Assayas rams his disparate passion for visual, chaotic Hong Kong action movies into the verbose, yet just as chaotic, landscape of the French art film in this "remake" of the masterful silent French serial Les Vampires. Pop-culture icon Maggie Cheung, as both "Irma Vep" and "Maggie Cheung," tiptoes through the wreckage, her latex-catsuited presence triggering as much anarchy, confusion, and sexual chaos among unsuspecting Parisians as did her silent archetype. Where the original serial featured Irma wreaking havoc upon Paris's alienated ruling elite, Assayas has Irma/Maggie preying on that most alienated of all elites, a French film crew, complete with overwrought directors, high-strung artists, and bickering hangers-on united by a shared sense of hopelessness, bile, and thwarted lechery. Simultaneously a bemused look at the neuroses of creative French filmmaking, and a spellbinding valentine to the giddily surrealist and sensual cinema both Irma and Maggie represent, Irma Vep creates a filmic identity decidedly jagged, vibrant, and fascinating.-Jason Sanders, PFA