In 1996, French filmmaker Olivier Assayas rose to prominence with Irma Vep. The “UFO”, both a tribute to the cinematographic milieu and a critique of it, concerned the catastrophic shooting of a new version of the silent film The vampires by Louis Feuillade, led by an unstable director (Jean-Pierre Léaud) and starring a fictionalized version of Chinese star Maggie Cheung in the role of the fearsome vampire of the title.
Nearly 25 years later, Assayas takes up the same framework by exploiting it on eight episodes that he recognized, in interview with Paris Match, having been conceived as a very long film. This contemporary reinterpretation with multiple mis en abyme – the nature of which we will leave you the pleasure of discovering – is based this time on a fictional central character: Mia, an American actress (Alicia Vikander, also a producer, and in great shape) who wants to get rid of his image as a “superficial” star and whose tumultuous love life ignites social networks and makes the headlines of gossip magazines. Vincent Macaigne shines in the role of the alter ego of the filmmaker, formerly embodied by Léaud, just like the whole of the mainly French cast.
You have to be a bit of a cinephile to appreciate at first sight this referential work, oscillating between frank comedy and “psychologizing” drama, but above all a visually very rich stylistic exercise on the re-reading of significant works. But once you’ve gone through the first two episodes, which set the table, it’s hard not to be conquered by the intrigues and the sweet nostalgia that emanates from the whole.
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