gavin6942 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). Much of the film depicts set-related incidents that echo scenes in Truffaut's "La nuit americaine", to which Irma Vep owes a large thematic debt. However, Assayas has publicly stated that although he considers "La nuit americaine" a great film, it is more about the fantasy of filmmaking than the reality. Assayas credits Rainer Werner Fassbinder's "Beware of a Holy Whore" as a much greater inspiration.I love that Atom Egoyan was involved in some way. I must have missed him on the crew list, unless he dropped out before the final version got started. This film works on many levels, because it features a remake of "The Vampires", which strikes me as a brilliant idea. It then takes that and makes it a film about making such a film, and generally speaking I think those sort of films work well. Then it goes to the third level and has Maggie Cheung play herself (sort of), almost making it sort of a pseudo-documentary...

Terrell-4 What the world needs is a movie about producing a book. You know, the creative angst of the author as he tries to remember when to use "which" and when to use "that," the nasty arguments over choosing a typeface, the dust jacket tantrums about artistic integrity if both boobs are shown or just one, the cattiness of the editors and, perhaps most insightful, whether the proofreading will continue to be the night guard's responsibility during his dinner break or whether the delivery boy from the next door deli should be given a crack at it. Until that movie is made, Irma Vep will have to do. Please note that elements of the plot are discussed but there are absolutely no spoilers here or in the movie. Irma Vep is a movie about making a movie and it's stuffed with angst, pettiness, tantrums, ego and confusion. 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. Most of all, it is so eccentric a movie I seldom could stop smiling. Rene Vidal (Jean-Pierre Leaud), an aging New Wave director now well past his sell-by date, is planning a comeback. He'll re-make a long, long and long ago silent movie called Les Vampires, a movie about a gang of criminals who prowl and stalk. One them, in a skin-tight black body suit and black mask, is named Irma Vep. She will be Vidal's inspiration. He has just the star in mind to play Irma...Maggie Cheung. Maggie, who doesn't speak French, shows up in Paris ready to work. Cast and crew snipe and argue in many mini-dramas. Vidal collapses. Cast and crew snipe and argue some more. Maggie, an outsider and quite taken by the black latex outfit she and the costume designer, Zoe (Nathalie Richard) picked up cheap at a Parisian sex shop, whiles away the time one night by creeping about her hotel wearing the suit. 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. All does not go well for the movie. Eventually Maggie leaves for New York to take a meeting with Ridley Scott. 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. The dish, of course, is amusing. "Directors thrive on hypocrisy," says one. "Yeah," says another, "but sometimes they go overboard." The interview between Maggie and a young, intense film enthusiast is priceless...John Woo versus Jean-Luc Godard. The film enthusiast has strong opinions about both. Maggie doesn't. Maggie Cheung gives a sweet center to this movie, but I liked just as much Nathalie Richard as Zoe, the lean, blonde, tentative, cigarette-smoking, girl-liking costume designer. She's past her prime if you're a teenage boy, but right at her peak if you're an adult of either sex. Film lovers might enjoy one message. "Cinema is not magic. It's a technique and a science. A technique born of science and at the service of a will, the will of the workers to free themselves." Got that? Essayas manages to combine the idea of movies (popular entertainment) and film (a much more deadly serious concept of the movies) in a way that is eccentric and engaging. Film insiders and hopeful film insiders just might love this movie. Yet as funny and eccentric as Eerma Wep is, it's still just a movie by a talented director about making a movie. If you like movies and are relaxed about "film," I think you'll enjoy it.

MicheleFilm 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'. Maggie struggles to overcome a severe language barrier as she's introduced to the crew. 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'. This leads to a culture clash as a Hong Kong star is asked to portray one of the more dominant French female roles of the past. It quickly becomes apparent that René is obsessed with Maggie as they view some of her previous films together. René goes on and on about her beauty and grace in one of her Hong Kong fighter flicks and ignores Maggie when she tries to explain that it wasn't even her in the scenes he's praising. Of course Maggie must be properly outfitted for her role as the new vampiress. This is where she encounters the costume designer Zoé, Nathalie Richard. Like René, Zoé quickly becomes taken in by Maggie and develops a crush on her as well. At the fitting we see Maggie's role of the female present for the males pleasure. Though Maggie makes it clear she is terribly uncomfortable in the latex suit Zoé, René's ambassador, insists that it was exactly what René wanted, which of course all that matters. Maggie is the ultimate victim of the male eye as she is lonely, isolated in a foreign city and therefore forced to fulfill all the wishes of the male director. While throughout most of `Irma Vep' Maggie is objectified by stereotypes of the female as quiet, attractive and most importantly, obedient there is one scene where Maggie is allowed to break free from this role. In the only sequence Maggie is alone we enter the hotel room via fast paced camera movement, accompanied by loud equally quick moving music. Maggie fitted in her costume sneaks around the hotel stealing jewelry from an unsuspecting hotel guest. This scene is a powerful addition to the film as it allows the female to be the dominant party calling the shots independently of the male gaze.After this scene in which we're exposed to an alternate side of Maggie, René suffers a nervous break down and the fate of the film, as well as its leading lady's job is uncertain. It seems ironic how after this scene the course of the film within the film grows doubtful. Assayas has created a brilliant film that exposes the inner workings and troubles of the hidden cinematic apparatus and even allows for the development of a break through leading lady. Unfortunately Olivier Assayas doesn't allow for the complete breaking of stereotypes that females fall victim to and maintains the past tradition of keeping even the heroine subject to male dominancy in the cinematic gaze.

J L This truly is a film for film elites. I really enjoy films about human relationships and films about social injustice. 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. This is not a film for a wide audience, though at best it makes the uninitiated curious. Overall, films made for a select few should be available to the select few only. The rest of us who stumble on it at our local video store sit for a painful 96 minutes waiting for the plot and story to congeal enough for us to understand what the heck it's all about. We come out empty-handed in the end. It is a waste and it isn't. I know what people are bitching about with regards to intellectual French films, but then again, I'm not sure if I really care.