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There were so many opportunities for Coppola to flesh out the world of the film and make New Rome a character unto itself. Details on what the rest of the country is like, how New Rome came to exist, what people actually do in the city, or even why Cesar Catalina is so famous are all left in the dark.
The movie director plays the creator of a miniature world, the organizer of a controlled sphere. As Ingmar Bergman once said, “To shoot a film is to organize an entire universe.” It’s a demanding task, playing master of a mini-universe. And major problems occur whenever humans decide to play God. For instance, what happens to the actors and technicians who devote themselves to a God who’s a tad insane?
Often the glitz and glamour of Hollywood supersedes the real “work” of the movie, and certainly the awards season does nothing to bring recognition to the many people who contribute to the success of a movie. Many of the fields that are recognized: technological, sound design, set design, etc., are done so in hotel luncheons and dinners far away from the camera, or by taking out a page-sized ad of congratulations in Variety. In this respect, Hollywood itself contributes to the limited vision that people outside of Los Angeles have of the industry.