:
Maggie Cheung,
Maggie Cheung,
Jean-Pierre Léaud,
more...
:
Olivier Assayas,
Olivier Assayas
see all cast/crew...
: Not Rated
: Zeitgeist Films
: Comedies, Cult, Drama, Foreign, Parodies, France
: 96 min.
: English, French
: English
see additional details...
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Written and directed by Olivier Assayas, Irma Vep tells the story of has-been French filmmaker René Vidal (Jean-Pierre Léaud). In an attempt to reinvigorate his career, Vidal decides to remake Les Vampires, the classic silent serial featuring the adventures of jewel thief Irma Vep. Playing herself, actress Maggie Cheung is cast as the lead, joining Vidal on a chaotic set where he gets little respect from the rest of the cast and crew. Speaking no French, Cheung finds herself fending off the advances of lesbian costumer Zoé (Nathalie Richard), sticking up for Vidal, and becoming so immersed in her role that she burgles the guests of her hotel while in costume. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
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| Don't watch unless you've seen ALL the others
by CSterritt
July 23, 2006 - 5:27 PM PDT
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2 out of 3 members found this review helpful
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Read dpowers' review. Now, ask yourself a simple question: Have I seen all the movies mentioned in the review? If the answer is no, don't watch this movie AT ALL. It's just opaque, confusing, and ultimately pointless unless you have this other framework to understand it.
Really, it's that bad, for the uninitiated. And I've seen quite a few french films. |
| how can you say?
by dpowers
January 4, 2004 - 9:13 PM PST
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7 out of 14 members found this review helpful
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i'm not sure how to review this... but... irma vep is drenched in french movies and in maggie cheung... so let's screen a few of them during the review.
opening film: les vampires
1996? do you remember that far back? the last minute you were aware that computers were office equipment, and not the future of universal everything? and maybe irma vep was the last chance the rich world had to make an analog recording celebrating the history and accomplishments of analog motion recordings, before the numbers took over.
2nd film: the heroic trio
or, it's not like that, it's the process of putting all those old images into little boxes, spool of tape inside one box goes inside another box to play back the images on a larger box. and the journalist with the video camera declares that analog is dead - not predicting digital, predicting an end to analogy - action is the future. end of discussion, time to GO.
3rd film: day for night
or, in the middle of a passionate recreation of a truffaut movie about making movies, jean-pierre léaud, who was playing truffaut in the movies almost from the time he could talk, succumbs to a modern tranquilizer halfway through describing a new idea, and then disappears.
intermission
4th film: gang of four
or, maybe louis feuillade's group posed a question for french filmmakers that 80 years later, they were still trying to answer. maybe it's something like: isn't this fun?
closing film: centre stage
or, maggie cheung is having another dream about the movies, just like the one she had when she was living in hong kong, only, more agitated. the walls are caving in, aren't they?
it might help if you've seen the movies i listed above, or don't, the first time i saw it i hadn't and i liked it, but i didn't get it. (i think you can live without gang of four, but irma vep's writer and director olivier assayas might disagree.)
i'd see them first though... it will soften some of the speechifying, and give more meaning to the pictures. |
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GreenCine Member Rating
(Average 6.49)
217 Votes
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