Irma Vep | Blu-ray (Criterion)
RELEASE DATE: April 27, 2021
On April 27, 2021, Criterion Collection is releasing the Blu-ray & DVD for Irma Vep, a 1996 film by French director Olivier Assayas (Paris, je t’aime) that stars Hong Kong actress Maggie Cheung (as herself) and Jean-Pierre Léaud (The 400 Blows).
Read the official details below:
The live-wire international breakthrough of Olivier Assayas stars a magnetic Maggie Cheung (In the Mood for Love) as a version of herself: a Hong Kong action-movie star who arrives in Paris to play the latex-clad lead in a remake of Louis Feuillade’s classic silent crime serial Les vampires. What she finds is a behind-the-scenes tangle of barely controlled chaos as egos clash, romantic attractions simmer, and an obsessive director (a cannily cast Jean-Pierre Léaud) drives himself to the brink to realize his vision. Blending blasts of silent cinema, martial-arts flicks, and the music of Sonic Youth and Luna into a hallucinatory swirl of postmodern cool, Assayas composes a witty critique of the nineties French film industry and the eternal tension between art and commercial entertainment.
Features and Specs:
- NEW 2K RESTORATION OF THE FILM FROM THE ORIGINAL CAMERA NEGATIVE, approved by director Olivier Assayas, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
- New interview with Assayas
- On the Set of “Irma Vep,” a behind-the-scenes featurette
- Interview from 2003 with Assayas and critic Charles Tesson
- Interview from 2003 with actors Maggie Cheung and Nathalie Richard
- Musidora, the Tenth Muse (2013), a documentary on the actor who originated the role of Irma Vep
- Les vampires: Hypnotic Eyes (1916), the sixth episode in Louis Feuillade’s silent-film serial
- Man Yuk: A Portrait of Maggie Cheung, a 1997 short film by Assayas
- Black-and-white rushes for the film
- English subtitle translation and English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: An essay by critic Aliza Ma
Pre-order from Amazon.com today!
