Irma VepWhen people have inflated expectations about something or someone, those expectations have a way of overshadowing the reality of things; disappointment inevitably follows. Irma Vep is an avant-garde comedy/drama by Olivier Assayas about the production of a remake of a French silent movie-era series of films, collectively called Les Vampires. Hong Kong actress Maggie Cheung (playing herself) comes to Paris at the request of an indulgent director named René Vidal (Jean-Pierre Léaud), on the basis that he thinks that casting an Asian woman in the lead for this remake of a famously French film will shake things up. During her stay, Maggie endures the chaos of the French production with as much diplomacy and grace as she can muster.
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Irma Vep is an incredibly self-aware movie, from its subject matter to the cinéma-vérité style in which it's shot. In addition to Les Vampires, Irma Vep was also inspired by François Truffaut's Day for Night, so Jean-Pierre Léaud's casting as René is more than just a coincidence. The film opens with the chaos of production, managers barking into phones about the budget then handing realistic prop guns around, and all before Maggie even walks into the office, fresh off of her twelve-hour flight from Hong Kong. The production is in a tizzy, and everyone involved is quick to gossip, blame others, and fret without reservation. Maggie, however, recognizes that she is the star of the production. And as a professional actor, she knows that "taking sides" in these little feuds will only eliminate opportunities for her, not secure them. She is smart and controlled, but she is the exception to everyone else around her, especially her mumbling/bumbling director. After the production manager, Maïté (Dominique Faysse), takes her to René's apartment, René plays a VHS copy of one of her Hong Kong action movies--Johnnie To's The Heroic Trio--and tells her that because she was so "elegant" in it, he knew that she was right for his movie. He also confesses that he didn't want to remake Les Vampires in the first place, which is an odd thing to share with a cast member, much less one hand picked for it. This moment is revealing about who René is. Irma Vep includes a fight scene from The Heroic Trio with Maggie wearing an outfit not too dissimilar to the one she will wear for this remake, so it's not too big of a leap for anyone to see Maggie in the role of Irma Vep. It becomes painfully obvious that René is hardly the insufferable genius he is presumed to be; he's just insufferable. Heck, his idea for her costume is full-on plagiarized right from Michelle Pfeiffer's as Catwoman from Batman Returns! He fancies himself as an auteur, but he's little more than someone tapped by the production company to churn out just another soulless remake. Even when he does try to apply any "beauty" and "art" to his creation, it amounts to little more than reshooting a scene from the original, just glossed up a bit. And despite all of this, when he gathers his crew to watch the dailies, he bad mouths the work and storms out. And poor Maggie just has to smile and resist commiserating with the rest of the cast because she knows that gossip always finds a way to get back to whomever they're talking about, even a hack like René.
Irma Vep moves with a speed and energy that feels ironic considering that it's being adapted from a series of movies. (Irma Vep comes in at around an hour and a half.) Assayas has indicated that the production of the movie felt "rushed", which I believe infuses the film with a svelte and lean quality. Yet Assayas presumably had more to say on the subject matter, though, as he has recently written and directed a mini-series sharing the same name as his film--remaking his own "remake", as it were. Most of the time in Irma Vep (the film) is spent with Maggie as she gets situated into her new role. After meeting René, she goes off to get a latex catsuit and BDSM mask from a sex shop with the film's costumer, Zoé (Nathalie Richard). At first, Zoé's attentions seem purely platonic and professional. At a low key gathering after the first day of shooting, Zoé's friend tells Maggie that Zoé has a crush on the actress, causing her embarrassment. These interactions are key in underscoring how any secrets that you try to keep will invariably get disclosed one way or another, reinforcing Maggie's unspoken practice about not engaging in gossip with this Paris crew, despite how they try. As the star, virtually everyone angles her for attention, or for her approval at least. On the set, an overzealous journalist (Antoine Basler) tries to trap her into saying something critical of René or the production of this remake, claiming that French movies are too obsessed with "navel-gazing" and that movies should be more like those by John Woo. The ignorant journalist even mistakes actors like Arnold Schwarzenegger for filmmakers. Despite his obvious attempts to bait her, she upholds that shining example of professionalism and defends René and the film. Does she mean it? Maybe it doesn't matter, because she knows that all eyes are on her, and what she says and does can mean the difference between success and failure for the project. That's what makes the most intriguing scene in Irma Vep just that--when she dons her catsuit in her hotel and goes on in impromptu burglary session. It's the most surprising event in the film, and some have even suggested that she is "possessed" (by the suit, the spirit of Irma Vep, or the music of Sonic Youth, who can say) when it happens. Personally, I took this to be Maggie's very unorthodox version of "method acting", seeing if she could inhabit the character by knowing just how it felt to be a thief, sneaking into a woman's hotel room and pilfering a necklace, only to dispose of it from the rooftops in the pouring rain afterward. It's a visually evocative moment, and the most revealing about Maggie in the whole movie, who is heretofore (and afterwards) forced to maintain her movie star persona instead.
