CQ DVD: Review By brianroche

William Goldman sure loves "Gunga Din". In each of his non-fiction books, the veteran screenwriter title-drops this Cary Grant adventure movie. He recounts a story in "Adventures of the Screen Trade": a friend asks him if he wants to go see "Gunga Din". Goldman replies, "I always want to see 'Gunga Din'". I feel the same way about Roman Coppola's "CQ".

There are many reasons for this. For one thing, it's a great 'dessert' movie - pure high-calorie low nutrition movie fun.

It's also an anthology of movie references - Only "Kill Bill" approaches the sheer volume of nods to other films. Given "CQ"'s setting, winks to Euro-60s movies like "8 1/2" and "Contempt" aren't surprising - but how about "Star Wars", "THX-1138", "Apocalypse Now", "Stardust Memories", "The King of Marvin Gardens", and Coppola's sister's own "Virgin Suicides"?

"CQ" is also a good debut film. Just as "Mean Streets", "Reservoir Dogs", "Citizen Kane", "Bound", "Blood Simple", "Take the Money and Run", "Bottle Rocket", "Hard Eight", and "Being John Malkovich" introduced us to their filmmaker's style and worldview, so "CQ" ports us into the brain of Roman Coppola. Coppola the Younger started his career working on his father's movies, and he eventually transitioned to directing commercials and music videos. His videos, for The Strokes, The Vines, The Presidents of the United States of America, Green Day, and many others show a sense of nostalgic love of the 60s and 70s, and of the filmmaking forms of that time. For Roman C., a sixties Euro-homage is as personal as an Amish guy filming a barn-raising.

But above all, I love "CQ" because I want to be in it. I want to be Paul Ballard (played in the movie by Jeremy Davies of "Saving Private Ryan"), wearer of cool black suits, an American film editor living in Paris in 1969/70, as I edit a Eurocheese sci-fi movie called "Codename: Dragonfly" by day and shoot my own grainy black-and-white doc*mentary about my own life - which consists mostly of me talking into the camera as I sit on the toilet. I want to live with the very French and very charming Marleen (Elodie Bouchez), a stewardess who can't drive a car, who comes home for work early for no good reason and says, "Let's kiss". I want to get a shot at directing the "Dragonfly" movie when the original director (Gerard Depardieu) gets fired. I want to throw ideas back and forth with the old-school Italian producer (Giancarlo Giannini). I want my personal small film to somehow meld with the big, loud, empty sci-fi movie. And, as adorable as Marleen is, I want to grow tired of her and fall in love with the star of the "Dragonfly" movie (supermodel Angela Lindvall, in her debut), and wonder whether I am kissing her, or her character. And as a bonus, I'd get to drive not one but two Citroen DSs, the unofficial car of late-60s European cinema.

For all its wish-fulfillment fantasy, "CQ" is reasonable about its results. Paul's personal film (eventually called "69/70") isn't that great, and "Codename: Dragonfly" doesn't become a masterpiece once he takes over. But at the end, his personal stamp is all over both movies, and he's a wiser man and a better filmmaker, ready to move forward with a real career.

If you were to come upon this disc at the video store, with Angela Lindvall in a black bikini holding a big red gun, you wouldn't think it's the sort of movie where you could say, "All the actors here are top notch." But, all the actors here are top notch. Davies makes Paul the ultimate passive man, barely reacting to the sudden changes in his life. He only shows emotion when he finds out Marleen has left him, and even then it seems like he's crying because he can't cry. Bouchez as Marleen is very quiet and sweet, with bits of raw emotion showing at the corners of her performance. Supermodel Angela Lindvall, in her acting debut, plays the dual role of Valentine/Dragonfly. Her Valentine is genuine yet ethereal and as Dragonfly she's mysterious and bratty (Dragonfly is the best showcase for her husky smoker voice). Jason Schwartzman, who shows up for an extended cameo as Felix De Marco, the temporary replacement director of "Dragonfly", expertly embodies one those guys who always seems about to ask, "Are we having fun yet?" Depardieu and Giannini, the old pros here, are both very good - particularly Giannini, with his frantic yet relaxed gesturing and producorial temper.

