107. Keep creating and dare to fail
I.
I have finally ventured to watch Megalopolis, director Francis Ford Coppolaās mega-ambitious film project. At its core, it is about how progress is always at odds with a longing for the past and a clinging to the familiar. Coppola sets this idea in the New York of the near future and compares the state of the current world to the collapse of ancient Rome. Thatās why everyone walks around in Roman robes and is called Cicero or Caesar or Clodius or Wow Platinum.
Halfway through, Iād lost the thread of the plot a bit due to the overwhelming madness on screen and the metaphors tumbling over one another. Thereās certainly plenty to criticise about the film. Coppola worked on Megalopolis for 35 years and paid $120 million out of his own pocket to make the film. I cannot shake the impression that he felt time was running out. If he still wanted to make this dream project, this pastiche of ideas, he had to get a bit of a move on at the age of 85.
After all those years, Megalopolis may well have started to gnaw at Coppola. Youād think that so much time would benefit a film, because you can think through the smallest details. But when I write an article and I have ten pages of information, it already feels overwhelming to distil a manageable piece from it. In that respect, Megalopolis was doomed to succumb to its own ambition.
I understand the reviews that tear this film to shreds, but I feel differently. Megalopolis is something youāve never seen before and it provokes a reaction. You either hate it or love it. That makes for the best conversations. It might be a bit trite to praise a work for the ambition that went into it, but if it results in a deranged film thatās been on my mind for days now, itās certainly given me something. At a time when weāre getting used to run-of-the-mill Netflix slop, the elderly Coppola shows some guts (okay, an established director can afford to). He offers social commentary, a message, a chaotic and messy work, and a glimpse into his soul.
Letās make sure we build a better world together, he urges the viewer at the end. Leave a better world for the next generation. But above all: dare to dream and dare to create!
- - -II.
The latest victim of ChatGPTās prowess is Hayao Miyazaki, the founder of Studio Ghibli. Since this week, the AI model has become even better at generating images. Social media is full of countless examples of people having their photos edited in the Ghibli style.
Yes, the results are impressive. Annoyingly good, even.
But the aftertaste of these kinds of images is nasty. And not just because others feel compelled to happily hand over their family photos to OpenAI, without giving a thought to what the company does with them next. The images spat out by the machine resemble the Ghibli style so closely that you can hardly call it inspiration anymore. It is highly likely that OpenAI has trained its models on millions of images from Ghibli films.
Miyazaki, who has spent a lifetime perfecting his style, has not commented on ChatGPT. However, a clip has been widely shared in recent days showing the anime master reacting to an AI demo. āIām disgusted by it,ā he says. āI would never want to use this technology in my work. This feels like an insult to real life.ā
Meanwhile, the internet is going wild with it. Oh come on, itās fun, isnāt it? Look, Adolf Hitler as a Ghibli character! Hereās 9/11 in a Ghibli film, or the assassination of JFK! Itās also telling that OpenAI leader Sam Altman had his profile picture on X āGhiblifiedā. A middle finger to Miyazaki and parasitising on the success of artists.1
PS.
Artist Paulo Declan saw the rise of image generators such as Dall-E and Midjourney and thought: what can I, as a human, offer in response? So he came up with the Prompt-Brush project. People could send him prompts just as they would to an AI model; Declan would then create a sketch in black ink on paper and email the drawing back. He has now turned it into a book.
The YouTube channel Nerdwriter has a great video about Tseng Kwong Chi. āThe best photographer youāve never heard ofā is a typical YouTube title ā and in my case, not true. At the Tate Modern in London in early 2023, I saw a few of his works on display (of which I then took this poor photo) and they stuck with me.
- - -
Jon Stewart is having a field day with the Trump administrationās so-called focus on freedom of speech. Social media also gets a bit of a roasting. āSocial media is a machine designed to stimulate the reptilian parts of your brain that would otherwise beg you to go outside,ā says Stewart. āGuys, social media isnāt the same as free speech. Social media is free speech in the way that Doritos are food.ā Watch the whole thing.
- - -A webpage about the typography in Severance.
This is an obsession I understand: you see a hideous Tomb Raider-pen on the internet and you canāt get enough of it.
Marvel is working towards its new epic Avengers: Doomsday. The film is in production and the studio has announced in a video a long list of cast members. There are many great names among them, such as Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Anthony Mackie (Captain America), Patrick Stewart (Professor X), Ian McKellen (Magneto), Pedro Pascal (Mr Fantastic) and Robert Downey Jr. (not as Iron Man, but as Doctor Doom). In short, it looks like we can expect a sort of team-up between the Avengers and the X-Men.
The first trailer for One Battle After Another, the new film by Paul Thomas Anderson. Thatās always cause for celebration. Starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Benicio Del Toro, among others. Based on the book of the same name by Thomas Pynchon. Anderson previously adapted his book Inherent Vice for the screen.
- - -Iāve started another blog! Itās called Screen Time, is all about tech, and I write it weekly for NU.nl. The first one is actually about (the constant struggle with) screen time, but I plan to branch out in the future to all sorts of things that happen behind the scenes (pun intended). I plan to make something great of it together with readers. Itād be great if you followed it!
Youāve just read my 107th weekly blog, written between 24 and 30 March 2025. Subscribe to my free newsletter to receive this blog in your inbox every Sunday.