THERMA VEP – LIFE IMITATES ART
Genre: Dramatic comedy-quotationist
Direction: Olivier Assayas. With Alicia Vikander, Vincent Macaigne, Adria Arjona. On Sky and Now
Alicia Vikander in “Irma Vep”, on Sky and streaming on Now (photo by Carole Bethuel).
A tangle of joints, quotes, references and meta-narratives. To appreciate Irma Vep – Life imitates artHBO series now on Sky and streaming on Now, you must first of all let yourself be seduced by the narrative game full of references and surprises.
Mira (Alicia Vikander) is a globally renowned actress back from two painful emotional breakdowns that have marked the perception and the boundary between fiction and reality. The series insists on this continuous overlap between reality and imaginary: Mira is cast in France for the role of Irma Vep, as the protagonist in the remake of The vampires by Louis Feuillade, serial series of 1915, symbol of silent cinema and reference point of the surrealist current.
Alicia Vikander in “Irma Vep” (photo by Carole Bethuel).
And so, after directing the 1996 film of the same name, the French director Olivier Assayas tries his hand at this serial reboot; and the figure of René Vidal (Vincent Macaigne), who personifies the director of the film, is none other than Assayas’ alter ego.
Beyond the events and disturbances of Mira, the most original and significant trait of the series lies precisely in her questioning about cinema and its transformations: an act of love towards a language struggling with contemporary drifts and mutations.
For lovers of glamorous stories with a bitter aftertaste and for those who love cinema as its essence.
iO Donna © REPRODUCTION RESERVED