Rating: 
Summary: "Satire" is such an abused term
Review: 20 years from now IRMA VEP's sole raison d'etre will be that it showcased the charm and beauty of Maggie Cheung to the max, which it does admirably well. I can only assume that Cheung was not subject to the kind of befuddling, unprofessional and inefficient conditions of the sets for the movie-within-the-movie, while she was making IRMA VEP. So there is some hope for the French cinema, no? I suppose many American critics would want to watch French filmmakers obtusely navel-gazing on why they cannot make great films any more. (Assuming that they used to make great films, even during the nouvelle vague) Me, I'll take the 12th run of HEROIC TRIO anytime. A work of art? A charming comedy? Mon derriere!Ah and yes, Fox Lorber did the usual slum job with DVD transfer, mucho compression noise, especially in close-ups.
Rating: 
Summary: Maggie Cheung is fantastic
Review: A very sweet, engaging, watchable movie. This is a portrait of what goes on behind the scenes during the making of a lower-budget film. It takes place in Paris. The characters all seem very real. Maggie Cheung herself is simply wonderful.
Rating: 
Summary: Accurately portrays on-going racist attitudes in France
Review: Although this film VISUALLY captures the pace of artisan film-makers in Paris, it unfortunately is yet another installment in exoticizing Asians as a matter of "style." The stunning Maggie Cheung is nothing but eye-candy in this film; yet even with her one-word lines, Cheung manages to carve out her own luminous presence. (Everyone else is like a pale, pasty backdrop). Yet, even that palpable presence is reduced to some *very* ugly racist comments at the end. As someone who has spent considerable time in Paris, this film DOES accurately capture how French people (even so-called "artisans" who PERCEIVE themselves to be so "cultured") continue to non-chalantly openly ogle / behave towards Asians as the "other." What's probably even more depressing is all the American reviewers cited on the videotape cover who hail this film as a "triumph." -- Could they STAMP their own condoning attitudes towards racism any louder?
Rating:
Summary: Great star vehicle for Maggie Cheung
Review: For all the talk about how this film is a cinematic breakthrough (and I certainly agree), I want to add another angle. This film is a great vehicle for the sadly underexposed Maggie Cheung (at least outside of Hong Kong, that is!). Watch as this gifted actress reveals the many levels of the depth of her talent. Ninety-six munutes was too short!
Rating:
Summary: Fun and refreshing--definitely not Hollywood
Review: Funny and pleasant to watch, featuring a crazed art-movie director, characters of the French art movie scene, and an energetic and hardworking (if in some ways clueless) young Chinese actress. Really believable, and with somewhat of a feel of a documentary, though also written to entertain.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing ending to a very cute film
Review: I recently discussed this film with my dad, whom I'd recommended it to very highly. He told me he found it so boring he'd turned it off halfway through. I suppose I can understand the sentiment, although I think Maggie is adorable throughout and, even though he's really decrepit and his English is almost unintelligible, I would watch Jean-Pierre Leaud read the yellow pages for two hours. But I told my father: YOU MUST RENT IT AGAIN AND WATCH THE ENDING. It literally took my breath away and it redefines Leaud's character in a heartbreaking way.
Rating:
Summary: Not as racist as one may think at first...
Review: I think that this film is much more critical about the racism that others may have accused it to be made of, and subtlely so. In terms of "exoticizing" the Asian other, I see this film as providing a thoughtful commentary on the problematic casting of Maggie Cheung in the role of a French female vampire, a role that is supposed to represent the modern French woman. This is all in the context of the French contemplating their cinema, and what may appear as the end of its glory has made them be more thoughtful about its future than we may think at first glance.
Rating:
Summary: Leaping latex lesbian vampyres, Rocky!
