Maggie Cheung is a singular actress. Her multicultural upbringing nurtured a chameleonic grace, allowing her to elegantly embody a spectrum of iconic personas, whether it’s the cunning innkeeper in New Dragon Gate Inn (1992), the lonely wanderer in Ashes of Time (1994), or even herself.

In her first major international role and a unique meta-narrative, Cheung was cast in Olivier Assayas’s Irma Vep as herself, a mega action star from Hong Kong who is invited to star in a small, esoteric French production headed by a fading director. As an outsider, she navigates the collapsing film set with a detached and curious gaze in a fetishized latex catsuit. She finds herself caught in, but unbothered by, the artistic pretensions and breakdowns that seem to be weighing French cinema down as a whole.

Cheung said in a 2003 interview that Irma Vep paradoxically allowed her to take herself away from who she was and let her be herself; with her in this ambitious but liberating role, the film becomes a fascinating deconstruction of not only the French film industry, but her own stardom.

Olivier Assayas (b. 1955, France) is a film director, screenwriter, and film critic. His works are known for their innovative blend of genres and philosophical narratives. Assayas began his career as a critic for Cahiers du Cinéma before making several short films and his feature debut Disorder (1986). Assayas gained international attention with the critically acclaimed Irma Vep (1996), and has since become a Cannes regular, with works such as Demonlover (2002), Clean (2004), and Personal Shopper (2016) all officially competing for the Palme d'Or. His recent film Suspended Time (2024) was nominated for the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival.