Irma Vep premieres June 6 on HBO and will be available to stream on HBO Max.
Twenty-six years ago, writer/director Olivier Assayas cast the incomparable Hong Kong actress Maggie Cheung (In the Mood for Love) as herself in Irma Vep, a satire about filmmaking and the decline of French cinema. A standout movie about making a movie, it remains a worthy watch to this day. Of course, in the last two decades, Hollywood and the state of celebrity and creative storytelling has shifted quite a lot, especially as steaming television has superseded the film medium as the primary source of most global eyes. As such, Assayas has returned to his own creative library to remix Irma Vep as a sly and initially enigmatic eight-episode limited series starring Alicia Vikander.
In this Irma Vep, Vikander plays Mira, a contemporary and successful American actress in Paris shooting a television series remake of the French silent film classic, Les Vampires. Assayas updates the story with the rigors of modern production in a naturalistic, fly-on-the-wall follow of Mira into the grind of press junkets, worldwide publicity tours, and the awards season hustle. Outside of the actress, there’s also the personal dramas that come with the project’s creative players, like the show’s mercurial, anxiety prone director, Rene (Vincent Macaigne), whose past antics make it impossible to insure him anymore – or, the power moves between two co-stars who broke up badly in the past and are now paired together in this series. A proposed sex scene between the two is used to wage war against one another. And then there’s Mira’s own personal messiness which rears up unexpectedly when her former assistant and lover, Laurie (Adria Arjona), appears in Paris newly engaged to the director of Mira’s last film. What the two once had together is clearly still unresolved and the pair practically spontaneously combust every time they’re in a room together.
Irma Vep is certainly an oddity in that it is an American production but has all the hallmarks of a European one. It doesn’t follow the typical structure and format of U.S. scripted dramas, with a relaxed approach to unspooling its stories. Assayas spends the pilot far more interested in capturing the feel of Mira’s existence and translating that to us as authentically as possible, which isn’t a bad thing. Getting immediately swept up in her heavily scheduled life led by publicists who whisk her from event to interview eschews the typical glitz of the business for the realities of the job. For those interested in what it really feels like to live the life of an actor or be part of a production, Irma Vep is a fascinating and authentic immersion.
However, there’s not a lot of urgency in the plot. "The Severed Head" takes its time introducing us to the key players, establishing existing tensions, who the allies are, and even a portion of the myriad of nameless craftspeople and managers who enable the weird world of big budget storytelling. But Vikander is infinitely watchable as Mira, whether she’s navigating a party with old lovers or donning her costume for the first time and experimenting with slinking around the office to get into character. She’s able to shift gears with incredible precision, making a mundane first meeting with her director interesting, and then effortlessly turns up the heat when Laurie enters her orbit.
How all the subtle pieces will build towards a bigger story doesn’t seem to be much of a priority for Assayas to share with us yet, even by the end of the episode. There isn’t a big cliffhanger or a huge twist to compel us to stay for the next chapter. He’s relying on the small intrigues and squabbles to do that work for him, and it might be a big ask for most. For sure, the stage is set for some impending conflict, but it’s simmering, and probably far too sedate for many viewers used to more propulsive storytelling. But there’s such a frankness to how Assayas captures the world of making stories, that he at the very least earns watching a few more episodes to see where he’s going to take this new iteration of his story.
Continue reading...
Twenty-six years ago, writer/director Olivier Assayas cast the incomparable Hong Kong actress Maggie Cheung (In the Mood for Love) as herself in Irma Vep, a satire about filmmaking and the decline of French cinema. A standout movie about making a movie, it remains a worthy watch to this day. Of course, in the last two decades, Hollywood and the state of celebrity and creative storytelling has shifted quite a lot, especially as steaming television has superseded the film medium as the primary source of most global eyes. As such, Assayas has returned to his own creative library to remix Irma Vep as a sly and initially enigmatic eight-episode limited series starring Alicia Vikander.
In this Irma Vep, Vikander plays Mira, a contemporary and successful American actress in Paris shooting a television series remake of the French silent film classic, Les Vampires. Assayas updates the story with the rigors of modern production in a naturalistic, fly-on-the-wall follow of Mira into the grind of press junkets, worldwide publicity tours, and the awards season hustle. Outside of the actress, there’s also the personal dramas that come with the project’s creative players, like the show’s mercurial, anxiety prone director, Rene (Vincent Macaigne), whose past antics make it impossible to insure him anymore – or, the power moves between two co-stars who broke up badly in the past and are now paired together in this series. A proposed sex scene between the two is used to wage war against one another. And then there’s Mira’s own personal messiness which rears up unexpectedly when her former assistant and lover, Laurie (Adria Arjona), appears in Paris newly engaged to the director of Mira’s last film. What the two once had together is clearly still unresolved and the pair practically spontaneously combust every time they’re in a room together.
Irma Vep is certainly an oddity in that it is an American production but has all the hallmarks of a European one. It doesn’t follow the typical structure and format of U.S. scripted dramas, with a relaxed approach to unspooling its stories. Assayas spends the pilot far more interested in capturing the feel of Mira’s existence and translating that to us as authentically as possible, which isn’t a bad thing. Getting immediately swept up in her heavily scheduled life led by publicists who whisk her from event to interview eschews the typical glitz of the business for the realities of the job. For those interested in what it really feels like to live the life of an actor or be part of a production, Irma Vep is a fascinating and authentic immersion.
However, there’s not a lot of urgency in the plot. "The Severed Head" takes its time introducing us to the key players, establishing existing tensions, who the allies are, and even a portion of the myriad of nameless craftspeople and managers who enable the weird world of big budget storytelling. But Vikander is infinitely watchable as Mira, whether she’s navigating a party with old lovers or donning her costume for the first time and experimenting with slinking around the office to get into character. She’s able to shift gears with incredible precision, making a mundane first meeting with her director interesting, and then effortlessly turns up the heat when Laurie enters her orbit.
How all the subtle pieces will build towards a bigger story doesn’t seem to be much of a priority for Assayas to share with us yet, even by the end of the episode. There isn’t a big cliffhanger or a huge twist to compel us to stay for the next chapter. He’s relying on the small intrigues and squabbles to do that work for him, and it might be a big ask for most. For sure, the stage is set for some impending conflict, but it’s simmering, and probably far too sedate for many viewers used to more propulsive storytelling. But there’s such a frankness to how Assayas captures the world of making stories, that he at the very least earns watching a few more episodes to see where he’s going to take this new iteration of his story.
Continue reading...