She was the Catwoman of 1915 Paris. She was
the leader of Le Vampires, which had nothing to do with the undead. Instead,
they were a band of Parisian Apaches, who were completely unrelated to Native
Americans. Credited with single-handedly launching thrillers as a cinematic
genre, Louis Feuillade’s character and Musidora, the actress who played her,
remain icons a century later. It takes guts to do her jumpsuit, but some have
tried. The original Gaumont serial and subsequent films it inspired will screen
as part of a mini tribute to Irma Vep and Musidora this week at Anthology Film Archives.
In contrast to the silent film programmed, series
curator Michelle Handelman’s own short film Irma
Vep, the Last Breath feels very installational. Starring transgender
performance artist Zackary Drucker, Handelman literally puts Vep on the couch
for a session of psychoanalysis that really holds a mirror up to the audience
and our fascination with Vep’s fetish trappings. It should find an appreciative
avant-garde audience when it screens this Thursday (10/22) at AFA—and you know
who you are.
Not just anyone can slip into the catsuit and
become Irma Vep, but Hong Kong action superstar Maggie Cheung is an icon in her
own right. Casting her takes liberties with the character’s nationality, but it
still makes sense. At least, that is what the past-his-prime auteur of Olivier
Assayas’s late 1990s meta-riff thinks and it still makes perfect sense today. Fortunately
Assayas was able to get Maggie Cheung to play Maggie Cheung playing Irma Vep in
the 1997 Irma Vep (trailer here), which also streams
on Fandor.
Thanks to cats like Tarantino, the West has
just started embracing the films of John Woo and Johnnie To. Cheung is suddenly
getting offers from around the world, including Rene Vidal’s ill-conceived
comeback project, a remake of Les
Vampires. Since Cheung speaks English, but not French, communication with
be difficult. The under-funded production is in such a constant state of
bedlam, Cheung has largely been palmed off on Zoe, the stressed out lesbian
wardrobe specialist. One look at Cheung in costume and she falls for her hard.
It is hard to blame her. In fact, Cheung herself seems to be falling under the
influence of her character, or at least she gets a little methody slinking
about the corridors and fire escapes of her hotel.
In addition to Les Vampires, Irma Vep openly engages in dialogue with Truffaut’s Day for Night, with Cheung serving as an
analogue for Jacqueline Bisset, while also slyly commenting on her own action
image of the era. Most fittingly, Jean-Pierre Léaud
provides an apostolic link between the films. While he is unexpectedly
restrained as the arrogant but anti-social Vidal, this still might be the
funniest performance of his storied career.
However, Maggie Cheung is the uncontested star
of the film, truly making the legendary role and outfit her own. Even in a
secondary language, her presence shines through. She is smart and forceful, but
also somewhat shy and hesitant, as one would expect from a famous stranger in a
strange hipster land.
