Irma Vep **** (1996, Maggie Cheung, Jean-Pierre Léaud, Nathalie Richard) – Classic Movie Review 2476

Jean-Pierre Léaud stars as a French film director who takes Hong Kong action star Maggie Cheung (playing herself) to be his sexy, rubber-suited super-villainess Irma Vep (an anagram of vampire) in his remake of Louis Feuillade’s classic silent serial Les Vampires.

This 1996 French movie is a mostly stylish and inventive satire on movie-making. Former Cahiers du Cinema (the posh French equivalent of Britain’s Sight and Sound) writer Olivier Assayas’s film is a bit of an in-joke, but it has the whiff of truth, some Gallic charm and a lot of appeal to those who enjoy coming to terms with the process of film-making.

It brings to mind Francois Truffaut’s Day for Night, which starred Léaud, though it lacks that film’s joie de vivre. Instead of Truffaut’s joy in the whole movie process and warmth towards its characters, it has a rather sour, bitter, disappointed flavour as petty intrigues and clashing egos break out on the set.

Still, this likeable, quirky and often amusing. foreign film outing is a must for anyone who admires French cinema.

Olivier Assayas made the admirable Clouds of Sils Maria in 2014.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2476

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