Directed by:
Olivier AssayasScreenplay:
Olivier AssayasCinematography:
Eric GautierComposer:
Philippe RichardCast:
Maggie Cheung, Jean-Pierre Léaud, Nathalie Richard, Antoine Basler, Nathalie Boutefeu, Alex Descas, Arsinée Khanjian, Bulle Ogier, Lou Castel (more)VOD (2)
Plots(1)
Olivier Assayas’s live-wire international breakthrough stars a magnetic Maggie Cheung as a version of herself: a Hong Kong action-movie star who arrives in Paris to play the latex-clad lead in a remake of Louis Feuillade’s classic silent crime serial Les vampires. What she finds is a behind-the-scenes tangle of barely controlled chaos as egos clash, romantic attractions simmer, and an obsessive director (a cannily cast Jean-Pierre Léaud) drives himself to the brink to realize his vision. Blending blasts of silent cinema, martial-arts flicks, and the music of Sonic Youth and Luna into a hallucinatory swirl of postmodern cool, Assayas composes in Irma Vep a witty critique of the nineties French film industry and the perennial tension between art and commercial entertainment. (Criterion)
(more)Cast
Maggie Cheung
China
Best movies:
Comrades: Almost a Love Story (1996)
Hero (2002)
Police Story (1985)
Jean-Pierre Léaud
France
Best movies:
The 400 Blows (1959)
Day for Night (1973)
The Bohemian Life (1992)
Nathalie Richard
France
Best movies:
Up, Down, Fragile (1995)
After Love (2020)
The Wild Boys (2017)
Antoine Basler
Best movies:
A Prophet (2009)
Rendezvous in Paris (1995)
Irma Vep (1996)
Nathalie Boutefeu
France
Best movies:
A Secret (2007)
Irma Vep (1996)
Kings & Queen (2004)
Alex Descas
France
Best movies:
The House (1997)
Coffee and Cigarettes (2003)
The Intruder (2004)
Arsinée Khanjian
Lebanon
Best movies:
Next of Kin (1984)
The Sweet Hereafter (1997)
Felicia's Journey (1999)
Bulle Ogier
France
Best movies:
Don’t Forget You’re Going to Die (1995)
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972)
Navire Night (1979)
Lou Castel
Colombia
Best movies:
Fist in His Pocket (1965)
The Leopard (1963)
What Time Is It? (1989)
Jacques Fieschi
Algeria
Best movies:
To Our Loves (1983)
Irma Vep (1996)
Estelle Larrivaz
Best movies:
La Séparation (1994)
Irma Vep (1996)
Restons groupés (1998)
Smaïl Mekki
France
Best movies:
The Baader Meinhof Complex (2008)
Unpredictable Nature of the River (1996)
Irma Vep (1996)
Philippe Landoulsi
Best movies:
The French Revolution (1989) (TV movie)
Cover Up (1983)
André Téchiné's Rendez-Vous (1985)
Dominique Faysse
Best movies:
Irma Vep (1996)
Cold Water (1994)
Move Along, There Is Nothing to See (1983)
François-Renaud Labarthe
Best movies:
Irma Vep (1996)
Stranger by the Lake (2013)
Boarding Gate (2007)
Bernard Nissile
Switzerland
Best movies:
Queen Margot (1994)
The Adversary (2002)
L'Homme que j'aime (1997) (TV movie)
Nicolas Giraudi
Best movies:
Irma Vep (1996)
Fear City: A Family-Style Comedy (1994)
Scene of the Crime (1986)