford Coppola has embarked on a cross-country tour of the U.S., renting out select cinemas to participate in Q&A events.
World of Reel reports that during one such event titled “An Evening with Francis Ford Coppola” in a Chicago theater, the filmmaker took the stage solo and delivered a sprawling monologue touching on topics ranging from education, politics, money, time, art, and sports to much more.
Coppola claimed that humanity invented the concept of time, and in doing so, inflicted unnecessary suffering upon itself. He argued that robots should bear such burdens instead of humans, even suggesting they should replace toll booth workers: “Waymo cars never hit elderly people,” he said, later praising the EZ-Pass system.
After Grace VanderWaal performed “The Virgin Song,” Coppola returned to the stage, reminiscing about the joys of sleeping beside rivers and leaping over fallen logs. “Don’t forget—those things take time,” he added.
The report notes that some audience members began to leave at this point, but Coppola pressed on undeterred: “Don’t marry your relatives. Please, marry someone from another family.”
His eccentric speech continued with musings on octopuses and the claim that all humans are related. He then turned his attention to Fox News, accusing the network of refusing to acknowledge human genius. “Everyone is talented,” he said. “You might not know what your talent is, but you have one.”
At one point, an audience member asked the Godfather director to erase the word “war” from a whiteboard. Coppola nodded gently and responded, “Let’s end war.”
Moments later, he criticized the obsession with GDP and profitability, saying these measures blind society and that creativity, joy, and human progress should be the true metrics of civilization. He advocated for universal basic income and praised democratic confederalism. Coppola also called for the abolition of presidential terms and the formation of a nine-person council, suggesting political office should be a temporary honor, not a career. He then launched into a string of Italian expletives.
He spoke of Fruitvale Station by Ryan Coogler, homeschooling, pipe rock theory, and more. In more heartfelt moments, he recalled founding the American Film Institute (AFI) alongside Gregory Peck and Sidney Poitier.
Coppola admitted he is now “broke” following Megalopolis—which has yet to be released digitally or physically—but said he still wants to make more films: “Life isn’t just anxiety. It’s the joy of living.” He then stood alone on stage and began to sing.