Review: I truly fail to understand those who consider this a serious cinematic masterpiece. It pales in comparison, for instance, with other Maggie Cheung vehicles such as "In the Mood for Love" or "Song of the Exile". Indeed, one of the four rating stars is purely for the presence of Maggie as something at least close to her off screen persona (ok, I admit to a bit of a crush here :-). On the other hand, it is not the abysmal drek others rate it. The plot is drolly amusing, along the lines of a mid-level American TV sitcom. And as one who has been in similar situations a few times, the depiction of Maggie's perplexity and detachment when thrust into making a film in Paris while speaking no French rings true. The side-plot of Zoe, the costumier, who develops a crush on Maggie while fitting her with the black latex catsuit in a Paris sex shop, is amusing and well handled. Nathalie Richard is just right (and dang cute) as Zoe, a grown woman regressed to breathless teenage puppy love. Maggie wanders through it all with gracious aplomb as everything and everybody is falling apart around her, intrigued by Zoe's interest though ultimately declining. For those who haven't read the previous hundred reviews, a brief summary: Maggie Cheung, playing herself, arrives in Paris on a movie set in chaos. The director has chosen her to play the part of a cat burglar (Irma Vep) in a remake of a classic silent film, on the basis of obsessive viewing of Cheung's Hong Kong action films (I think it was Heroic Trio he was watching). [Real life director Arrayas was Cheung's boyfriend, later husband. Art imitating life, or vice versa?] Maggie is the calm center of a swirl of studio politics, backbiting and romantic advances (male and female). She goes to a late night party, and one night dreams (?) that she gets tricked up in her cat suit and burgles another room in her hotel. The director, dysfuntional at best, eventuallly has a breakdown. A new director decides he needs a French actress to play a classic French role, and Maggie accepts calmly(probably glad to get out of this mess). The last we hear is that she has cashed in her return ticket for a flight to New York to meet an American director.
Rating:
Summary: Leaping latex lesbian vampyres, Rocky!
Review: I truly fail to understand those who consider this a serious cinematic masterpiece. It pales in comparison, for instance, with other Maggie Cheung vehicles such as "In the Mood for Love" or "Song of the Exile". Indeed, one of the four rating stars is purely for the presence of Maggie as something at least close to her off screen persona (ok, I admit to a bit of a crush here :-). On the other hand, it is not the abysmal drek others rate it. The plot is drolly amusing, along the lines of a mid-level American TV sitcom. And as one who has been in similar situations a few times, the depiction of Maggie's perplexity and detachment when thrust into making a film in Paris while speaking no French rings true. The side-plot of Zoe, the costumier, who develops a crush on Maggie while fitting her with the black latex catsuit in a Paris sex shop, is amusing and well handled. Nathalie Richard is just right (and dang cute) as Zoe, a grown woman regressed to breathless teenage puppy love. Maggie wanders through it all with gracious aplomb as everything and everybody is falling apart around her, intrigued by Zoe's interest though ultimately declining. For those who haven't read the previous hundred reviews, a brief summary: Maggie Cheung, playing herself, arrives in Paris on a movie set in chaos. The director has chosen her to play the part of a cat burglar (Irma Vep) in a remake of a classic silent film, on the basis of obsessive viewing of Cheung's Hong Kong action films (I think it was Heroic Trio he was watching). [Real life director Arrayas was Cheung's boyfriend, later husband. Art imitating life, or vice versa?] Maggie is the calm center of a swirl of studio politics, backbiting and romantic advances (male and female). She goes to a late night party, and one night dreams (?) that she gets tricked up in her cat suit and burgles another room in her hotel. The director, dysfuntional at best, eventuallly has a breakdown. A new director decides he needs a French actress to play a classic French role, and Maggie accepts calmly(probably glad to get out of this mess). The last we hear is that she has cashed in her return ticket for a flight to New York to meet an American director.
Rating:
Summary: Not exactly a waste of time, but not great either.
Review: I try to see every french film that gets released in the states, so I was really ready to like Irma Vep. Unfortunately, I have to agree with many reviewers here that the movie just goes nowhere. There are some great moments here and there, but they just never seem to congeal into anything. It's only 96 minutes long, but seemed to last forever. Too bad!
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