Actors in smaller roles are good as well. Massimo Ghini is Fabrizio, the 'real' producer of "Dragonfly", who has to carry out all of Giannini's orders. He says little throughout the movie, but he's always there, a calm but commanding presence. Billy Zane plays both the Dragonfly villain Mr. E, and the actor who plays Mr. E (he's never given a name). As he showed in his cameo as himself in "Zoolander", he's in on his own cheeseball actor joke. But best of all, Dean Stockwell does five minutes or so as Paul's father. In his long career, Stockwell has been up and down the prestige ladder, from "Psych-Out" to "Paris, Texas", from "Blue Velvet" to TV's "Quantum Leap". In his brief time on screen he goes from fumbling for his glasses like a confused old man, to casually confessing adultery to his own son, to providing him with a key inspiration for his movie, all of it as if life's cream cheese and he's got the butter knife.

The Features for "CQ" are on the second side of the disc. The amount of supporting material for the film is extremely impressive, considering that "CQ" made barely $500,000 during it's theatrical run. Unfortunately, this fact forced the movie onto the video marketplace a little sooner than usual. The extras feel rushed and incomplete, like we're looking at the first or second draft of segments that would have benefited from more time.

Most disappointing is the lack of discussion of problems in post -production. The film runs a brisk 81 minutes, plus an absurdly lengthy end-credit sequence that seems calculated to stretch the running time (it actually lists all the real locations for the film). "CQ" debuted at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival, and with "Codename: Dragonfly" set in 2001, it seems like it was intended to be released later that year. Yet it wasn't released until May of 2002. This and the film's brief length imply some post-Cannes re-editing. Coppola makes no explicit reference to any difficulties in the features, but there are morsels here and there if you're looking and listening for them.

The finished movie is everything it needs to be, so closed-lippedness about some rough patches is no big deal. But I suspect as Coppola's career goes on we'll see a more elaborate disc with better features and some honesty about any problems the film encountered. But for now, we have:

- Commentary with Roman Coppola and D.P. Robert Yeoman. This is actually on the main movie side of the disc. It's a solid track, covering the many (many, many) influences on the film and the filming techniques used. Coppola is open about some influences, from Mario Bava's "Danger: Diabolik" to Godard's "Contempt", and even "Annie Hall", yet leaves most of them for us to find. We learn that the opening American Zoetrope logo was used only one other time, for George Lucas' "THX-1138", and that Yeoman used Cook lenses, primarily a 60s tool, for the "Codename: Dragonfly" scenes. They also talk about their use of Luxembourg as a location substitute for both Paris and Rome throughout most of the movie - the airport where Davies visits his father is actually a bank. We also learn that the section of door that Depardieu punches his hand through, which is later framed and given to Davies, is in fact an actual section of door that Francis Ford Coppola punched during his early career.

The remaining features on Side B.

- Featurettes. There are five featurettes on the various aspects of CQ.

o "Chronique D'un Cineaste". This one follows Coppola as he plans to leave for Luxembourg to make the film, and concentrates on his pre-production process. (Deliberately?)mimicing Paul in "CQ", Coppola talks directly into a self-operated video camera as he takes us through his apartment and his office. This is the only DVD feature I've ever seen where the director so openly invites comparison between himself and the main character of his film. He speaks vaguely of casting difficulties. Hmmm.

o "CQ: A Cinematic Odyssey". Mimicking a 60s era promo piece, a narrator takes us very briefly through the making of "CQ" as a whole. They really pick up the late 60s/early 70s ball and run with it here, as the narrator points out, "Coppola has instructed his crew to employ only the newest in optical printing and animation techniques for the explosive visual effects in ?Codename: Dragonfly".

o "Actors Acting". In this segment we visit each lead actor. Most interesting is Davies' assertion that his character Paul is a "thoroughbred observer". Coppola talks about using an acting coach as the head of the "acting department" (his cousin Chris Neill), in much the same way that the D.P. heads up the photography department or the production designer is in charge of the sets. Good advice.

o "Cinematography". Here Bob Yeoman talks about the different techniques used to achieve the three movies within "CQ".

o "Music & Sound". Here we learn the importance of sound to this production, from veteran sound designer, and one of Francis Ford Coppola's collaborators, Richard Beggs. Among other tasks, Beggs actually had to add realistic sounds back into the ?69/70' scenes, and his work is seamless, as if the dog-barks and camera noise had actually been captured on set. We also meet Mellow, the composers for the film. One of the duo is clearly still bugged than Coppola vetoed one of their compositions for the film.

