Irma Vep

Plot synopsis:
Director René Vidal [Jean-Pierre Leaud] has been charged with the remake of Louis
Feuillade's 1915 silent French movie Les Vampires. The star of Les
Vampires, Irma Vep, was played by a French actress named Musidora. In a
search for an actress to play Irma, René has become impressed with Chinese
martial artist, Maggie Cheung [herself], because of her beauty, her grace, and her
presence, he says. Maggie is hired and flies to Paris from Hong Kong.
Unfortunately, she is three days late in arriving, which is causing havoc
with the filming. It also doesn't help that Maggie does not speak French.First thing on the agenda is for Maggie to be fitted in her costume,
a skin-tight latex catsuit, much like the one worn by Halle Berry in
Catwoman. Next, Maggie grabs some lunch with costumer Zoé [Nathalie Richard] and learns
that René Vidal's reputation as a director is going downhill. To Maggie,
however, he seems to believe in the remaking of Les Vampires, so she
isn't worried. Then comes the shoots. They shoot the scene where Irma is
chloroformed and a double substituted in her place. At the viewing of the
shoot, however, René is so P.O.ed that he stomps out of the theater.That night, following the viewing, everyone drives off and leaves
Maggie behind until Zoé happens by and offers Maggie a ride on her
motorbike. They go to a friend's house for dinner, where everyone is
dissing René in French and Maggie has no idea what they are saying.
Meanwhile, out in the kitchen, Zoé and a friend are discussing Zoé's
attraction to Maggie, and the firend advises Zoé to go for it. When she
gets Maggie alone, the friend tells her that Zoé wants to have sex with her.
Maggie is very embarrassed.When Maggie gets back to the hotel, she finds a half dozen messages
from René, who's been calling every few minutes, asking her to call back.
He asks her to meet him at his house. By the time Maggie arrives, the
police are buzzing in and out. René has had a huge fight with his wife,
and the doctor on call has given him tranquilizers. As René is in the
middle of explaining to Maggie her role in the movie, he passes out.Maggie goes back to her hotel room. Almost as though she is possessed
by the spirit of Irma Vep, she puts on her catsuit and sneaks into the
room of a hotel guest where she finds a pile of jewelry and takes it with
her. Like Irma Vep, she flees to the rooftop where she drops the jewelry
over the ledge. The next morning, Maggie is so tired that she sleeps
through her wakeup until Zoé shows up with the hotel passkey to see if
Maggie is okay. When Maggie gets to the studio, she rehearses the scene
where Irma kills the Great Vampire.Meanwhile, René has come up missing, and the entire crew is in
distress. It turns out that René has had a nervous breakdown and has been
admitted to a rest home. René's director friend, José Mirano, is going to
take his place. What Mirano cannot comprehend is why René chose a Chinese
actress to play Irma Vep, the epitome of the Paris Underground. Mirano
agrees to take over direction but only if he can replace Maggie.Maggie is given a ticket to New York where she is to meet with Ridley
Scott and then fly on to Los Angeles. Mirano views the film as it's been
edited by René. The film is a total mess (although some reviewers claim
that it's a "love sonnet" from René to Maggie). [Original Synopsis by bj_kuehl]

Tags: psychedelic, cult, comedy, satire

Review:
Jean-Pierre Leaud, one of the biggest stars of the period (he was the little boy in Francois Truffaut's seminal "The 400 Blows" [no pun intended]) is hilarious as a caricature of Godard in particular and French filmmakers in general, and the rooftop interview with (the stunning) Maggie Cheung refers to both Godard's "Breathless" and, indirectly, Fellini's "8 1/2."  Though it pokes good fun at the pretentiousness of the French New Wave, "Irma Vep" is also a tender elegy to a time in which movies were actually viewed as art, as something that really MATTERED.
Add to the humor and intelligence some really witty direction, superstylish cinematography, and a slew of beautiful people, and you got yerself a postmodern masterpiece and just maybe one last, great film of the New Wave..
Irma Vep is a film about film-making, an insightful and disturbing film which delivers some beautiful voyeuristic glimpses of vampirism, realist cinema, gritty black-and-white cine-retro and the old men who were once the chic of the French avant-garde film clique.IMDb says: "Rene Vidal, a director in decline, decides to remake Louis Feuillade's silent serial Les Vampires" but this summary does not mention the real star of the film - Hong Kong kung-fu actress Maggie Cheung, playing herself.
She is perfect as the exotic object, the ephemeral other, the object of desire who finds herself at the centre of the film's obsessive and sexually driven visual vortex.In the privacy of her hotel room, Maggie Cheung zips herself into a full-body black latex catsuit which is going to be her vampire costume on the film set the next day.
