When making my personal 2023 Emmy predictions, I felt I had a grip on most races. However, with the limited series race, I felt uncertain of who the current frontrunners were. Having looked them over, I felt a little down. Granted, there were some shows showing up that I liked, but I felt disconnected from the category, especially knowing my personal favorite had no chance over what was probably getting in.
That gave me pause.
When we love something, especially media of any kind, the temptation is to argue with people and tell them they are wrong and have no taste. Or the always popular “You just don’t get it,” Yet, with a show like Irma Vep, as brilliant as I think it is, I know that it is not a show for everyone. I can understand how someone would not like it, and I would not think any less of them. That said, while knowing it is not for everyone, it was one of the most brilliant shows from last year. I want to make the pitch why it deserves as much Emmy love as it can get.
What made Irma Vep different than many of these other shows was that it captured a sense of wonder in me. Where the artist turning the camera on themselves has become almost a new genre in itself, Irma Vep does this but inverts it by not making it the overall point about its creator. Olivier Assayas makes himself intertwined in a story about the nature of fame, art, and just wondering where all this creativity (or lack of it) in making movies and television is taking us.
In taking on this question he ironically has shown a great level of creativity, taking levels upon levels of Assayas making this miniseries. The show is about a version of him making a miniseries about a movie he made decades ago. But you do not need those references. I have never seen the film yet I was able to engage in what was happening and was given enough subtext to understand what this story entailed. This is done by anchoring the show in its two leads: Alicia Vikander as Mira, the lead actress in the miniseries within a miniseries, and Vincent Macaigne as René Vidal, the director. Vikander embodies something interesting in that she is an actress who knows she is great, but it isn’t an ego thing, just an awareness of her abilities. Because of this, her dissatisfaction being a movie star and model has made her want to stretch herself, and to see her navigate that is compelling. She knows the game and plays it well, giving her the freedom to do great work but also keeping herself marketable.
She is living the dream of almost any film watcher who loves a performer. We get to see someone we respect stretch themselves in their work and know that they also are getting paid in a way that appreciates that talent. She is a combination of strong-willed in her art, yet willing to listen to learn more. But there are conflicts about how to do that, and even more so in her social life. She avoids being just the “lonely” artist. She has had a bad break-up and is not in a good place there, but it feels more like it just isn’t the time, not that she is destined to be alone. It is hard to truly take in what Mira is. She experiences her role in a way that needs to be seen to truly appreciate what she is doing. Let’s just say when things get “intangible”–as weird as that sounds–it actually makes perfect sense and, while metaphysical, is actually grounded in the idea of getting into a character and furthering personal growth.
René is just as compelling with his own inner demons and doubts about his career. Like Mira, he has a healthy respect for his abilities (with a bit more arrogance), but also has a lot more doubts that can hit him. He is haunted by his fears about his place in cinema history and his own mental health. We see him as brilliant, neurotic, too much into his fetishes for the screen, incredibly helpful to his actors, and having a panic attack. Assayas really wants to get at the heart of the incredible difficulty of making something creative. It entails dealing with people with big egos with their own interpretations. Money people who just want to make a quick buck, and of course your own self doubt. Yet at no point is he saying it isn’t worth it. He is sad about a divorce he had (both in the show and in real life), but he isn’t saying that if he wasn’t a director it wouldn’t have happened. It is just a part of who he is as well as being a creative individual.
Irma Vep is a show that really made me think, even when I had no destination for those thoughts. It allowed me to explore the idea of art and relationships without making everything a tragedy or a pure joy. We sense the limited series within the series is just one more piece of art that has been made, and that now these people will all go and make some more art. It could be bad or brilliant we do not know, but there is a great deal of hope that something will continue to be made worth talking about. As abstract as it is in its telling, seeing these people make a show with the joy and struggle that can go into it–with flashbacks to the original 1915 movie–makes it hard at times to explain why it is brilliant.
Telling people to watch something that could really not be their thing, and them having every right to say so, is a sad prospect. But I do hope that even if it is not something that works for you that you can appreciate the creativity that went into making it, and that somehow so can Emmy voters.
