Irma Vep - General Discussion

[BetterButter]

 

[BetterButter]

[NeenerNeener]

My god that was boring. I felt like Prince Louis in the 2nd hour of the Platinum Parade.

I'm going to have to hold the rest of this one for the dead zone between Christmas and New Years.

[Darian]

12 hours ago, NeenerNeener said:

My god that was boring. 

I only made it partway through (but it felt like I'd been watching for hours). I usually at least finish a first episode, and I've liked Alicia Vikander in other things. But, yes, so very boring.  

[Maximona]

Wow!  I didn't find it boring at all.  In fact, I thought it was pretty great.  

But then, I'm a big fan of French New Wave movies.

[Mothra]

I'm torn.  I *think* I find this funny as hell.

We'll see.

[BingeyKohan]

I’m liking it … though I don’t think I would ever in a million years watch the show within a show they’re filming. 

[tennisgurl]

I quite enjoy both French New Wave films and weird silent films, so I am enjoying this. Its an interesting spin of the "behind the scenes of making a film" being set in France and without a lot of name dropping well known stars. 

I wonder if the Vampire movie is inspired by Lon Chaney's lost silent film London After Midnight? The big bat wings looked like a sexy version of the promotional pictures of Lon Chaney's outfit from the movie. I would absolutely watch the movie within a movie that they're making, it looks like it could either turn out to be a more artsy version of The Artist or a pretentious train wreck, either way I bet I would be entertained. 

[Mothra]

I have officially given up.  I fell asleep and missed plot points.  Normally I'd rewind and catch up, but it seemed too much trouble--the kiss of death.  Carry on Irma; I'll miss your catsuit.

[Cranberry]

On 6/20/2022 at 3:55 PM, tennisgurl said:

I wonder if the Vampire movie is inspired by Lon Chaney's lost silent film London After Midnight?

It's actually a real thing! Irma Vep's episode titles are also episode titles from the film serial (although it looks like they had to drop a couple because this is only eight episodes while Les Vampires had 10). And to make things even weirder, there actually was an Irma Vep film in 1996, as well, from the same writer-director: "Irma Vep is a 1996 film by Olivier Assayas, starring Hong Kong actress Maggie Cheung (playing a version of herself), about the disasters that result as an unstable French film director (played by Jean-Pierre Léaud) attempts to remake Louis Feuillade's classic silent film serial Les Vampires. Taking place as it does largely through the eyes of a foreigner (Cheung), it is also a meditation on the state of the French film industry." Here's a good article about just how meta this show is!

I've only watched the first episode, but I'm liking it so far -- I'm not finding it boring. I'm always into fictionalized stories of the behind-the-scenes of TV or movie production, especially when they're not afraid to poke fun at themselves.

[tennisgurl]

It seems like we went even more meta in this one, questioning why the director cast an American actress for his remake instead of a Chinese actress like in the original, which is exactly what happened when they cast this remake of the original Irma Vep with Alicia Vikander while the original actress was Hong Kong actress Maggie Cheung.

[Cranberry]

Ugh, I knew Mira would hook up with Eamonn, but taking advantage of his grief was pretty low. He had to know that was a possibility when he came to her, though, so he's not innocent by any means.

Mira looked good in drag, and she knew it. Using Zoe's attraction to her for an ego boost and a quick ride home was also pretty low. If she's going to take the stuff Gottfried says seriously, I expect she'll go after poor Regina next.

It's only a matter of time before René gets himself fired and they bring in a new director, right? Almost certainly Herman, who will bring Laurie with him for maximum drama, right?

I am loving Edmond's neverending complaints about his role. Living with his mom makes his character look lame, nobody will believe his passion for his wife, he should never crack under torture because it makes him look weak, he should be the one to spot the horse... and now Edmond is complaining about not having an assistant even though he has no use for one. He's just such a baby who's obsessed with his character being stereotypically manly, and it's entertaining.

[taanja]

On 6/14/2022 at 1:31 PM, Maximona said:

Wow!  I didn't find it boring at all.  In fact, I thought it was pretty great.  

But then, I'm a big fan of French New Wave movies.

I am loving it! each ep just gets better and better. but then again - I too am a fan of French New wave!

[sskrill]

Well I stuck it out to what I think was the last episode ... but what a disappointment.  Absolutely nothing happened in this last episode except we find out Eamons girlfriend is Kristen Stewart.

Why they did they even bother filming this ... 

[Cranberry]

I really enjoyed the first half of the show, but after that I felt like it got boring and preachy, with a lot of stuff I didn't like (René's whiny therapy sessions, people --including Mira -- excusing a sexual assault-type scene, Jade assuring Mira it's okay for her to take over an Asian role, Mira crossing the line with yet another assistant, the weird "walking through walls" stuff that I would happily have chalked up to magical realism if there had been anything else similar in the show, too many clips from the original Les Vampires, Mira saying she wasn't actually into women). A bunch of characters were essentially dropped without any kind of sendoff. With the finale especially, I was just bored and unsatisfied.

[NeenerNeener]

I finally watched it all the way thru. The Gottfried character stole every scene he was in. Other than that...meh.