If you are a predictable guy like me, you will love the French-Asian grrrl power, which gives the film a pulse.The theme of visual obsession is presented very well: the director is shouting, the cameras are rolling, and Maggie Cheung, in her catsuit, is ready to suck blood.
I suppose this makes the film contentious and provocative, but I thought the message was very clear.Without spoiling the end of the film: the last five minutes of Irma Vep is totally unique.
Some scenes seemed particularly important for one to be constantly looking away from the action, so to speak.The film was a little long, and some scenes probably could have been cut down or cut altogether, but it gives a good view into French film-making, especially the snobbish elitism that is apparently common in more intellectual/artistic film circles.
It's hysterically funny at some points, and the characterization of the different crew members is brilliantly portrayed.I especially loved the scene where Maggie Cheung gets into characters by actually prowling around as a cat burglar (though she throws away her booty;)Overall: a tight, well done film.
This is a very solid film, make no mistake, but it tends to play more like a testing ground for various elements of Olivier Assayas' overall style, particularly those which he would later explore more fully in his later masterpiece "Demonlover", than any sort of cohesive narrative statement.
There's nothing really new about the "making a movie" movie, and this doesn't add much to the mix, although i do think it is well done for what it is, and occasionally even approaches a sort of proto-"Lost in Translation", with Paris standing in for Tokyo and Maggie Cheung's Asian "otherness" replacing Bill Murray's fish-out-of-water Americanness.
"Irma Vep" really only comes alive when Assayas gets away from his nagging tendency towards a certain French talkiness and indulges in the moments of pure visual cinema that make up the other half of his general approach (and which seem to be invested with much more enthusiasm here) , such as the scene scored to Sonic Youth's "Tunic" (another foreshadowing of "Demonlover").
This movie presents a self examination of French movie making, thereby justifying the accusation of "nombrilisme" (narcissism) by the reporter interviewing Maggy.
And in this case, it's the idea of having Maggie Cheung play the main role of a character in a remake of a 1915 silent movie.
At any rate, the movie has the funny effect to make you wonder if French movie making is in that bad a state that it can come up with such an interesting product..
Especially interesting for Honk Kong film freaks is the presence of Maggie Cheung acting as herself and remarking on working with Jackie Chan but not John Woo (too masculine!), while her interviewer remarks that French cinema is boring and made only for intellectuals.
I don't enjoy uber-intellectual movies that discuss film-making in a way that can be understood by only a limited number of folks who are keyed into interpretions of art house films.
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'm also surprised by the number of people who take the ramblings of an obnoxious reporter character in the film about the death of French art cinema as being the film's point of view on these issues.
Maggie gives her best performance ever in a movie that feels so close to reality you often get the impression you're watching a documentary.
Presumably no one should grudge a film director for making a movie as a love letter to woo his future wife, it is totally his de jure entitlement.
IRMA VEP (the name is an anagram of VAMPIRE) is overtly Olivier Assayas' token of love for HK actress Maggie Cheung, who would marry him in 1998, only their reunion would soon dissolve 3 years later, capped by a unusual valedictory project CLEAN (2004), which turns out to be quite a curate's egg for her fans, it copped her a BEST ACTRESS title in Cannes, but also heralds her unmitigated hibernation from the screen to date.
A French old-school filmmaker René Vidal (Léaud, sporting an inarticulate English in sullenness and fatigue), is making his latest work, a remake of Louis Feuillade's silent crime serial LES VAMPIRES (1915-1916, 10 episodes in toto) and fingers a Hong Kong actress (Maggie archly plays herself with high spirit) for the leading role Irma Vep, a feline Parisian burglar outfit with a superfine latex catsuit (her racial changeover would become an issue in the later stage).Maggie arrives alone in Paris to shoot her part, and soon becomes convivially discombobulated à la LOST IN TRANSLATION (2003) amid the rumbustious filming proceedings, in particular, cannot grasp what René truly wants in her.
She is befriended by Zoé (Richard, who is prickly and gabby to a great extent of spontaneity), the costume designer, who at first brings her to a sex shop to try the outfit, and later a friend gathering where she confides her attraction of Maggie to Mireille (Ogier), only to her chagrin that the latter cannot keep a secret, which casts an ambiguous tension between their fresh, tentative bond, eventually, there is a bar between occidental gregariousness and oriental propriety, Assayas knows best.
