‘Irma Vep’ series review: Olivier Assayas breathes new life into his 1996 classic

Assayas infuses new life into his 1996 film, ruminating on the eccentricities that ensue while making a show

August 18, 2022 03:32 pm | Updated 03:32 pm IST

A still from the series

A still from the series | Photo Credit: Disney+ Hotstar

The ghost of Irma Vep continues to haunt filmmaker Olivier Assayas even after more than a century’s worth of distance between them. Though his latest series is a remake of his 1996 film of the same name, this version feels more like a leisurely stroll across the inner workings of French cinemathan its 1996 counterpart.

Portraying an American actor, Alicia Vikander as Mira Harberg is the fish out of water in France where she has been roped in to play the part of Irma Vep, in René Vidal’s (Vincent Macaigne) modern rendition of the 1915 French series, ‘Les Vampires’. But, all of this has been done before.

Assayas’ original film followed a similar plot. Maggie Cheung, playing herself, is dropped amongst a tightly-budgeted French film crew that is also trying to adapt ‘Les Vampires’. A fast-paced headrush into the cluelessness of Maggie constantly hitting against the intensity of the French crew made for a dizzying but delightful watch. It was self-indulgent enough for cinephiles to enjoy, but also poked deserved fun at the peculiarities of French filmmaking therefore not alienating its broader audience.

Irma Vep
Director: Olivier Assayas
Cast: Alicia Vikander, Vincent Macaigne, Adria Arjona, Jeanne Balibar, Lars Eidinger, and others.
Episodes: 8
Storyline: Against the backdrop of remaking a silent-era French film, Mira Harberg, an American film star finds her personal emotions blurring with those of the main character she is playing.

In 2022, Assayas has expanded this universe. With new actors essaying the old characters, we get fully fleshed-out storylines for the same festering anxieties from 1996. Mira is shown as an actor who has taken the role as a break from her usual big-budget mass films, which catapulted her into a life of stardom but didn’t satisfy her. Meanwhile, René, the director she is working with is dealing with his own existential spiral by plunging himself into this project. René can also be taken as a fictionalised version of Assayas, as it is revealed that he also made a film on the subject in the 90s.

Despite the comparisons to its predecessor, the modern-day Irma Vep does stand on its own. The weight of all this layered meta is carried and communicated across eight long episodes where we are slowly introduced to the madness of filmmaking. A large portion of the series explores the process of filmmaking, and the series storyline attaches itself to the process of filming, the series doesn’t hold back on infusing the same with hilarity. Much of this is derived from critiquing the present-day media consumption, and the tussle between creating art and creating content. At one point, when René is asked about the series he is making, he immediately rebukes saying, it is not a series, but “a film…admittedly a bit long, divided into eight parts”.

Similarly, it does not restrict itself to just one style of storytelling. A pivotal part of the plot involves Mira experiencing emotional bleed when her personal emotions overlap with those of the fictional Irma Vep. The effect is heightened as Maggie’s footage from 1996 is transposed upon Mira.

In the original 1915 series, Irma Vep was touted to be the first female villain, a departure from the standard ‘damsel in distress’ characters of the time as she colluded with the criminal gang called The Vampires. Mira, as Irma Vep, continues to don the iconic catsuit long after filming stops, and in a trance-like state moves around her hotel, spying and stealing. This sequence is a reference to the original 1996 flick but is elevated to include a certain fantastical element. Though not addressed explicitly, Mira when wearing the catsuit is shown to easily go through walls and roofs, even breaking into René’s house at one point. Vikander somehow manages to not make it look as ridiculous as it sounds. Vikander eases into the initially unsure Mira Harberg and over the course, also pulls off embodying Irma Vep.

While pacing is Irma Vep’s greatest ally in dealing with the self-referential elements, it also becomes the show’s downfall, when used inconsistently. The pilot especially develops slowly, while the next few episodes hurry through making for a jarring watch. Cinema is a reflective embodiment of the locale it inhabits, and so it grows and undergoes change simultaneously. With Irma Vep, Assayas has attempted to reach out twice to a nascent version of French cinema. In both these renditions, the director and the lead actor are left a shell of themselves, losing most to the influence of the character of Irma Vep.

To that extent, Irma Vep seems to be a mould for Assayas, one that he revisits every couple of decades and one that gives form to the constant metamorphosis of the visual medium of storytelling.

Irma Vep is currently streaming on Disney+ Hotstar

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