This week’s podcast initially began as a sequel to our episode about Irma Vep from a few weeks ago, in which Adam Nayman and Beatrice Loayza joined us to discuss Olivier Assayas’s new HBO series. We had only seen four episodes at the time, and we wanted to reconvene our guests for a follow-up, now that the miniseries has finished its eight-episode run. But as we dug into the film-within-a-film rabbit holes of Irma Vep, its commentaries on auteurism and autofiction, and how it blurs the lines between reality, narrative, and fantasy, we realized that it echoed the themes of another series everyone has been talking about recently: The Rehearsal, by Nathan Fielder. So this episode brings you a double dose of meta: Irma Vep and The Rehearsal, and the ethics of making movies about oneself, other people, and movie-making itself.

Links & Things

Irma Vep (1996) on the Criterion Channel

Irma Vep (2022) on HBO Max

The Rehearsal (2022) on HBO Max

Richard Brody on The Rehearsal in the New Yorker

Adam Nayman on The Rehearsal in the Toronto Star