CQ
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Movie Reviews of CQ
Movie Review: Great
Summary: 5 Stars
I thought CQ a great film, and I'm writing this because I'm annoyed how much attention Sofia Coppola's new film LOST IN TRANSLATION is getting. That is a terribly underwritten film, and Roman has ten times the talent of his kid sister, but CQ got 1/10 the attention. I thought CQ was one of the best film directorial debuts I've ever seen. I even wrote a letter to PREMIERE MAGAZINE praising the film, that they published.Movie Review: Pseudo 60s fun
Summary: 5 Stars
Bought the DVD after remembering the photo of a space-suited Angela Lindvall in a magazine the year the movie was released. Money well spent. The recreation of late 60s Europe is well done as is the purposely cheesy film-within-the-film. Perhaps it will lead to "Danger: Diabolik" and other genuine 60s films for you.Movie Review: I just love this movie.
Summary: 5 Stars
Wanted to get a vote in on it- for the price of the used DVD's above, you can't go wrong- it's a fun film!Movie Review: The Creative Process of Howard The Duck
Summary: 4 Stars
The creative process should boggle anyone's mind. I mean if you took one look at the time and energy exerted on one motion picture you'd probably scream. Sure some movies deserve the time spent on them. Nobody is going to begrudge the creative team behind 2001: A SPACE ODYESSY or CITIZEN KANE. But what about the creative team behind HOWARD THE DUCK. Did not talented people put just as much time and energy into that film? CG is a film about the creative process thru the director working on a film just a stupid and banal as HOWARD THE DUCK.It tells the story of a young and talented film editor named Paul (Jeremey Davies, Spanking the Monkey) and his short stint as director on a B grade science fiction film in 1969. The film about a secret agent named Dragonfly (Anglea Lindvall, New York Stories). It's Moonraker meets Charles Angels. This film is directed by a creative visionary named Andrezej (Gérard Depardieu, The Closet). After months of editing the end still needs to be reworked, and Andrezej has been thrown off the picture because his producer (Giancarlo Giannini, Hannibal) he taking for to long to finish.
Andrezej is replaced by a snotty kid named Felix DeMarco (Jason Schwartzman, Rushmore), he's the kind of guy who doesn't deserve to be where he is and everybody knows it. When tragedy strikes the new director. Paul is called in to finish the picture.
First time director Roman Coppola, has crafted a disjointed but still overly satisfying film. Making movies is a game of luck and CQ (The Morse Code phrase for Seek You) has some real moments of brilliance. It's about the lengths money men will go to make a picture, it's about compromise, and it's also about the creative quest to make an audience happy all while keeping yourself from going crazy.
Jeremy Davies is one of the most underused actor's in Hollywood. He does so well with each and every performance, even if the films suck (See Million Dollar Hotel, for example). His Paul is both nervous and yet calculated. He hides in the shadows only to jump out and surprise you. Like any number of craftsman and artisans he's the real talent and he props up those around him.
I loved how Coppola, counterpoints the silly B movie with Paul's other black and white art film. Paul is making this drippy and disjointed film at his house. It's this surreal black and white film that features disjointed takes, and exists for arts sake more than anything else. Of course it's silly and pretentious, but in the end it's all about creating your own film, and moving on with your life. Plus it's really an excuse to piss off his live in lover Marlene (Elodie Bouchez, Dreams of Trespas).
Marlene is a good counterpoint to Dragonfly or Valentine whom is the lead in the movie. She's the woman Paul truly lusts after. Each women stars in one of his movies and you can tell which on he thinks is a hero and which is a villain. This gives Paul a flawed dimension and these women bring out the two faces of this talented man.
Overall CQ is a tad vague. I liked it that way; something tells me if I knew what Coppola was truly trying to say it would be quite a letdown. Thankfully I will take my interpretation and leave it at that.
I also loved the B-picture itself. It was campy and silly. Like Austin Powers without the laughs, and tons more style. Lindvall was the perfect choice for Dragonfly because she looks like a Model in the Sixties. Like a Breck girl from the 60's.Plus, Billy Zane's (Titanic) small roll as Mr. E, is so goofy and yet so suave you can't help but be pulled in.
CQ is not for everyone and a nominal understanding of the creative process of film will enhance it. But if you're looking for something a little different, a little out of the ordinary, and a little weird, give CQ a try.
**** out of 5
Movie Review: Roman Coppola's Interesting Homage to the Time of Barbarella
Summary: 4 Stars
"CQ" is the first feature film directed by Roman Coppola, son of much famous director Francis Ford. But you should forget that fact for a while, and enjoy the strange world of the 1960s he created for the film. The film is set in Paris in 1969, the time of revolution. An American film editor Paul (Jeremy Davis) is working for a small studio there hired by an Italian producer (Giancarlo Giannini, "Hannibal"). At his small flat, with his camera, Paul keeps on filming his own life, or making a film about the "truth" of life -- meaning cinema verite, you got it? -- while his sweet French girlfriend is not so enthusiastic about his works. Well, his life seems going nowhere when suddenly he is given a chance: a chance to direct a grade B-Sci-fi movie "Dragonfly" (not that Kevin's film). But there is one big trouble. They could not find the right ending of the film yet.
Coppola's "CQ" proceeds side by side with Paul's film-within-film "Dragonfly," featuring the titular female spy, who looks as if coming straight from "Modesty Blaise" and "Barbarella." Paul is absorbed in making this film, and drawn to the heroine (and its actress Valentine, perfectly played by Angela Lindvall) while his own life, especially the relations with his girlfriend, begins gradually to play the secondary role.
Even if you are not particularly a fan of the films of the late 60s, you'll soon find that the greatest virtue of "CQ" lies in its re-creation of the psychedelic fashion and energetic atomosphere of the time. Cheep-looking, but strangely amusing production designs, and delightfully quirky costumes of "Dragonfly" would be joyful to you, especially when you have some knowledge about the time of Yellow Submarine even though Paul's own story is, compared with the detailed images of "Dragonfly," weak and uninteresting.
You can, however, find lots of intriguing reference to the films in the past, and its interesting cast are really helpful. See. for example, the faces of Billy Zane, Jason Schwartzman, Gerard Depardieu, Sophia Coppola, Dean Stockwell, and John Phillip Law (who was in, yes, "Barbarella"). The film (I mean the entire "CQ" and "Dragonfly") is sometimes too self-indulgent, but the first-time player Lindvall is so credible as beautiful Dragonfly/Valentine that if you fondly remember that constumes of Jane Fonda, you will love her anyway. And the French group Mellow's soundtrack, which might remind you of the music of the Beatles of post-Sgt. Pepper era, is another merit of the film.