GATA’s Weekly Movie Bulletin: Irma Vep [Olivier Assayas 1996] - The REAL Lost in Translation A day after the sublime and unforgettable Maggie Cheung’s birthday GATA presents to you, “Irma Vep”. A film within a film, Irma Vep follows the story of director Rene Vidal as he virtually loses his mind in an attempt to revamp a french silent-cinema classic, “Les Vampires,” which respectively, is about a group of violent criminals, one of whom is a mesmerizing leather-clad villain named Irma Vep—an anagram for vampire. Coming in to play this iconic villain as a version of her real self, is Maggie Cheung, a Hong Kong movie star. However, this proves to create tension as supporting characters question how a foreign actress can live up to the standard set by the original iconoclast french actress, Musidora. especially when Cheung cannot even speak French. As things being to spiral, and the lines between fictional character and real life are blurred it’s revealed that Vidal chose to cast Cheung, not specifically for the film, but just for the chance to experience her. (which turns out not to be too far off from the real-life director's wishes either as Olivier Assayas and Cheung, married after the film.) Irma Vep can be classified as a French alternative to “Lost in translation.” Replacing romance with cinema, the film has become a quintessential 90s masterpiece that contains everything you need: The beautiful Cheung, Latex suits, fun pop-culture references, and introspection; as it meditates on the past, present and future of France's place in the film industry and criticizes French cinema's inability to embrace the inevitability of change and modernism. This year, director Olivier Assayas revisits Irma Vep in the form of a HBO series, with an all-new cast. The series goes deeper in its portrayal of the tumultuousness that is producing Irma Vep, as well as reflects on the unanswered questions from the original, while once again mirroring Assayas’ relationship with Maggie Cheung.