You need to connect things so that they make us feel something.
Having worked on a good number of his father's films -- mostly notably as second unit and visual effects director on 1992's Dracula -- it's only natural that Roman Coppola's feature debut CQ is as steeped in the world of film as it is. Written and directed by Coppola, who has yet to make a follow-up but that doesn't mean he hasn't been busy, the 2001 film stars Jeremy Davies as an American editor in Paris working on a futuristic (well, the future as envisioned in 1969) science fiction/action/spy picture patterned after the likes of Barbarella and Diabolik that is troubled because its director (Gérard Depardieu) doesn't know how to end it. All the while Davies is shooting his own personal film, which he hopes will capture something "real and honest," but all he's really doing is pushing away girlfriend Elodie Bouchez, who isn't as committed to the project as he is.
Eventually Depardieu is fired by hotheaded Italian producer Giancarlo Giannini, who hires hotshot wunderkind Jason Schwartzman (who's busy helming a vampire film called Tomb of Satan's Blood) to replace him, but Schwartzman's involvement is fleeting and it's ultimately up to Davies to pull everything together, which means coming up with a credible ending. Meanwhile, Davies develops a crush on leading lady Angela Lindvall (who's most alluring as sexy space kitten Dragonfly), which must make it hard on him when he has to look at her love scene with revolutionary leader Billy Zane (whose group has naturally set up shop on the dark side of the moon). The film also features John Phillip Law (star of both Barbarella and Diabolik) as the main baddie in the film-within-the-film and Dean Stockwell as Davies's father, who manages a short visit with his son while he's passing through Paris on business. Sofia Coppola even appears briefly as Giannini's mistress, which shows that brother Roman is following in their father's footsteps in more ways than one. Right now, though, the thing he appears to be emulating most is the decade-long hiatus the elder Coppola took between The Rainmaker and Youth Without Youth. It remains to be seen how that will shake out.