Moriarty's DVD Shelf: CQ and THE BIG KNIFE Reviewed! THE PRODUCERS Contest Winners!

And speaking of sharing, I think we’ll have another contest coming up very soon, with a major new DVD release, one of this summer’s biggest and most controversial hit films. Keep watching this column for details in the days ahead. In the meantime, let’s get on with some actual reviews, eh?

WHAT CREATES, DESTROYS

Have I mentioned before on the site that I love Roman Coppola’s CQ? Because I do. I think it’s one of those films that would very easy to dismiss, a slight film, a first film, complete with all the indulgence and self-satisfaction that first films can often contain. I don’t care, though. To me, it’s a film that obviously poured forth from the heart of a true movielover, someone who’s grown up drunk on it, surrounded by it, and who managed to somehow never get jaded or bored by it. Roman, just like his sister Sofia, whose VIRGIN SUICIDES was such a wonderful debut, proves that natural directing talent really does seem to be genetic in the Coppola family.

Not that I believed that right away, mind you. Sofia’s role in THE GODFATHER III turned her into a punchline for film geeks for years, something I still think was brutally unfair. She’s not a studied actor in the film, but in a lot of ways, she was Mary Corleone. Gawky, uncomfortable whenever anyone pays attention to her, sheltered in many ways. And Roman’s first foray into film was as the co-writer of SPIRIT OF ’76, which was directed by Lucas Reiner, Rob’s brother. It’s a terrible, frantic comedy starring the McDonald twins from Red Kross, but it did manage to predate the ‘70’s nostalgia that became fashionable later.

Roman must have taken some time to work on CQ, and it’s obvious that it’s something he really cares about. So much of what he must have observed in his childhood is part of this film, and he was able to bring his frighteningly encyclopedic knowledge of European movies from the ‘60’s and ‘70’s to the the table. If you listen to the audio commentary that Roman recorded with his cinematographer Robert Yeoman, he can’t help but talk about the films that inspired him, and it raises an interesting question: if something is almost entirely a pastiche, a patchwork homage to things that have come before, is it possible that in the combination of all these borrowed pieces, there can be something truly original? Roman isn’t showing off when he talks about the films that influenced him, but anyone looking for a crash course in European cinema would do well to write down the titles he references and check them out whenever possible. Then again, watching CQ is sort of like downloading all of those films at once directly into your brain, all of them pre-digested by Roman.

The two works he’s referencing most directly are DAVID HOLZMAN’S DIARY, Jim McBride’s first film from 1968, one of the first mockumentaries. It’s a film about a young man making a film about the everyday details of his life, a task which also occupies Paul (Jeremy Davies), the main character in CQ. He’s got his B&W camera, and he’s always filming the mundane details of his life in Paris with Marlene (Elodie Bouchez), his loving but frustrated girlfriend. She’s frustrated because Paul is hardly ever present, even when he’s there. He’s in Paris for a job, editing a science-fiction movie called CODENAME: DRAGONFLY which is being produced by Enzo, a charismatic old-school producer played with panache by Giancarlo Giannini, and directed by the volatile Andrezej, played with a shambling charm by Gerard Depardieu. Paul’s just starting out, and he’s enamored of the entire process. There’s nothing about the film that he doesn’t love. This is where the film’s other most obvious quote comes in, since CODENAME: DRAGONFLY is a thinly-veiled riff on DANGER: DIABOLIK, the Mario Bava spy film that has been referenced in Beastie Boy videos and any number of other spy films over the years. Coppola even has the star of that film, John Philip Law, show up in CODENAME: DRAGONFLY, and Billy Zane, deliciously hammy as Mr. E, the main bad guy in the sci-fi film, does a spot-on impression of some of Law’s mannerisms. You could argue that it’s the third film in this schizophrenic melange, the one that shows Paul working on his two very different labors of love, that is what makes this something original and intoxicating. Andrezej and Enzo have a major falling out, and the replacement director Felix DeMarco (played by the hilarious Jason Schwartzman in a scenery-chewing cameo) also ends up leaving the film, so Enzo takes a chance. He turns to Paul and asks him to find an ending for the movie and to finish it. It’s the big break Paul’s been waiting for, and he almost doesn’t know what do do with it once it arrives.

