Search
What's Hot
Day-by-Day Fall Schedule
Idol Winner Speaks!
Jim Parsons Comes Out
Game of Thrones Star's Sex Stare

Irma Vep

1996, Movie, NR, 96 mins

Irma Vep: Review

IRMA VEP
starstarstarstar
The comparison is inevitable: French director Olivier Assayas's wonderful, low-budget film about the making of a low-budget film is bound to be compared to Francois Truffaut's classic DAY FOR NIGHT, and Assayas's auspicious casting of nouvelle vague staple Jean-Pierre Leaud only encourages the comparison. But that's really where the similarities end. Assayas is less concerned with the exigencies of filmmaking than with basic human behavior: how a group of apparently similar people act when put in an extremely stressful situation. Leaud stars as Rene Vidal, a once highly regarded filmmaker trying to save his career with a feature-length remake of Louis Feuillade's silent cult serial LES VAMPIRES. Rene has a second, ulterior motive: More than anything he wants to work with the dazzling Hong Kong superstar Maggie Cheung (appearing as herself), whom he imagines in the central role of Irma Vep, prowling the Paris underworld dressed in a skin-tight latex cat suit and mask. But no one else on his crew seems to share his vision or his confidence, and the production and its director soon start to fall apart. Shot in Super 16mm, Assayas's film has an off-the-cuff, almost improvisatory feel, but the touch of an exacting, vital filmmaker is obvious every step of the way. And Cheung, slinking around the corridors of her hotel in her sheath of shiny black latex to the dissonant chords of Sonic Youth, is an instant icon of everything cool. leave a comment --Ken Fox
Are You Watching?
Irma Vep
Loading ...
Advertisement

Our Partners

Advertisement

Related Websites

You might be also interested in the following websites:

Most Popular TV Shows

  1. American Idol
  2. NCIS
  3. Big Bang Theory
  4. Voice
  5. Person of Interest
more popular tv shows

Most Popular Celebrities

  1. Jessica Simpson
  2. Khloe Kardashian
  3. Kate Middleton
  4. Maria Menounos
  5. Kim Kardashian
more popular celebrities

Most Popular Movies

  1. Avengers
  2. Battleship
  3. The Dictator
  4. Dark Shadows
  5. What To Expect When You're Expecting
more popular movies

Top Videos

  1. Revenge
  2. The Big Bang Theory
  3. Modern Family
  4. Young and the Restless
  5. Days of our Lives
more top videos