Rating: 
Summary: Quelque chose de different
Review: The French do self-reflexive cinema better than we do. This tale of a has-been director attempting a comeback with a re-make of a silent French serial (and using a non-French speaking real-life Maggie Cheung in the title role) is the ultimate exercise in cinematic intertextuality. But it's also a lot ofe fun and not--as one of the film's own characters grouses about the state of French cinema--just intellectual navel gazing. Not for everyone, of course, but for lovers of cinematic irony, it's hard to think of a more delightful feelm.
Rating: 
Summary: Thoroughly satisfying, Irma Vep makes the best use of cinema
Review: This film is a film lover's film. It uses documentary style filmmaking to narate it's slice of life relism, alongside the imaginative and transportative storymaking that gives this film many dimensions to explore, this is the most refreshing and modern foreign film you will see this year.
Rating:
Summary: Very Hip, often funny, and a must for fans of Maggie Cheung
Review: This film was a hit in New York. Many friends have recommended it to me as a somewhat irreverent, eccentric, and sometimes very funny movie. And Maggie Cheung once again shows that she is very versitile in any language. A must for fans of Maggie!
Rating: 
Summary: don't be fooled by the cool cover picture...
Review: This has to be one of the most disappointing movies of the 90's. Sounds like a great concept, the fabulous Maggie Cheung in a French art movie, but no, this is just [wrong]. In general, I enjoy art movies and I do like Maggie Cheung. She is an excellent actress and this movie's saving grace but unfortunately she's not enough to make it worthwhile viewing. The plot drags on to no convincing purpose, with weak and unconvincing characters save for Cheung herself. The final result is totally uninvolving and just tedious. There seems to be an attempt to make some kind of deconstructivist, self-referential movie here, but intellectual goals seem to have overridden any intention to make an enjoyable movie. It certainly doesn't even stand up to comparison with the movies of someone like Wong Kar Wai which are both innovative and poetic.
Rating:
Summary: vampire
Review: This is a film within a film setup. If you make it all the way through the film I think you will be pleasantly surprised. This movie is a clever disguise for a modernist tale. Critical in nature, this film takes sly pokes at the "cinema of violence" and the other greatest-common-denominator/sell-a-ticket movies that are so commonplace while serving up the arguments against its own style.Maggie Cheung is beautiful and presents the character of herself in many colors as we watch the interactions of her with the others on the movie set. I would recommend this to anyone with an open mind and a love of cinema. I thought it a charming film.
Rating: 
Summary: a movie buff's film, and truly multicultural
Review: This movie has a casual, tossed-off feel, (it's rather different than Assayas' other pictures, which are hard to see in the U.S.) It's slyly funny about Parisians and their various neuroses and obsessions. Maggie Cheung is charming and, though she doesn't say much, she projects intelligence and good-natured resourcefulness. I disagree with the comments that this is a racist movie; rather it is about how the world is getting smaller and more multicultural. Worth a look for it's picture of contemporary filmmaking.
Rating:
Summary: The movie sucks the life out of you.
Review: Unbearably pretentious rot. *Irma Vep* has nothing going for it, unless you consider the admittedly enjoyable spectacle of Maggie Cheung tromping around in skin-tight black latex. It's shot in the form of a "documentary" about a French re-do of the silent-era film serial *Les Vampires*. First of all, why would anyone want to remake *Les Vampires*? -- second of all, why would anyone want to watch a documentary about the making of it? It's unpalatable any way you look at it. Further, director Olivier Assayas embarrasses us by having Jean-Pierre Leaud ("Antoine Doinel" from Truffaut's *The 400 Blows*) attempt to speak English: the result is a mumbling disaster. It's as if Assayas is purposefully trying to denigrate the entire French cinematic tradition, from the silent classics (Arletty is invoked, of course; no lustre rubs off) to the New Wave. Meanwhile, Maggie Cheung looks mystified and somehwat irritated at the proceedings. The ending, by the way, is one of the worst I've ever seen.
Rating: 
Summary: This was woeful
Review: Very rarely do I finish a film and think it was a waste of my time. Unfortunately Irma Vep was one of those instances. I should have known better when the trailer comprised mostly of the last five minutes of the movie-what does this say about the majority that came before? It says and does what the film itself says and does . . . nothing.
I believe in the film industry business they have such creatures known as The Scriptwriter. These people are paid not only to write intellegent scripts, but also to have good ideas. Had Assayas availed himself of one of these and maybe taken a little more time to shoot the film better, he might of had a three-star picture instead of barely a two-star one.
What we get instead is an exercise in smugness. Even when the film tries to wear its heart on its sleeve, it is smug about being humble. Perhaps the characters reflected a little more than the director intended in their treatment of the character of Cheung: patronizing, not once willing to give her acting ability the benefit of a doubt, self-righteous, and of course smug. Then again, not being one of those enlightened happy people who majored in film in college, maybe I just didn't "get it".
The first star of this rating is for Maggie Cheung (and her cat suit!), the only reason I even bothered to watch this film in the first place. The second star is for the last five minutes of the film; although I didn't understand it, it was at least very original.
If you want French cinema, go see Delicatessen, or City of Lost Children, with these films you will at least know where you stand.
