– But what IS this? They could still have let us see a scene with DIALOG?
The film journalist next to me throws a leg over the armrest of the turn-of-the-century armchair and desperately pulls a hand through his shoulder-length hair. In the TV in the hotel room, Alicia Vikander can be seen walking around in a black full-covering velvet suit.
The pictures are streamed directly from the hotel suite next door, where the filming of the HBO series “Irma Vep” is taking place. The Swedish star is constantly looking down at his phone in concentration.
– She has not said a word since we came here!
After a while, we get a printout of the chat messages sent in the scene.
Alicia Vikander plays one successful American actress, Mira, who is in Paris to take part in a remake of an old silent film classic. In the hotel room scene, she chats with her agent in Los Angeles, who tries to persuade her to accept a role in a new superhero movie.
But Mira defends herself. Put down the phone.
Rises.
– Break.
I’m called into the suite. Alicia Vikander greets with a smile. She moves gracefully in the full velvet suit.
– The light plays nicely in it, right? It’s hot. Some days too hot. When we filmed on the roofs the night before, I was happy, says Vikander with a laugh.
Director Olivier Assayas calls for attention. It’s going to be quiet. Alicia Vikander looks into the gold-ornamented mirror. Slowly she puts on the black mask. As she moves away towards the hotel room door, only the creaking of the planks in the floor can be heard.
The camera rolls silently.
Vikander disappears out of the room just when my “smart” bell starts ringing.
BIP-BIP-BIP.
Olivier Assayas glares angrily at me over the mouthpiece. I quickly stop the ringtone, and shamelessly turn off the clock. Just want to sink through the floor.
That I’m telling you this is not because I want to make myself a persona non grata on film recordings (I think and hope I did not ruin the scene completely). But because Olivier Assayas has a reputation for writing about scenes when unexpected things happen – like a Swedish journalist who behaves clumsily.
– Yes, that’s how I make films, he says a moment later.
– I get inspiration in things that happen in my life.
I do not know if I should see it as a threat or an opportunity. We are sitting at a large, elongated table, together with some other European journalists and Alicia Vikander.
– Olivier has his very own, special process. It has been exciting to follow it closely, says the Swedish star.
She is now referring to how the script is created.
– During the beginning of the project, new episodes came all the time. I could follow how my role developed and I remember that Olivier once said: ‘I want the same experience as the rest of you, so I do not know at all how this ends’.
The journey continues on the set, the director explains.
– If I see something that I find interesting, I like to write about a scene. One day there was an actor who was angry that he had to wait for two or three hours. Then I wrote a completely new scene where he is taken to the filming location by an assistant – and constantly complains that he had to wait so long.
Assayas and Vikander laugh ate the memory. They have been friends for several years and Vikander is one of the producers behind the series. They seem to like working together.
It has been 26 years since Olivier Assayas made the feature film of the same name as the series: “Irma Vep”. In it, Maggie Cheung played the lead role as the foreign star arriving in Paris for a remake of the classic silent film Les Vampires (1915). Irma Vep is an anagram for “vampire”, and Assaya’s film has over the years been seen as something of a cult classic about the enjoyment and tribulations of filmmaking.
Why make another Irma Vep now?
– After my miniseries “Carlos”, which received a Golden Globe in 2011, I received many offers for new series. I said no to everything. But the proposal to develop “Irma Vep” interested me. It is an iconic role, the silent film was seven hours long and divided into several episodes, says Olivier Assayas.
– And there was a role here for a great actress, someone like Alicia. She plays not just one person in the series, but five different roles, in several different layers. It’s a story about modern society, about the magic of filmmaking and about how film and reality interact,
It is not a “remake”. Rather a stand-alone sequel, inspired by Assaya’s 1996 feature film and the original silent film. In the eight episodes, parts of Les Vampires and Maggie Cheung’s role in the first Irma Vep film are woven together with Alicia Vikander’s and Mira’s journey into the same universe.
The whole thing is further complicated by the fact that Maggie Cheung and Olivier Assayas became a couple during the filming. They separated a few years later – but in the series, the director is still working on the broken relationship with Cheung’s character.
– When we shot the first film, I saw the director as a bit crazy and funny type. Today I identify with him, says Assayas.
How much of Alicia Vikander is then in American Mira?
– I have also made blockbusters, commercial big movies, and I appreciated it and like to watch that kind of movies, says Alicia Vikander.
– But for Mira there is a search for other kinds of experiences, for the art she really wants to do – and there we also have a lot in common. She throws herself out, leaves her homeland and ends up in a French film team where at first she does not understand much, she smiles.
French and English are mixed healthy in “Irma Vep” and the layer between reality and fiction sometimes feels thin.
– There have been films and series about filmmaking before. But this sometimes feels very much “for real”. Especially when it comes to the non-glamorous parts. Things that you might otherwise usually sweep under the carpet, says Alicia Vikander.
“Irma Vep” has its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival on May 22 and a Swedish premiere on HBO Max on June 7.
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