Whereas the production slowly veers into a downward spiral, buffeted by disastrous rushes-screening, harsh criticism from journalists, a nervous breakdown and compounding rift among staff, Maggie's own search for her character takes a bewitchingly oneiric turn inside the hotel she stays, a trance-like escapade coupled with the cacophony of Sonic Youth and a fluorescent raining night, actuates a surreal kick that is decadently delectable.Bookended by the black-and-white montage of Maggie's Irma Vep in its raw, solarized and post-edited randomness, Assayas' conceit hits the home run, he wins the girl and we are also proper swooned..
As much a homage to Truffaut's "Day for Night" as it is to Feuillade's "Les Vampires", the movie within the movie that is being remade with Maggie Cheung playing herself as "Irma Vep" and, of course, no homage to Truffaut would be complete without Jean-Pierre Leaud, here cast as the director.
Playing herself, Cheung is wonderfully self-effacing and director Olivier Assayas draws beautifully naturalistic performances from his entire cast.
Never likely to achieve the international success of Truffaut's classic "Irma Vep" makes for a first-class cult movie..
"Irma Vep" (an acronym for "vampire") is a critically lauded film about the making of a French movie which seems to be devoid of value and purpose.
The only moment when I can confidently relate to what is going on in "Irma Vep" is when a character asks why such well made original films need to be remade.
I avoided Irma Vep like the plague for years, ever mistrustful of movies that feature a celebrity playing him or herself.
Besides, I just assumed that director Olivier Assayas had a crush on Maggie Cheung -- understandable -- and came up with the movie as a thin pretext to doll her up like Catwoman.
So it feels almost like a preemptive strike when Jean-Pierre Leaud playing himself playing Francois Truffaut playing Olivier Assayas ) clears his throat and intones, "Films are based on desires."  That may be true, but good directors have desires that go beyond the fetishistic.
A Chinese movie actress (Maggie Cheung as herself), in France to star in a remake of "Les Vampires", finds petty intrigues and clashing egos on the set.The idea for the film was born out of an attempted collaboration between Assayas, Claire Denis, and Atom Egoyan, who wanted to experiment with the situation of a foreigner in Paris.
In the 1915 original serial, written and directed by Louis Feuillade, Irma Vep was played by French silent film actress Musidora (1889–1957).
Then it goes to the third level and has Maggie Cheung play herself (sort of), almost making it sort of a pseudo-documentary....
Those who love Hong Kong films know Maggie Chueng.
This is her international debut.Jean-Pierre Leaud (The 400 Blows) plays a quirky director that chose Chueng to play Irma Vep in a remake of the 10 episode Les Vampires.
This is a movie about making a remake of an actual French silent film called Les Vampires.
Its like a reality movie about making a film.
Ms. Cheung looks pretty great poured into a black latex outfit for the film.
See this film, it is entertaining and Maggie Cheung is her usual great self.
I suppose this film is by its nature polarizing, because it's a movie about film-making that lacks action, or drama, or a strong plot line.
A somewhat haphazard production company in Paris, about to remake a silent classic, has a mixed reaction to the casting of an actress from the Hong Kong cinema (Maggie Cheung, utterly delightful) as its iconic French heroine.
Hardly a film for the greater American audience, Irma Vep is by no means a throwaway film, but rather a clever and stylish piece of French cinema.
Almost a parody of typical French fare, this tale uses elements almost out of left field to tell a story about a film project starring the controversially cast Hong Kong starlet Maggie Cheung in a remake of a classic French film of the silent era.
I loved the way the movie changes all the time, you never know what really to expect, and every "plot twist" is really a genre twist - is it a movie about the film industry?
In his artistic vision, he must have Hong Kong action star Maggie Cheung for the lead.
She brings a perfect natural quality to her portrayal of herself, and she single-handedly makes the film an easy if uninspiring watch.I especially liked one bizarre but effective scene after the director asks Cheung to get more realism in the part of the jewel thief.
Besides the fact that Maggie Cheung is perfect eye-candy in this one(What a hottie!) I think Irma Vep deals with an interesting topic that few audiences and critics are willing to accept.
We are introduced to `Irma Vep'(1996) as Maggie Cheung, playing herself, arrives on the frantic set of the film within a film remake of Louis Feuillade's `Les Vampires'.
Olivier Assayas exhibits beautiful camera work and an enticing introspective view into film making while commenting on contemporary French cinema.
The director of the film within the film, René Vidal, recruits Maggie Cheung as the leading lady because he feels no French woman could do justice to the remake of the highly regarded silent film `Les Vampires'.
