As I am working through the 1001 movie list, I decided to check off one of the more daunting entries.
This seven hour film is a collection of 10 episodes, ranging from 20 to 60 minutes. As it’s length put me off initially, I would highly recommend splitting it up by episode, and watching it like a TV show.
It is difficult to judge by modern standards of storytelling and filmmaking as this is practically the birth of narrative film, though much of it is still quite compelling and funny. Irma Vep creeping around in all black is definitely the highlight.
The filmmaker seems to not understand what vampires are though, or have made vampires something else entirely. The vampires are a gang in Paris who steal, murder, and cause general mayhem. Don’t expect any blood sucking.
There is something about early film that feels so full of life and ideas. You can see them starting to test out new ideas, even progressing as the series goes on, using more close ups and pans. It feels homemade unlike many silent films of the 20s.
If the length scares you off as well, I would recommend watching a couple episodes maybe 1, 6, and 10, to get a sense of the style. Many of the plot points are repeated throughout, as Philippe and the Vampires are playing cat and mouse for 7 hours.
It blows my mind that There’s 52 years between this and The Graduate, and there’s 53 between The Graduate and now. So much progressed in the language of film in the half-century, from sound, color, and lighting to narrative motifs, and camera movements to dictate mood.
Overall, interesting for historical purposes and quite interesting if you’d be willing to give it a couple hours.
As I am working through the 1001 movie list, I decided to check off one of the more daunting entries.
This seven hour film is a collection of 10 episodes, ranging from 20 to 60 minutes. As it’s length put me off initially, I would highly recommend splitting it up by episode, and watching it like a TV show.
It is difficult to judge by modern standards of storytelling and filmmaking as this is practically the birth of narrative film, though much of it is still quite compelling and funny. Irma Vep creeping around in all black is definitely the highlight.
The filmmaker seems to not understand what vampires are though, or have made vampires something else entirely. The vampires are a gang in Paris who steal, murder, and cause general mayhem. Don’t expect any blood sucking.
There is something about early film that feels so full of life and ideas. You can see them starting to test out new ideas, even progressing as the series goes on, using more close ups and pans. It feels homemade unlike many silent films of the 20s.
If the length scares you off as well, I would recommend watching a couple episodes maybe 1, 6, and 10, to get a sense of the style. Many of the plot points are repeated throughout, as Philippe and the Vampires are playing cat and mouse for 7 hours.
It blows my mind that There’s 52 years between this and The Graduate, and there’s 53 between The Graduate and now. So much progressed in the language of film in the half-century, from sound, color, and lighting to narrative motifs, and camera movements to dictate mood.
Overall, interesting for historical purposes and quite interesting if you’d be willing to give it a couple hours.