Despite movies that are about the making of movies feeling a shade self-indulgent by default, Irma Vep frequently embraces a playful, experimental vibe--more naturally even than in Assayas's own Demonlover, made almost a decade later. yet just because the world of Irma Vep feels "natural" doesn't make it logical, best exemplified at the very end. A replacement director named José Mirano (Lou Castel) comes to fill in after René has a breakdown. José replaces Maggie with her costar, adding a racist comment about how "wrong" it was to cast an Asian in this quintessentially "French" remake, then proceeds to watch just what René has edited together thus far with the rest of the crew. René's footage transforms into a jarring montage--à la Don Hertzfeldt's amazing animated short film, Rejected--with graffiti-like animation overlay that's both wild and irreverent. And that's perhaps what best describes the charm of Irma Vep: wild and irreverent. If Assayas had intended to make just a straight remake of Les Vampires, he no doubt would have done so. But instead, he tears down not just the sacred cow that is this French classic (which, to be honest, I hadn't heard of until I watched this), but the whole institution of filmmaking. Irma Vep peels back that facade, showing all of the dirtiness that can go into a production, casting a light on what it really is: just a group of people getting together to make a movie...and all the baggage that goes with it.
Recommended for: Fans of an experimental yet enlightening impression of the moviemaking process, with a healthy amount of self-awareness peppered throughout. Irma Vep doesn't require any preexisting knowledge of French movie history or anything to enjoy, but audiences should be prepared for its unorthodox narrative and off-kilter directorial style to fully appreciate it.
Irma Vep moves with a speed and energy that feels ironic considering that it's being adapted from a series of movies. (Irma Vep comes in at around an hour and a half.) Assayas has indicated that the production of the movie felt "rushed", which I believe infuses the film with a svelte and lean quality. Yet Assayas presumably had more to say on the subject matter, though, as he has recently written and directed a mini-series sharing the same name as his film--remaking his own "remake", as it were. Most of the time in Irma Vep (the film) is spent with Maggie as she gets situated into her new role. After meeting René, she goes off to get a latex catsuit and BDSM mask from a sex shop with the film's costumer, Zoé (Nathalie Richard). At first, Zoé's attentions seem purely platonic and professional. At a low key gathering after the first day of shooting, Zoé's friend tells Maggie that Zoé has a crush on the actress, causing her embarrassment. These interactions are key in underscoring how any secrets that you try to keep will invariably get disclosed one way or another, reinforcing Maggie's unspoken practice about not engaging in gossip with this Paris crew, despite how they try. As the star, virtually everyone angles her for attention, or for her approval at least. On the set, an overzealous journalist (Antoine Basler) tries to trap her into saying something critical of René or the production of this remake, claiming that French movies are too obsessed with "navel-gazing" and that movies should be more like those by John Woo. The ignorant journalist even mistakes actors like Arnold Schwarzenegger for filmmakers. Despite his obvious attempts to bait her, she upholds that shining example of professionalism and defends René and the film. Does she mean it? Maybe it doesn't matter, because she knows that all eyes are on her, and what she says and does can mean the difference between success and failure for the project. That's what makes the most intriguing scene in Irma Vep just that--when she dons her catsuit in her hotel and goes on in impromptu burglary session. It's the most surprising event in the film, and some have even suggested that she is "possessed" (by the suit, the spirit of Irma Vep, or the music of Sonic Youth, who can say) when it happens. Personally, I took this to be Maggie's very unorthodox version of "method acting", seeing if she could inhabit the character by knowing just how it felt to be a thief, sneaking into a woman's hotel room and pilfering a necklace, only to dispose of it from the rooftops in the pouring rain afterward. It's a visually evocative moment, and the most revealing about Maggie in the whole movie, who is heretofore (and afterwards) forced to maintain her movie star persona instead.
Despite movies that are about the making of movies feeling a shade self-indulgent by default, Irma Vep frequently embraces a playful, experimental vibe--more naturally even than in Assayas's own Demonlover, made almost a decade later. yet just because the world of Irma Vep feels "natural" doesn't make it logical, best exemplified at the very end. A replacement director named José Mirano (Lou Castel) comes to fill in after René has a breakdown. José replaces Maggie with her costar, adding a racist comment about how "wrong" it was to cast an Asian in this quintessentially "French" remake, then proceeds to watch just what René has edited together thus far with the rest of the crew. René's footage transforms into a jarring montage--à la Don Hertzfeldt's amazing animated short film, Rejected--with graffiti-like animation overlay that's both wild and irreverent. And that's perhaps what best describes the charm of Irma Vep: wild and irreverent. If Assayas had intended to make just a straight remake of Les Vampires, he no doubt would have done so. But instead, he tears down not just the sacred cow that is this French classic (which, to be honest, I hadn't heard of until I watched this), but the whole institution of filmmaking. Irma Vep peels back that facade, showing all of the dirtiness that can go into a production, casting a light on what it really is: just a group of people getting together to make a movie...and all the baggage that goes with it.
Recommended for: Fans of an experimental yet enlightening impression of the moviemaking process, with a healthy amount of self-awareness peppered throughout. Irma Vep doesn't require any preexisting knowledge of French movie history or anything to enjoy, but audiences should be prepared for its unorthodox narrative and off-kilter directorial style to fully appreciate it.