As mentioned above, this movie is about a movie being made and at times it's an example of how NOT to make a film. In particular, the director, played by Jean-Pierre Léaud, is teetering on the edge of a nervous breakdown and his decisions seem a bit strange to say the least. 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. The problem is, Ms. Cheung speaks excellent English (having lived much of her life there) and excellent Chinese--but NO FRENCH!! And the film is generally shown from her point of view--often feeling baffled and at a loss to cope with a new country, a new language and a new way of making films. 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. Although I have loved him in many of his films (in particular, his "Antoine Doinelle" films for Truffaut),he was a bad choice for this film because his command of English isn't extraordinary. In fact, his accent was very thick and he really needed to be captioned--I really struggled to keep up whenever he was speaking. Unfortunately, NEW YORKER VIDEO, does NOT give you any captioning choices! In addition, the DVD has no extras--and this is a shame.
Finally, the ending may satisfy some but I can guarantee many will feel a little flat at the film's conclusion. 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.
93% - Critics
70% - Audience
7.1Plot summary
French filmmaker René Vidal was once a renowned director, but most see his career on a quick downward slide based on his last several films. In Paris, he is just starting to film his latest movie, a remake of Les vampires (1915),and has hired Hong Kong based Chinese actress Maggie Cheung as the title lead, "Irma Vep" (an anagram for "vampire"),despite she knowing no French and she not being an obvious choice to most. Maggie has never worked with Vidal before and knows little about his movies, but many of his primarily French crew are part of his regular stable. As such, Maggie may become isolated among the cast and crew, unless there are those who bring her into their English conversations, they who may have somewhat ulterior motives in doing so. There are also factions within the cast and crew, who, based on their history, have a poisoned sense of what is going on. With Vidal, he is dealing with some personal issues while he tries to regain his film making form. He may transfer his thoughts of Irma Vep to Maggie, who he hired because he too sees her as strong and sexy like the skin-tight latex clad Irma. And Maggie may take her research for the comic bookish character to an extreme.
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
Director
Tech specs
720p.BLU 1080p.BLUMovie Reviews
fascinating look at how a film is made--and SHOULD NOT be made
If They Finish A Movie, It's A Miracle
French director Jean-Pierre Léaud decides to remake Feuillade's silent serial LES VAMPIRES as a modern feature. He decides to cast Maggie Cheung as Irma Vep based on seeing her in one movie in Marrakesh. When the movie opens, Miss Cheung has just arrived at Léaud's office in the last throes of pre-production, whence she is whisked away to a sex shop to buy a gimp suit to be modified for her costume. After that, things become chaotic, with spoiled takes, spoiled tempers and journalists who lecture her on how to make films.
Miss Cheung is wonderful in the role, a sweet-faced, slightly puzzled woman stranded alone in Paris, trying to perform her part in her first international production, while chaos swirls about her.
There is a lovely, impromptu feel about Olivier Assayas' movie. It feels as if he started out trying to do the remake, and as that became impossible, switched to a different film. That seems unlikely. Undoubtedly that was the look and feel he was trying for. The result is an amusing, slightly tentative effort that makes me wish to look at LES VAMPIRES again.
Excellent -- Now Make the Real Movie!
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...