- Personal Doc*mentaries. There are four of these babies, listed by their makers. Again, none seem finished.

o "Ellie". AKA Eleanor Coppola, AKA Roman's mom. Good, but peters out toward the end. However, I like that the Coppola family sticks together and supports one another during their individual artistic endeavors.

o "Sofia". AKA Roman's littler sis (and now a major filmmaker after "Lost in Translation"). This one starts out promisingly by following their cousin Jason Schwartzman around the graveyard set of his character's film. It's nice to see Schwartzman in full Virginia ham mode, but soon the segment devolves into a trailer for the movie.

o "Mathieu". I'm tempted to give this one points for trying. It's shot in grainy video and chronicles much of moon-base sequence. It's the sort of thing, if it were playing as ambience at a dance club, it would be great. Sitting in the living room watching it, it just goes on and on.

o "Xavier & Sebastian". A portentous French narrator takes us through Coppola's plans for the film. At about the same level as Mathieu's doc.

- Trailer. This trailer got me excited to see the film in the first place. Excellent.

- Stills Gallery. 75 - count 'em - official stills, likely every still photo released for the movie. I love it. A movie so obsessed with images, it has to offer every image of the film on its DVD. If only this level of attention was paid to all the extras.

- "Mellow Live In Japan". Their music works great as part of the film and great as a CD. Here we get to see them perform a couple songs live, one with the vocalist for the "Dragonfly" song. We also get to hear all the lyrics for this song.

- "Codename: Dragonfly". This has the full "Codename: Dragonfly" movie as presented in "CQ". That's the trouble. There's nothing here you didn't already see. For all its retro coolness, "Dragonfly" works best broken up by the rest of "CQ". There may have been more left out of the film, but until that stuff is included, this seems like filler. It's presented in both Paul's version and Andrzej's version, but there's little difference. Lindvall has optional commentary on Paul's version, and doesn't quite know what to say. It was her first movie and she still seems a bit overwhelmed by the experience.

- Easter Eggs. There are a number of eggs on Side B. On the features menu, click over to the right side of the menu selections, and then click upward. The painted background will turn purple - click this and you're in CQ Easter Egg land. There are several screens with moon photos and icons from the film. Clicking on any of these these will take you very short behind-the-scenes bits. Among them is a deleted scene, with Paul, the producer, and several of "Dragonfly"'s crew on what looks like a location scout at a fog-shrouded field. Since this field never pops up in the actual movie it indicates a narrative avenue that was closed off during the editing process.

"CQ" looks fantastic. It's shot in 1.85:1, with a 'boxed' 1.33:1 framing for the black and white scenes. There are three movies within the movie: "Codename: Dragonfly", Paul's self-doc*mentary "69/70", and "CQ" proper. Coppola, Cinematographer Robert Yeoman, Production Designer Dean Tavoularis and costumer designer Judy Shrewsbury go to town on all the different looks.

"Codename: Dragonfly" is a near perfect evocation of 60s era sci-fi, with colorful plastic sets and costumes.

The grainy "69/70" looks like the genuine article, as if Coppola and Yeoman had gone back in time and shot this in a French apartment.

"CQ" evokes a late 60s Pop Europe that we've seen in "8 1/2", "La Dolce Vita", "Contempt" "Breathless" and many others. Here, it looks a lot like the world of Wes Anderson's movies (Yeoman's shot them all) but with harder lighting, richer browns and dark, dark blacks.

The disc has an English 5.1 track, all the better to catch Begg's subtle but excellent sound work.

The music score is by French duo Mellow. They work a nine-hour day for the "Dragonfly" music, achieving another instance of time-machine verisimilitude. Less obvious but just as good, they vary the main title theme as an acoustic guitar solo, for the scenes after Paul has lost Marleen. This soundtrack album is great party music.

"CQ" is finally a light but compelling look at the mind of a movie lover. If you haven't seen it yet, don't let the somewhat disappointing features stop you.