Irma Vep

Aging French director René Vidal is planning a remake of Louis Feuillade's silent serial Les Vampires and wants the Hong Kong actress Maggie Cheung to play its central figure, Irma Vep. She does not speak French, and the production communicates with her largely in English, while the set is divided by shifting alliances and clashing egos. Vidal fixates on her as the only performer who can embody the role. As filming proceeds, Cheung immerses herself in the part to the point that her behaviour away from the camera becomes strange, and she is seen wandering the rooftops at night.

Olivier Assayas wrote and directed this French comedy-drama, his second feature in a directing career of fifteen films, following Disorder and preceding Demonlover. Georges Benayoun produced it through Dacia Films. Maggie Cheung plays a version of herself, with Jean-Pierre Léaud as René Vidal and Nathalie Richard, Antoine Basler, Nathalie Boutefeu and Alex Descas among the supporting cast; thirty-nine performers are credited in all. The film runs 99 minutes.

On IMDb it holds a rating of 7 out of 10 from around 11,000 votes, while on TMDB its rating is 6.7 out of 10 from 255 votes. A critics' rating of 7.4 out of 10 from 48 reviews places it above the audience scores.