Irma Vep

1996 Directed by Olivier Assayas

A Chinese movie actress, in France to star in a remake of "Les Vampires", finds petty intrigues and clashing egos on the set.

Maggie Cheung Jean-Pierre Léaud Nathalie Richard Antoine Basler Nathalie Boutefeu Alex Descas Dominique Faysse Arsinée Khanjian Bernard Nissile Olivier Torres Bulle Ogier Lou Castel Jacques Fieschi Estelle Larrivaz Balthazar Clémenti Lara Cowez Dominique Cuny Jessica Doyle Sandra Faure Catherine Ferny Maryel Ferraud Filip Forgeau Nicolas Giraudi Valerie Guy Laurent Jacquet Philippe Landoulsi Smaïl Mekki Maurice Najman Yann Richard Show All…

99 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by Mike D'Angelo ★★★★★ 4

92/100
Celebrating 20 years of being powerless to articulate my intense love for this glorious whatsit. As I wrote back in '97, it "seems in some bizarre way to entirely transcend logic and reason, so that whatever limited critical faculties I possess are completely disengaged, and I'm reduced to pointing at the screen with a wild-eyed, gleeful expression." What I'm mostly responding to, I think, is Assayas' passion both for Cheung and for cinema itself—more specifically, to the way that those two passions intersect and collide. He's made a movie that's fundamentally an open letter to himself asking why he feels driven to make this movie, and he never does come up with a coherent answer. In less assured hands,…
Review by davidehrlich ★★★★★ 10

When the news broke that Olivier Assayas was collaborating with A24 on a TV version of “Irma Vep,” the only truly surprising thing about it was that the project had been conceived before the pandemic. Like Zoom orgies, government-sanctioned bleach injections, and the popular wisdom that Andrew Cuomo is somehow good at his job, the prospect of Assayas remaking his 1996 masterpiece is one of those things that would have seemed unfathomable just a few short months ago. Even for a restlessly inventive filmmaker whose previous foray into television produced the most exciting crime epic of the last 10 years, the pitch reeked of desperation, a fetishistic desire for “normalcy,” and the need to keep working at any cost.
Until…
Review by Brendan Michaels 5

"I'd rather have people feel a film before understanding it."
-Robert Bresson
Review by iana ★★★½ 3

god is real and her name is maggie cheung
Review by katie ★★★★ 8

olivier assayas sure does love his lesbians.. and not making sense...
Review by Sally Jane Black 1

I get why so many people are obsessed with Maggie Cheung now.
This is a dream-like film wherein Cheung plays herself in a collapsing film production, caught as an outsider in a strange, detached world. The film is at once a critique of cinema and filmmaking and a strange sort of fantasy.
Review by BRAT ★★★★

im always a hoe for movies about making movies!!
Review by Deckk ★★★ 4

100-word review: Hong Kong actress Maggie Cheung becomes involved in various dramas surrounding the film-production of a Les Vampires remake in which she stars as the leading Irma Vep. Directors Assayas' picture is an exciting meta approach to gauging the state of French cinema; its film-within-a-film framework poses direct questions about the current relevancy of the national film industry, as well as the heritage of its 'intellectual' (new wave) past. What struck me the most, however, was the gliding camerawork that literally follows characters in a way that makes it feel as if you're really there with them.
Part of the June 2021 The Man Who Viewed Too Much challenge; 4th out of 10 films.
Review by nickusen

I am looking at Maggie Cheung respectfully 😳
Review by Logan Kenny ★★★★★

One of the best endings in cinematic history. Would go in depth but my mind is fucking fried
Review by Emily Housel ★★★★½

she likes girls, she likes boys, she likes latex.
Maggie Cheung is outrageously hot in that latex suit god damn. and the last few minutes of this film is perfection!
Review by Alex Kittle ★★★½ 4

omg I never realized that "IRMA VEP" was an anagram for "VAMPIRE" ??????? HOW do I have a master's degree!??!?!?!

Recent reviews

Review by adam ★★★★

Somewhere there's an intersection point between art/intellectualism and pure entertainment. This film analyzes that point while also critiquing the french film industry and the changing of the medium in general. the french new wave is long in the rearview.
maggie chueng is the loveliest woman to ever live.
Review by Christina ★★★★

it’s a crime that the french didn’t drop to their knees, worshipping maggie cheung! i totally would’ve!
cheung delivers a beautifully nuanced performance as she plays herself in a film within a film. her character is undeterred by external influences, staying true to herself and the director’s (played by jean-pierre leaud) vision. she’s a foreigner on a job, isolated in paris. the on screen cast and crew are crazy disorganized with personalities pulling her in all sorts of directions. everything seems to move so fast around cheung however her allure is never hidden and shines even brighter in those quiet, slower moments.
the film can be looked as like a dialogue about the current (made in the 90’s) state of…
Review by Josiah Wright ★★★★★

We need to stop letting people as cool as Maggie Cheung smoke cigarettes
Review by BassOnAHill

Birth Year Challenge 16/24
Irma Vep was released in 97 in Australia so I'm counting it, a film I've been curious about for a while.
Passed out about 45ish minutes in then slammed awake when sonic youth started blasting. And look, I can't hate a movie where Maggie Cheung has an emotional meltdown to sonic youth's Tunic, I just can't, it's a mathematical impossibility. (I went back and watched what I missed at the end).
This was interesting? Liked how it shifted from realistic parts of a film shoot; getting costumes fitted, makeup and costume prep, said costumes screwing up, (the mask off problem was hilarious and the exact sought of thing that screws up and doesn't get addressed till…
Review by Fox ★★★★½

This whole film is essentially the director roasting the state of French cinema. Directors, actors, critics -- no one in French film industry is spared from being exposed as morons and assholes. At the same time, I'd Irma Vep offers a way forward for French cinema -- change with the times, and integrate with film makers from around the world. I imagine this could also be taken as being a larger comment on French society too.
Review by Sean Hillary ★★★★½

52 Years in 52 Weeks
1996

Love me some Assayas.
Review by Matthiej ★★★★★

Un régal de mise en scène et d'écriture
Review by Yugazax ★★★★

1 character, 45 situations: #IrmaSituations
I waited for an hour and 39 minutes to see a white limousine arrive with Mr. Oscar.
I quite enjoyed the realism of the quasi hidden camera dialogues in this "Irma Vep" film project.
Not Jean-Pierre Léaud's best film, but still a hell of an interpretation.
Nice this "hybrid" film !
Review by ujj ★★★★½

Même si j'ai pas toutes les clés pour comprendre l'arrière-film, Irma Vep est superbement joué, filmé et mis en scène. Tout est à la fois si naturel et si beau, si profondément drôle et triste, c'est un voyage à tous les étages que je conseille à tout le monde.
Review by AbstractG ★★★★½

Grainville
Super français, super réaliste et j'adore
Le raciste déprimé il la ferme, merci.
Review by Monsieur_ ★★★★★

Masterpiece
Review by Michael Clawson ★★★★★ 3

Still floored by the sheer vibrance of it, the sense of barely controlled chaos, the overflow of people coming in and out of the frame with all of their individual motives, opinions, perspectives and desires. Assayas' enrapturing signature is evident from the very first shot: we're dropped into the production company's office, and in a matter of seconds, the film comes to life as the camera explores the space in a continuous movement, its fleeting attention to everyone present serving as the first sign of the film's jittery personality. The liveliness of this thing thrills me to no end.