Review of Irma Vep (1996) by Michael O — 07 Nov 2008

I loved this. As a meditation on not just film-making, but the difficulty (or impossibility?) of making ideas concrete and also on the French film industry of the '90s, it could have been really overbearing.

However, Assayas tackles his subject(s) with great humour and panache, and there is a really nuanced enegagement with orientalism in film as well as the nature of film stardom. Cheung is fantastic as herself (the scene where she gets carried away and becomes Irma Vep is incredible and iconic), and Leaud is hilarious.

Its actually a shame that the update of Les Vampires that the characters lose so much sleep over was never made: Maggie Cheung would have made a great Irma Vep!