An odd little piece of cinematic work by Olivier Assayas on a brief episode (fictional) about a Hong Kong actress brought to France by an eccentric director to play the title role in his revival of a silent movie, Irma Vep makes reference to, among other things, Michelle Pfeiffer's Catwoman in "Batman Returns" (1992), in the context of the body tight latex outfit designed for the heroine.As a movie about making movies, Irma Vep has considerably less to offer than Truffaut's "Day for Night" (1973).
However, Maggie Cheung, 8 years before winning best actress in Cannes with "Clean" (2004) and playing herself in this stylish satire, was well received by critics, one of whom described one of her scenes thus: "When Maggie hears that Zoé is attracted to her, she's both charmed and incredulous: a swath of emotions, from confusion to cautious delight, passes across her face with the subtlety and playfulness of ripples on a lake." With only a hint of a plot, Irma Vep looks more like a series or sketches, or even a documentary, sustained by nervous energy.
Modern French cinema is far removed from the time when Louis Feuillade made his silent serial "Les Vampires".
"Irma Vep", a film about filmmaking with all the self-reflexive jesting, owes more to the New Wave of several decades later.In it, a director plans to remake the nearly seven-hour long silent serial "Les Vampires", and he plans to remake it as a silent film, to boot.
Anyhow, there are some good pokes at the modern French film industry; quibbles over the uncomfortable coexistence between commercial, popular movies (which would include "Les Vampires") and the artsy, government-funded ones (which would probably include "Irma Vep"); and French filmmaker stereotypes are exploited.The comicality is hit or miss, but that's not what I consider the film's major problem.
Maggie Cheung, playing herself, was just fantastic - serene and professional but increasingly absorbed in the odd role of "Irma Vep" (yes, it's an anagram).
So much so that the role, or at least the black latex catsuit, takes over away from the set, and her scene as Irma in her hotel is one of the film's two highlights.The basic premise - ageing film-maker (good performance by Jen-Pierre Leaud) making his tribute to the innocent days of early French silent cinema - is fascinating, and used as a vehicle for questioning where French cinema is going in the 1990s.
So a film well worth seeing for the star performance by Maggie Cheung but ultimately an experiment that didn't quite come off - but you must stay with it till then end..
Taken on one of its own terms -- is it any good just as a movie -- the answer in my opinion is a loud "yes." Forget all the inside cineaste stuff (it is French, after all) and you may find that Irma Vep is funny, not just clever.
It's good-natured with a friendly performance by Hong Kong kung fu heroine Maggie Cheung playing herself.
He has just the star in mind to play Irma...Maggie Cheung.
Like Irma Vep, Maggie sees things in the hallways and rooms, some worth taking, and then there is the nighttime rain and the high, outside fire escape leading up to the hotel's roof.
Not much there, I know, except for director and writer Olivier Assayas' amusing style and Maggie Cheung's bemusement and lithe creeping.
There is much pleasure in Assayas' take on movie making and movie people, but the pleasure for me comes from noticing how I came to rather enjoy and like all those behind-the-scenes groupies, workers and jerks.
If you like movies and are relaxed about "film," I think you'll enjoy it..
In particular, he paid to have an Asian actress, Maggie Cheung, fly all the way to Paris to star in his remake of the silent film IRMA VEP.
This is a very interesting thing to behold (her viewpoint plus the film-making process) and somehow the movie really held my interest.Interestingly enough, this film is highly reminiscent of the Truffaut film, DAY FOR NIGHT, which also starred Jean-Pierre Léaud--though this time he played an actor not a director.
I liked what you are shown but felt there should have been just a little more to tie it together a little better.By the way, don't tell my wife I wrote this, but Maggie Cheung was really, really hot in this film..
Cheung plays herself here, a Chinese actress recruited by a has been director, who seems completely confused as to what he wants from his cast and film, except that Maggie has to play Irma.
French satire on the making of a film.
Story is about an aging film director named Rene Vidal (Jean-Pierre Leaud) who has seen better days in terms of his career but he's just started the improbable task of remaking the 1915 Louis Feuillade classic "Les Vampires" starring Hong Kong actress Maggie Cheung (playing herself) and things (naturally) just don't seem to be working.*****SPOILER ALERT***** Cheung doesn't necessarily know what Vidal expects of her in terms of a performance but they do fit her in a black latex costume which she enjoys.
Meanwhile, Vidal has resigned from being director and another veteran filmmaker comes in to try and salvage the movie but he doesn't like the choices in casting and wants Cheung out of the film.This is directed by Olivier Assayas who is extremely talented and has alway's shown a keen eye for sharp dialog and here he succeeds in satirizing the movie making process with a French flair.
Some of the best moments in the film come when characters talk about the differences between countries in the way of what audiences are entertained by in film.