Rating:
Summary: How could I be silly enough to give such a great film 4 strs
Review: Well, are we all sitty comfybold on our bottys? Then I'll begin. Olivier Assayas is such a great director with such an astonishing body of work, that as good as Irma Vep is, it is not one of his best films. It is good enough that you really should buy it, if you have not already. However, beyond that, in my typical whiny, frustration-driven way, I am going to spend the balance of this essay on things you (we) cannot yet buy in the hopes that one of the smaller and more rational DVD companies will rectify this. None of the following are even on video in France, at least based on the Amazon.com.fr website. Une Nouvelle Vie is a brilliant character study. This film reconfirmed to me to the great and subtle talent of Judith Godreche, who has never let me down since. (Of course, I did not see the DiCaprio foolishness she was in because that would have broken the No-DiCaprios Allowed rule.) Ms. Godreche plays a complex and multi-layered character faced with a deepening mystery as she tries to find a father she has never known and is stalled by her half-sister and her father's lawyer who is apparently friendly, but clearly has some agenda of his own. The use of the camera is simply staggering. The camera circles the protagonists, alternating their points of view as the psychological games proceed. This same effect was so very irritating in Branagh's Frankenstein because there it served no purpose. L'Eau Froide is a 60's period piece which introduced me to the work of Virginie Ledoyen. A simply plotted story of disaffected youth, which in less talented hands would have been cliched, is confidently and masterfully turned into something much more. This film also has what I feel to be the most effective (because it is so sparing) use of ambient period music I have ever experienced in a film - turning a great scene into an utterly ecstatic sequence. (The Big Chill indeed!!!!! Hmpf.) Paris S'Eveille was my fortuitous introduction to, not only Ms. Godreche, but Mr. Assayas himself. The Walter Reade at Lincoln Center was running a series of films featuring Jean-Pierre Leaud. Having seen all of the more easily available films in the series, I chose I Hired a Contract Killer because it was directed by Aki Kaurismaki and Assayas' Paris S'Eveille because the music was written by John Cale. In fact, I had already had the bande sonore CD for a couple of years without knowing anything about the film. I'm sure I would have run into the work of Mr. Assayas eventually (probably, ironically, at The New York Film Festival where I saw Irma Vep) but this jump-started a cinematic passion that endures to this day. Everything is relative. If you have not seen and do not own (anything worth seeing once is worth seeing twice - otherwise it is not worth seeing at all) Irma Vep then you owe it to yourself to make up for that loss. When you do, pay particular attention to Nathalie Richard. Even given the presence of Leaud and Maggie Cheung, Ms. Richard is the subtle heart of the film. I wish that more of her films were available here.
Rating:
Summary: How could I be silly enough to give such a great film 4 strs
Review: Well, are we all sitty comfybold on our bottys? Then I'll begin. Olivier Assayas is such a great director with such an astonishing body of work, that as good as Irma Vep is, it is not one of his best films. It is good enough that you really should buy it, if you have not already. However, beyond that, in my typical whiny, frustration-driven way, I am going to spend the balance of this essay on things you (we) cannot yet buy in the hopes that one of the smaller and more rational DVD companies will rectify this. None of the following are even on video in France, at least based on the Amazon.com.fr website. Une Nouvelle Vie is a brilliant character study. This film reconfirmed to me to the great and subtle talent of Judith Godreche, who has never let me down since. (Of course, I did not see the DiCaprio foolishness she was in because that would have broken the No-DiCaprios Allowed rule.) Ms. Godreche plays a complex and multi-layered character faced with a deepening mystery as she tries to find a father she has never known and is stalled by her half-sister and her father's lawyer who is apparently friendly, but clearly has some agenda of his own. The use of the camera is simply staggering. The camera circles the protagonists, alternating their points of view as the psychological games proceed. This same effect was so very irritating in Branagh's Frankenstein because there it served no purpose. L'Eau Froide is a 60's period piece which introduced me to the work of Virginie Ledoyen. A simply plotted story of disaffected youth, which in less talented hands would have been cliched, is confidently and masterfully turned into something much more. This film also has what I feel to be the most effective (because it is so sparing) use of ambient period music I have ever experienced in a film - turning a great scene into an utterly ecstatic sequence. (The Big Chill indeed!!!!! Hmpf.) Paris S'Eveille was my fortuitous introduction to, not only Ms. Godreche, but Mr. Assayas himself. The Walter Reade at Lincoln Center was running a series of films featuring Jean-Pierre Leaud. Having seen all of the more easily available films in the series, I chose I Hired a Contract Killer because it was directed by Aki Kaurismaki and Assayas' Paris S'Eveille because the music was written by John Cale. In fact, I had already had the bande sonore CD for a couple of years without knowing anything about the film. I'm sure I would have run into the work of Mr. Assayas eventually (probably, ironically, at The New York Film Festival where I saw Irma Vep) but this jump-started a cinematic passion that endures to this day. Everything is relative. If you have not seen and do not own (anything worth seeing once is worth seeing twice - otherwise it is not worth seeing at all) Irma Vep then you owe it to yourself to make up for that loss. When you do, pay particular attention to Nathalie Richard. Even given the presence of Leaud and Maggie Cheung, Ms. Richard is the subtle heart of the film. I wish that more of her films were available here.
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