When A told me about "CQ", I thought at first that it was a joke. In French, when you pronounce “CQ”, it sounds like “Secu” for “Security” and it is actually one of the most famous lines of the funniest film called “La Cité de la Peur”. However, after a few clicks on Netflix, I ordered Roman Coppola’s film and received it a couple of days later.
Directed in 2001, the film was screened in the category “Out of Competition” at Cannes Film Festival the same year. It is a tribute to the 1960s European SF films such as Barbarella. The cast is impressive: Jason Schwartzman, Giancarlo Giannini, Gérard Depardieu, Billy Zane, Natalia Vodianova or Elodie Bouchez (prettier than ever), and even a small part for Sofia Coppola!
The plot is classical but not bad: 1969. An American editor is working on a “dumb & sexy” SF film called “Dragonfly” about a spy (the hottest one you’ve ever seen, a James Bond girl) who tries to steal a weapon from some revolutionaries (who definitely look like Che Guevara’s guerrilla) living on the moon. At the same time, the editor is trying to make is own movie with no means at all, about “truth and human stuff”. But some difficulties on the set lead him to change his plans...
Even though the whole decor is fake, it's funny and colorful. The music, by French electronic band Mellow, is fine, but even if it’s entirely absurd and well shot, even if you laugh most of the time, the editing is messy and the “mise en abyme” with the actual film and the film in the film becomes too far-fetched. It’s a convincing tribute to the absurd spy films of the 60s, but it’s not a convincing piece when you look at it as one.
MJ.
