Ten years after he made his feature debut with Disorder in 1986, Olivier Assayas decided it was time to turn his attentions to the French film industry for his sixth picture. Written in ten days, and shot in less than a month, Irma Vep provides a mid-nineties amalgam of François Truffaut s Day for Night and Rainer Werner Fassbinder s Beware of a Holy Whore.
French filmmaker René Vidal (Day for Night s Jean-Pierre Léaud) is commissioned by a TV company to direct a remake of Louis Feuillade s classic silent-era serial, Les Vampires. Maggie Cheung (playing a version of herself) is cast in the central role and heads to Paris for filming where she finds herself amid the chaos of artistic differences, petty rivalries and the immense egos which make up a film set.
Irma Vep is Assayas at his lightest and most playful simultaneously a gently satirical dig at the state of French cinema and a love letter to his female star.
SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS
2K restoration from the original negative, supervised and approved by Olivier Assayas
High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray presentation
Original 2.0 Stereo DTS-HD Master Audio
Optional English subtitles
Audio commentary by writer-director Olivier Assayas and critic Jean-Michel Frodon
On the Set of Irma Vep, a 30-minute behind-the-scenes featurette with optional commentary by Assayas and Frodon
Interview with Assayas and critic Charles Tesson
Interview with actors Maggie Cheung and Nathalie Richard
Man Yuk: A Portrait of Maggie Cheung, a 1997 short film by Assayas
Black and white rushes
Theatrical Trailer
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Peter Strain
FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collector s booklet featuring new writing on the film by critic Neil Young
