I'm over halfway through the eight episodes of Irma Vep, (now finished - see below) a story about making a TV version of a film remake of an actual 1915 movie called Les Vampires directed by Louis Feuillade. With me so far? Alicia Vikander plays an actress called Mira Harberg who is playing Irma Vep. Vincent Macaigne plays the director Rene Vidal, based on the actual writer and director of the original 1996 film and this remake, called Olivier Assayas.
I think that the Guardian review got it right when it says: So Assayas has made a TV remake of his own film, which was about making a remake of the 1915 original, with a director (named René Vidal in both) who is based on Assayas himself.
So now we have that right, what is so great about this series is the portrayal of what is like to make a movie or, in this case, a TV series. Vidal insists it will be a movie despite what the studio says. Everything is going on in the background, from the producers thinking of sacking the director, the stars wanting changes to the script and so much more. All except Mira. She is just so level headed compared to all the rest. Vikander plays her with an almost constant smile. Now that must be hard work. Of course it's all nonsense but I loved it.
We see excerpts from the 1915 original, clips from the new scenes all mixed up with the rushes. Lots of fancy hotels, the villas of the top producers and, of course, the studio where it is being filmed. Very near the end, we see the big boss of Dreamscape cosmetics, (sponsoring the series for Mira as their brand ambassador) amazingly a really nice guy playing golf, when he hears Mira has left early "She's gone home" and not fulfilled her cosmetics shoot as contracted to do. His intelligent view was that taking Mira to court they would be on a hiding to nothing. He replies "I've been expecting this. You don't sue Mira Harberg. We'd be in the wrong. Too bad for us". Her freedom is what the brand is all about, cannot complain. So he lets it go. A superb piece of writing.
Again at the end director Rene Vidal ( who we remember is not the most stable guy), his conversations with his therapist, and then on the phone to his wife, he is so calm and erudite that I thought was a wonderful ending.
In the last episode, not only do we see more clips from the factual black and white silent movie Les Vampires, but also a fictional portrayal (in colour) of that movie being filmed. With the same actors as in this modern remake. This was brilliant television.
And lastly, just a note of some of the songs from the series that were familiar to me (a lot I had never heard before):
Episode 2: 99 Lufft Ballons by Nena.
Episode 3: Hang on Sloppy McCoy's and Walking the Dog by Rufus Thomas. The latter reminded me of my digs in Brighton in 1963 as the track is on the first album by the Rolling Stones that belonged to the family there.
Episode 5: Village Green by The Kinks.
Episode 7: Beatnik Fly by Johnny and The Hurricanes. Yes, the 1960 version when I was fifteen, and Speed of the Sound of Loneliness by Kurt Vile. Not John Prine or Nanci Griffith whose version I have on one of her albums.
Episode 8: Judy in Disguise by John Fred and his Playboy Band.
21st April 2023
A short article in this weeks Sunday Times Culture magazine.
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