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With a title like that, who needs to come up with their own? Episode 2 of Irma Vep proves that not all drama lives on the stage, and dives deeper into a style of behind-the-scenes scenes that I first came into contact with via the French New Wave. Put on your berets and fire up the cigarettes; it’s about to get even more French in here as we get into “The Ring That Kills.”
Plot Summary
In this episode of Irma Vep, we dive deeper into relationships and meet someone new as well. For me, the show is made up of big and small moments. This current episode’s big moments? Mira (Alicia Vikander) gets closer to Zoe (Jeanne Balibar) (and I get closer to lesbian utopia); Edmond (Vincent Lacoste) and René (Vincent Macaigne) finally erupt (“I stuck my finger in his nose!” is an iconic line); and we meet Gottfried (Lars Eidinger), a villain in life and screen (crack? Crack??).
The small moments were no less important to the episode, and I think we’ll find that they are the building blocks for bigger moments later. Zoe’s persistently ignored requests for respect cause discord; Mira deals with press rumors about Regina (Devon Ross) and herself, as well as pressure to abandon the project from her agent; and René went to therapy!
Analysis
First and foremost, I want to discuss the legacy of Francois Truffaut‘s Day for Night, and how it infuses every facet of the movie and series Irma Vep. The lines are not straight, but they connect too strongly to be ignored.
For those who are not familiar, Day for Night (La nuit américaine) is a French film directed by Truffaut that follows the production of the melodrama Je Vous Présente Paméla. Released in 1973, the film follows not only the director Ferrand (played by big man Truffaut himself), but also the cast and crew as they experience love, loss, and sorrow behind the scenes of Paméla.
Sound familiar?
Similarities Between the Source Material and the New Series
The similarities can be drawn more specifically from character to character. For example, the character of Julie reminded me immediately of René — both come into the project with mental health issues hanging over their involvement, although Julie is much more a subject of general scrutiny than René so far. There’s a lot to make of René’s un-insurability, past outbursts, and use of prescribed “mood stabilizers”.
On the one hand, it is consistent with the character from the original Irma Vep. The René of the 1996 Irma Vep was also an intense perfectionist, was also given pharmaceuticals for his moods, and was also known for his eccentricity. On the other hand, the general atmosphere around René is a lot more ominous. The fact that we get to sit in on René’s therapy sessions has to be part of this; watching someone be in denial in real-time just hits differently. Maybe it’s the vampires, but after this episode’s behavior? I trust René less than I trust Julie in Day for Night!
Julie can also be connected to Mira (much more clearly — they’re both lead actresses, after all). Both characters come onto the set with their personal drama 1) fully known by everyone on set and 2) the subject of intense gossip due to its scandalous nature. Although, Mira’s drama is a tad more complicated than Julie marrying her doctor after a mental breakdown, isn’t it?
The fact that Mira is flirting with Zoe in the same episode where she has to deal with paparazzi rumors about a relationship with Regina (and the ensuing revenge post from Laurie)? That’s a sign that the drama can only intensify as we move forward. After the conversation about polyamory last week, I truly cannot predict the trajectory of any of Mira’s relationships. Women liking women is a thread picked up from the 1996 film, but where Irma Vep ‘96 tiptoes around a lesbian relationship and ultimately leaves it unresolved, Irma Vep 2022 said, “People be gay,” and ran full-tilt into multiple women of queer experience. The specter of men does haunt the show, however, and I’m intrigued to see if the mysterious Eamonn will make his appearance soon.
What we don’t do in Irma Vep 2022 is focus on the minutiae of filmmaking nearly as much as Day for Night. It’s less granular, and more big picture. There’s no character doing something like line producing who matters to the larger plot, aside from the personal assistants and producer Carla (another ’96 carryover character, played here by Nora Hamzawi). But as we saw this week, the PA’s experience is largely due to their romantic potential (real or perceived) with Mira.
The Antagonist
One twist that we can all agree on that is unique to the reboot exists in the character of Gottfried. He hits the set and it’s immediately clear that he is a stand-in for a sort of grunge-y, rock-star character who of course has existed for a long time, but in this iteration, he is clearly some mix of an indie-sleaze, post-vape addiction stereotype, and a right-wing pseudo-fascist post-Trump boogey-(white) man. He disgusts, but that’s his purpose. We don’t like him, and he actively cultivates that dislike while also assuming everyone he is attracted to is secretly in love with him. And, right out of the gate, before he even makes it to the set, he asks the production (by way of Carla) to get crack cocaine for him.
It’s a very interesting choice creatively because it draws attention to the institutional way that creative industries can drive or enable damaging addictions in order to make sure the work gets done. As a pro-legalization baddie, it also creates an interesting conundrum; at what point does one’s (theoretical) right to enjoy crack cocaine run up against one’s coworkers’ right not to have to buy it? This is not necessarily a new issue (after all, in Feuillade’s day most of what we call “hard drugs” were simply medicine), but it is a unique one when we live in a time where buying hard drugs (in the West) can be as simple as sending an encrypted text or twenty. It’ll be interesting to watch this new Irma Vep series tease out this thread more, as this is not a knot the ‘96 film chooses to untangle at all.
All in all, Episode 2 was a wild ride, nearly from start to finish. Check back next week to break down Episode 3!
Also, be sure to read my spoiler review on the premiere episode of Irma Vep!
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