In the somewhat frantic beginning of “Irma Vep”, where the viewer is thrown into the lion’s den of the tour to present a movie, “Doomsday”, we see the protagonist, Mira (Alicia Vikander) in a photo session. The photographer shows a number of weapons that Mira can land with, she chooses two pistols. The blink of an eye is obvious and this is part of the analysis and self-analysis exercise of “Irma Vep”: the character chooses the two pistols because she feels more comfortable with them, referring between the lines to the role of actress Lara . Croft in “Tomb Raider”.
The return of “Irma Vep” as a series to HBO Max is curious. Olivier Assayas decided to go back to the concept that he created in 1996, transform it and break it up into episodes. At the end of the last century, he came up with a somewhat provocative proposal: to create a film within a film that would work as a critique of all the steps that surround French cinema. The film within the film was an attempt to Redo of “Os Vampires” (or “Les Vampires”, to understand the anagram of “Irma Vep”), a French silent film classic, with more than seven hours, divided into ten parts (at one point, Mira boasts of having seen already the original three times).
This “Irma Vep” (which is also available on HBO Max) had Maggie Cheung in the main role, who played herself, an actress outside the French system who served as a critical eye but also as a destabilizing element of the entire production. from the show.movie. Two and a half decades later, Alicia Vikander isn’t her thing, but Assayas can’t resist changing his career and putting “Tomb Raider” right on the table. This “Irma Vep” series is an attempt to lampoon the entertainment industry in 2022. A movie is no longer enough, so the director changes the subject to an eight-episode miniseries. The film within the film also no longer exists, now it is a series within a series, also of eight chapters, but the director, René Vidal (Vincent Macaigne), promptly rejects such a label. But a long film, in several parts, recreating the original: the titles of each episode are copied from the different chapters of “The Vampires.”
[o trailer de “Irma Vep”:]
It’s a very meta thing. But part of the fun of “Irma Vep” is there. It doesn’t matter so much if it’s true or not, but seeing how Olivier Assayas works the original concept – you don’t have to see it, but it’s a good entry – and works it in the context of 2022. Now you can’t be so acid, you have to be more direct and look at an industry as a whole and not just at the “French case”.
Mira is an American actress looking for a career change. Lately, her career consists of action movies. “Doomsday” is the most recent and is having a reception well above expectations. We still don’t know “Irma Vep” and Assayas already criticizes the system: the director of “Doomsday” (Herman, played by Byron Bowers) began with a modest film that attracted attention and quickly moved to the Disney industry, rejecting the past with tremendous arrogance. As a reviewer, we also know that Herman is dating Mira’s old girlfriend, Laurie (Adria Arjona). Mira tries to hide it, but she’s shocked, devastated.
Heartbroken and wanting to turn her career around, this is Mira we meet in Paris, ready to accept a role in a French production that always seems on the brink of breaking. Not only because of implosion, but because the people who surround Mira from her want to forcibly remove her from the project: her agent, for example, is doing everything possible to remove her from “Irma Vep” and rescue her for a “ Surfer Silver”. .
But Mira wants to stay. There is something that appeals to you about this idea of being in a Redo from a French silent film from the 1910s. And, above all, working with a director she respects and who is surprised that he doesn’t even know her, let alone want her for the part. But also because he sees in the character of “Irma Vep”, more specifically in the actress who originally played her character, Jeanne Roques/Musidora, a strong woman, an artist who won in a world of men but who today is not sufficiently recognized. . . Mira wants to change that.
That’s why your Irma Vep doesn’t wear leather. She is a thief, like the original character-“The Vampires” are a group of thieves-, who wears a tight black suit, which goes from head to toe. The fact that she 2022 is less camp / sexual and more sensual, a sensuality that exposes weaknesses and, therefore, is also a manifesto of her strength. After playing tough female characters who cut off the testicles of villains, Mira is clearly looking for another kind of feminism. And, as he does so, as he searches for his character, as he prepares to shoot, the chaos around “Irma Vep” -just like in the original film- unfolds, with a manic and controlling director who doesn’t know how to stop it. managing people, actors looking for more than they can get for their roles, and producers willing to sacrifice artistic visions for the sake of budget.
As in the original, it is the protagonist who dominates the tone of the creation. The performance, as well as Vikander’s willingness to allow some self-analysis – albeit fictitious – create in this “Irma Vep” a tone that is not Redo nor to revisit the work of Olivier Assayas. In other words, “Irma Vep” is much more than the recontextualization of an idea from the past, it is a series that knows how to find its place in the context of a story X within X. The first episode is very focused on the idea of the show and the protagonist’s trajectory–, allows him to slowly delve into the complex plot that Assayas conceived, in a mixture of satire on the vices of current entertainment, reflection on his own creation and testing the limits of the viewer. . With acidity, humor and drama qb
Source: Observadora