Part of the problem is the way he finds his daydreams of Valentine (Angela Lindvall), the film’s star, creeping into his life. He can’t shake them, and he’s not even sure he wants to. Valentine and her alter-ego Dragonfly are mysterious, alluring, and the reality of Marlene’s emotional needs and her desire for Paul’s time begins to sour him on his relationship. He chooses fantasy over reality in the end, then manages to bend reality to match his fantasy, and somehow Roman manages to give the film a happy ending that’s bittersweet and real without ever cheating or falling victim to easy Hollywood cliché.

MGM/UA has done a remarkable job with this DVD, and if you like the movie, you’re going to love the extras here. As I mentioned, the commentary is fantastic, both informative and impassioned, and it fills the movie out in any number of ways. Equally impressive are the many different documentaries included. Interested in the technical end of things? There’s a documentary on the sound design and score of the film, another on the remarkable cinematography by Yeoman (who also shot RUSHMORE and THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS and DRUGSTORE COWBOY, among others), another on the actors and the casting process. And then there’s the personal side of things, documented in two different features shot by Roman as well as documentaries shot by Eleanor Coppola (who filmed the incredible HEARTS OF DARKNESS), Sofia, and others, all of whom have obviously had incredible access to the production. This isn’t typical EPK stuff where the cameras caught one or two days worth of the shoot. Instead, watching all of this gives you an incredibly intimate glimpse into the making of this movie.

Another way that CQ and THE VIRGIN SUICIDES are alike is the way they both ended up with incredible, unique scores by artists not known for long histories of prior film work. Air’s score for SUICIDES has crept into commercials now, and it’s easy to see why. It’s evocative, haunting stuff. For CQ, Roman turned to the electronic group Mellow, and their work is absolutely right for the period, allowing this film to stand outside the era it’s portraying and the era when it was made, existing in its own particular time. There’s a live performance by Mellow in Japan where they play their score for the film, and it’s surprising how well it works on its own terms as music. It’s pretty distinct and adventurous stuff, and I hope they end up writing more scores if the right projects come up. Like everyone associated with this gem, they’ve done special work here, and the result of all of these people giving so much of themselves to the film is something that looks so much more expensive than the $10 million that was spent on it, and that is so much more expressive and emotional than I would have guessed from the kitschy DVD cover. My only complaints are that the picture during the film itself displays some serious artifacting, which is a mystery considering the way the disc is split into one side that’s just the movie and one side that’s all the extras. Still, if you’re in the mood for something fresh and you want a disc that really explores the film in depth, then CQ is a great purchase.

I was equally pleased by THE BIG KNIFE, another MGM/UA release, even though it’s a bare bones disc if I’ve ever seen one. Based on a play by Clifford Odets (a writer who was one of the direct inspirations for the character Barton Fink, I believe), it’s the story of Charlie Castle (Jack Palance) a screenwriter who’s tired of selling his soul one page at a time, and who wants out. His wife Marion (Ida Lupino) knows that Hollywood is destroying her husband and destroying the artist he used to be, and she wants him to walk away. Unfortunately, the studio is strongarming him to sign a new contract that will pay him well and utterly ruin him. He can feel the breakdown coming, but he doesn’t know how to get out of it. Palance is great in the movie, and it’s almost the exact opposite of CQ in tone. Whereas that film is full of hope about how art can rescue you and heal you and how vital it is for the survival of an artist, this film seems to say that there is no art as soon as money becomes involved, and that all artists are whores. The only ones who get hurt are the ones who pretend they’re not for sale. The print here is exceptional, and one could make the case that this represents a high watermark for director Robert Aldrich, coming hot on the heels of another classic of his, KISS ME DEADLY. Aldrich had a bleak view of the world, and even an action film like THE DIRTY DOZEN was shot through with a jet-black cynicism once he got through with it. THE BIG KNIFE feels like it comes from the heart, and for anyone who wants some perspective on how little things have changed in Hollywood since 1956 when the film was made, pick this up and enjoy every bit of the dense, savory dialogue and spectacular black and white photography by Ernest Laszlo. Sometimes, a great film is enough reason to pick up a disc, even if there aren’t any extras to accompany it.

I’ll be back later today with yet another DVD SHELF column for you, and this time, I’ll be packing in as many titles as I can in a fairly dense report. All of this is me trying to get to my big special column that I’ve been brewing up before I leave town next Thursday. As long as I can keep myself chained to the desk, I should have plenty of time to share everything with you that I have planned. For now, though, I’ve gotta run...