What Was Irma Vep?
ghostly reproductions and recreations on the eternal stream(ing service)
For this we must seek the answer in decrepit cinemas
whose balconies were walled off decades ago: on the screen
(where, in posh suburbia, a woman waits),
under the seats, in the fuzz and ancient vomit and
gumwrappers;
or in the lobby, where yellowing lobby cards announce
the advent of next week’s Republic serial: names
of a certain importance once…
— John Ashbery, “The Phantom Agents”
Why watch (or rewatch) Olivier Assayas’s 2022 series Irma Vep? Why write an essay on it almost a year after it first aired on HBO?
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