Movie-Ception

CQ (Dragonfly scene)

(Roman Coppola, 2001)

 

Outside of Francis and Sophia, I didn't even know there was another member of the Coppola famiglia directing movies. Roman Coppola's CQ (2001) is a love letter to European Cinema from the sixties. The film hardly set the world abalze upon it's release since it's never mentioned today. It's worth noting that the the best thing about it are the obvious homages to various movies from that era; even the Godard rip of Breathless (1960) is somewhat palatable, thanks largely to a full frontal nudity shot of Élodie Bouchez. However, what really caught my interest were the sequences for the movie the film's lead actor, Jeremy Davis, has to complete - Dragonfly; a sci-fi caper film which undeniably takes inspiration from Mario Bava's Danger: Diabolik (1968) and Roger Vadim's Barbarella (1968). 

This got me thinking about other fictional movies featured in movies, so here are a few personal favourites:

Coed Frenzy / Blow Out (Brian DePalma, 1981)

How apt that Alfred Hitchcock, who grandfathered the slasher, would spawn a spiritual successor in the form of Brian DePalma, and that his opening scene from Blow Out would feature a few minutes from a  fictional slasher called Coed Frenzy. Best thing about this wildly exploitative short film is it ticks all the checkmarks for many a teen slasher from the golden era. Can't help but wonder what it would have been like if DePalma did deliver a full feature film in a similar vein to Coed Frenzy, probably something along the line of The House on Sorority Row (1982) while being blessed with flourishes of idiosyncratic flamboyance you would expect from the man.

Vera / Nekromantrik (Jörg Buttgereit, 1988)

Poor old Rob. Not only does he lose his "streetcleaning" job, but his girlfriend, Betty, dumps him and takes off with their ménage à trois rotten cadaver. What better way to find some healing than joining the rest of the goons at the local cinema and watching a thoroughly scuzzy, DIY slasher called Vera. It's equally as micro-budget as Nekromantik, itself. Much of it looks like it was shot in someone's back garden, but those precious few minutes remind me of  Norbert Moutier's hilariously bizarre Ogroff aka Mad Mutilator (1983); another film with the production cost of an old episode of Get Stuffed. Buttgereit also followed up Vera with a mockful arthouse short film called My Breakfast With Vera, which really outstayed its welcome in Nekromantik 2 (1991) and is nowhere near as entertaining as its predecessor.

The Equestrian Vortex / Berberian Sound Studio (Peter Strickland, 2012)

 

Outside of the opening credits sequence, the viewer doesn't get to see the rest of  The Equestrian Vortex featured in Peter Strickland's Berberian Sound Studio. As described by the fictional director, Giancarlo Santini, "it's not a horror film, it's a Santini film", and it's left to our own imagination in picturing the horrific audio scenes recorded by the continuously neurotic, Gilderoy (Toby Jones). 

 

Honourable Mentions: See You Next Wednesday featured throughout John Landis' filmography; the untitled "snuff movie" that Laura Gemser investigates in Emanuelle in America (1977); Joe Dante's sci-fi horror Mant! from Matinee (1993); and, Carson Clay's (Willem Defoe) hilariously pretentious, Playback Time from Mr. Bean's Holiday (2007).

Hey Young World

The Scary of Sixty-First (Dasha Nekrasova, 2021)

Where do you begin when describing this movie? Based on its trailer, it comes across as your typical dead-on-arrival shovelware you would expect to find greeting you on either Netflix and Shudder. You would be right too, but Dasha Nekrasova has one ace up its sleeve that the other still born tat don't: pure comedy. Intentional or not, this film had me laughing out loud like the first time I caught James Wan's Malignant (2021) and that's a rare achievment to accomplish when it come to a cynical curmudgeon like me.

"Princes, princes who adore you
Just go ahead now"

Nekrasova's film feels like Roman Polanski's The Tenant (1976) meets QAnon conspiracy theory, and the obvious link is not lost on me. Ironically, Nekrasova is a popular "bohemian layabout' podcaster, but I bounced listening to whatever she and her medicated political buddies wanted to talk about within seconds of hearing their synchronised nauseating slurring, for the sake of my very sanity. Ain't nobody got time for the zoomer equivalent of Loose Women type natter. Would have loved to have been a fly on the wall when the film's writers, Dasha Nekrasova and Madeline Quinn, came up with the script for this film, however. I would imagine it would have read like a 4chan illuminati post, written by some tinfoil hat wearing loony forgetting their xanax.

Shot in 16mm, the contemporary New York setting felt strangely anachronistic in this movie as it gave it an aged exploitation film vibe. The acting was generally poor, but faux-grindhouse movies like this aren't exactly striving for Daniel Day-Lewis, are they? I'll give it props for its commitment, though; seeing Quinn masturbate to various paraphernalia of Prince Andrew and of all places, Jeffrey Epstein's front doorstep, is both equally bold and hilarious. Try doing that, O Danny boy!

Make no mistake, The Scary of Sixty-First is essentially a complete train wreck, but it's an entertaining one and that gives it a begrudging nod from me, even if it's made by a bunch of wastegal hipsters, living in the Twitter bubble. Whether or not I'll feel the same way about it after repeated viewings will be the real test, however.

The Scary of Sixty-First (Trailer)

(Dasha Nekrasova, 2021)