Review of Irma Vep (1996) by Matt L — 07 Jun 2008

Hard to put it exactly in to words. Irma Vep is one of those movies about making movies, and in its most memorable sequence, blurs the line between fiction and reality as Cheung dons her film costume and goes prancing about the place, acting the very jewel thief she's supposed to be portraying.

The film is a rambling odyssey with no particular destination in mind. The premise is this: Maggie Cheung, playing herself, gets cast as the female lead in a remake of a historic French film serial from 1915. The production almost immediately proceeds to fall apart, and Cheung, a Chinese actress who speaks English but no French, is isolated and pulled in a dozen different directions by other people's expectations and perceptions of her. Great stuff.