Irma Vep (Essential Edition): Amazon.ca: Maggie Cheung, Jean-Pierre L�aud, Nathalie Richard, Antoine Basler, Nathalie Boutefeu, Alex Descas, Dominique Faysse, Arsin�e Khanjian, Bernard Nissile, Olivier Torres, Bulle Ogier, Lou Castel, Eric Gautier, Olivier Assayas, Luc Barnier, Fran�oise Guglielmi, Georges Benayoun: DVD

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In the tradition of films about filmmaking, Irma Vep takes its own special place among such films as Fellini's 8½. A has-been director decides to remake the silent French serial film Les Vampires starring a Hong Kong action film superstar. The production is falling behind schedule and its star, Maggie Cheung (who plays herself), finds herself an outsider with the film's crew save for a woman costumer (Nathalie Richard) who has a crush on her. Rene the director (Jean-Pierre Leaud) cast Maggie after viewing one of her many martial-arts fantasy films. Although he finds her perfect for the part of the jewel thief in Les Vampires, the rest of the crew cannot see the reasons for casting Maggie beyond her beauty and how she looks in her tight-fitting latex costume. Rene's vision is soon lost on everyone and he suffers a mental breakdown. The film is reassigned to Jose (Lou Castel), a seemingly more commanding director (although he takes the job because his welfare is about to run out), whose first decision is to fire Maggie. Irma Vep is presented as a comedy, but at its heart lies an examination of the art and craft of filmmaking. In a clever turn, Maggie creeps around her hotel getting into character, in essence remaking Irma Vep for real-life director Olivier Assayas. Assayas wrote the film in 10 days and shot the film in a month after meeting Maggie Cheung at a film festival--a fascinating case of life imitating art... or is it the other way around? --Shannon Gee

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Customer Reviews

26 Reviews

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(4)

Average Customer Review

3.3 out of 5 stars (26 customer reviews)

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4.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining, fun, original, challenging, if not quite a masterpiece, Jun 15 2011

By

K. Gordon - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Irma Vep (Essential Edition) (DVD)

I feel downright churlish for not going completely crazy for this funny/sad look at movie-making -- specifically the rather absurd, doomed remaking of a real French classic, by an aging, out of style art-house director, starring Hong Kong action heroine Maggie Chung, who plays herself delightfully.

I enjoyed the film; its sort of a complex 1990s `Day for Night', with a paradoxical and sometimes confusing point of view about the nature of art and the state of film.

But I couldn't see it for the masterpiece a number of intelligent critics gave it credit for being. Jonathan Rosenbaum, the terrific critic from the Chicago Reader wrote a very long, in depth analysis that went right over my head, and then added insult to injury by implying that people who don't see the film as
a deep investigation of the evils of capitalism, and the meaning of ART are somehow shallow.

I'm also surprised by the number of people who take the ramblings of an obnoxious reporter in the film about the death of French art cinema as being the film's point of view on these issues. To me the film isn't taking sides, and seems to be gently satirizing, and yet embracing all of film.

Good natured, well acted, and occasionally brave (but also occasionally obscure) I quite enjoyed this and it did provoke some thinking. But I couldn't see it as the super deep film some did. For me, it was fun, but the ideas are far less deep or radical then critics seem to want to give them credit for being.

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4.0 out of 5 stars Quelque chose de different, Mar 7 2004

By

Gregor von Kallahann - See all my reviews

This review is from: Irma Vep (Widescreen) (DVD)

The French do self-reflexive cinema better than we do. This tale of a has-been director attempting a comeback with a re-make of a silent French serial (and using a non-French speaking real-life Maggie Cheung in the title role) is the ultimate exercise in cinematic intertextuality. But it's also a lot ofe fun and not--as one of the film's own characters grouses about the state of French cinema--just intellectual navel gazing. Not for everyone, of course, but for lovers of cinematic irony, it's hard to think of a more delightful feelm.

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4.0 out of 5 stars Leaping latex lesbian vampyres, Rocky!, Oct 21 2003

By

avoraciousreader (Somewhere in the Space Time Continuum) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Irma Vep (Widescreen) (DVD)

I truly fail to understand those who consider this a serious cinematic masterpiece. It pales in comparison, for instance, with other Maggie Cheung vehicles such as "In the Mood for Love" or "Song of the Exile". Indeed, one of the four rating stars is purely for the presence of Maggie as something at least close to her off screen persona (ok, I admit to a bit of a crush here :-).

On the other hand, it is not the abysmal drek others rate it. The plot is drolly amusing, along the lines of a mid-level American TV sitcom. And as one who has been in similar situations a few times, the depiction of Maggie's perplexity and detachment when thrust into making a film in Paris while speaking no French rings true.

The side-plot of Zoe, the costumier, who develops a crush on Maggie while fitting her with the black latex catsuit in a Paris sex shop, is amusing and well handled. Nathalie Richard is just right (and dang cute) as Zoe, a grown woman regressed to breathless teenage puppy love.

Maggie wanders through it all with gracious aplomb as everything and everybody is falling apart around her, intrigued by Zoe's interest though ultimately declining.

For those who haven't read the previous hundred reviews, a brief summary: Maggie Cheung, playing herself, arrives in Paris on a movie set in chaos. The director has chosen her to play the part of a cat burglar (Irma Vep) in a remake of a classic silent film, on the basis of obsessive viewing of Cheung's Hong Kong action films (I think it was Heroic Trio he was watching). [Real life director Arrayas was Cheung's boyfriend, later husband. Art imitating life, or vice versa?] Maggie is the calm center of a swirl of studio politics, backbiting and romantic advances (male and female). She goes to a late night party, and one night dreams (?) that she gets tricked up in her cat suit and burgles another room in her hotel. The director, dysfuntional at best, eventuallly has a breakdown. A new director decides he needs a French actress to play a classic French role, and Maggie accepts calmly(probably glad to get out of this mess). The last we hear is that she has cashed in her return ticket for a flight to New York to meet an American director.

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Most recent customer reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars Hmm...
Seeing this movie has left me flabbergasted. I guess it's one of those either-you-love-it-or-hate-it movies. But let me be objective about this. Read more

Published on April 3 2003 by your_tofu_is_mine

4.0 out of 5 stars Notions in different directions...
Maggie Cheung, as herself, comes to Paris to partake in a remake of Louis Feuillade's Les Vampires as Irma Vep. Read more

Published on Nov 17 2002 by Kim Anehall