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Irma Vep (1996)

tomatometer

91

Average Rating: 7.5/10
Critic Reviews: 11
Fresh: 10 | Rotten: 1

No consensus yet.

audience

67

liked it
Average Rating: 3.5/5
User Ratings: 2,698

My Rating

Movie Info

Written and directed by Olivier Assayas, Irma Vep tells the story of has-been French filmmaker René Vidal (Jean-Pierre Léaud). In an attempt to reinvigorate his career, Vidal decides to remake Les Vampires, the classic silent serial featuring the adventures of jewel thief Irma Vep. Playing herself, actress Maggie Cheung is cast as the lead, joining Vidal on a chaotic set where he gets little respect from the rest of the cast and crew. Speaking no French, Cheung finds herself fending off the

Mar 31, 1998

Cast

All Critics (35) | Top Critics (11) | Fresh (34) | Rotten (3) | DVD (6)

Irma Vep's director, Olivier Assayas, evinces a love of the process that's nearly as palpable as Truffaut's.

March 3, 2008 Full Review Source: Slate | Comment
Slate
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Slender but appealing.

March 3, 2008 Full Review Source: Variety | Comment
Variety
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Minor but witty.

May 20, 2003 Full Review Source: New York Times | Comment
New York Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

As effortless as a shrug and boasts a film buff's dream cast.

February 14, 2001 Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times | Comment
Los Angeles Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

A film of such spontaneity, freshness and breezy chaos that you feel as if it were assembled from happy accidents and inspired, seat-of- the-pants improvisation.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle | Comment
San Francisco Chronicle
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Scripted in ten days and shot in less than a month, the film unravels like a delirious piece of automatic writing, though in this case the sinister implications apply to a very different world -- our own.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | Comment
Chicago Reader
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Light, playful, and self-reflexive, Assayas' film is a mi or work but it's enjoyable and boasts a graceful performance from Maggie Cheung.

August 1, 2011 Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com | Comment

Alternately dreamy and scratchy, Assayas's meta-satire still beguiles.

January 7, 2009 Full Review Source: Slant Magazine | Comment
Slant Magazine

The post-modern compulsions on display here may bring movies together, but they also keep people apart.

January 7, 2009 Full Review Source: Slant Magazine | Comment
Slant Magazine

A wonderful tribute to filmmaking that could only be made in France, it has delightful performances and a low-budget style -- like the film it parodies -- which work beautifully.

March 3, 2008 Full Review Source: Film4 | Comment

A delightfully nonchalant movie, complete with some nice satirical barbs aimed at contemporary French film culture, and fine performances throughout.

June 24, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out | Comment

Amusing satire on French cinema and the insanity that is filmmaking.

October 14, 2005 Full Review Source: TheMovieReport.com | Comment
TheMovieReport.com

We just love to make movies about movies to deconstruct them, to see what's behind them.

March 29, 2004 Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid | Comment
Combustible Celluloid

Cheung, slinking around the corridors of her hotel in her sheath of shiny black latex to the dissonant chords of Sonic Youth, is an instant icon of everything cool.

July 30, 2003 Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | Comment
TV Guide's Movie Guide

Like many French products, it's quirky but not all it's cracked up to be.

May 13, 2003 Comment
Oz
Hollywood Bitchslap

One of the few movies about making movies that captures the kinetic madness of the process. Maggie Cheung, playing herself, floats like a bemused Buddha through the maelstrom, offering a welcome sense of grace and normalcy.

April 30, 2003 Comment
Killer Movie Reviews

Love of film is the magical point of the film.

April 11, 2003 Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews | Comment
Ozus' World Movie Reviews
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Irma Vep

Burned out new wave director, played by one-time Truffaut alter ego Jean-Pierre Léaud, decides to remake Louis Feuillade's french melodrama, Les Vampires, with the Hong Kong starlet Maggie Cheung as the black-latex-clad leader of a gang of jewel thieves.Amusing behind-the-scenes look at the French film industry

May 31, 2008
DrBenway
El Hombre Invisible

Super Reviewer

A movie about a failed movie that ends up being a failed movie...gee...what paradox. Save yourself an hour and thirty minutes and just skip to the 55 min mark which is the only worth while scene in the film; the lovely Maggie Cheung in a rainy, Blade Runner-esque rooftop scene. Other than her drop-dead gorgeousness and

July 1, 2010
whosinthenews
Brett Warren

Super Reviewer

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