Fantômas – À l’ombre de la guillotine (1913)

Fantômas – À l’ombre de la guillotine is a French thriller film first released in 1913, directed by Louis Feuillade.  The film stars René Navarre, Edmund Breon, Georges Melchior, Renée Carl and Jane Faber.  Our overall rating for this film is: excellent.


For the arch-criminal Fantômas, no crime is too daring, too adventurous.  A master of disguise, he has no trouble relieving the Princess Danidoff of her priceless pearl necklace at the Royal Palace Hotel.  Inspectator Juve is determined to capture Fantômas and put an end to his limitless villainy.  Whilst investigating the disappearance of Lord Beltham, Juve finds himself on the trail of his arch-enemy once more.  He discovers that Beltham’s widow has been having a secret affair with a mysterious stranger, Gurn. In Gurn’s appartment, Juve discovers the dead body of Lord Beltham and business cards bearing the name Fantômas.  A triumphant Juve makes an easy arrest of Gurn, alias Fantômas, and is sure that nothing can save the evil-doer from the guillotine.   But Lady Beltham has an ingenious plan to save her lover, using an actor Valgrand who closely resembles Gurn…

As artistic director of the Gaumont film company, Louis Feuillade was keen to capitalise on the success of the Fantômas series of novels, written by Pierre Souvestre et Marcel Allain.  These novels were a world-wide phenomenon in their day, their readership extending far beyond France, with 32 complete novels published between 1910 and Souvestre’s death on the eve of World War I in 1914.  (Allain wrote a further 12 novels solo after the war).  Feuillade envisaged a series of films which could at least equal the success of the original novels.

As it turned out, the original Fantômas series ran to five complete films, made between 1913 and 1914, with a total run time of just over five and a half hours.  The success of the films probably exceeded even Feuillade’s expectations, unleashing something of a craze on both sides of the Atlantic, with merchandise such as miniature figures of Fantômas being very sought after.  The inevitable American remake came in 1920, in a series of 20 instalments directed by Edward Sledgwick.  The Fantômas phenomenon was revived in France in the 1960s, when Louis de Funès and Jean Marais starred in a three-part remake of the Fantômas series.

Feuillade’s Fantômas is undoubtedly the best, introducing not just the idea of a film series, but also establishing the crime thriller.  The essential ingredients of film noir and the suspense thriller can be seen in this film which, remarkably, (when you consider when the film was made) still appears surprisingly modern.

Feuillade creates a dark, dreamlike universe where the elusive villain Fantômas is as much a venomous scourge as a slick debonair hero.  Critics praised the film and coined the phrase réalisme fantastique, which perfectly defines the essence of the Fantômas films.  A blend of imaginative surreal imagery is combined with pictures of comparative normality, giving the viewer the sensation that he is experiencing a waking nightmare.

Although Feuillade did tone down the ending of this film to be less horrific than the original novel, it does have a chilling sense of realism, driven by the dramatic suspense in the narrative and the eerie use of light and shadow in the photography.  Not only is the film exemplary from the point of view of its direction, but the acting is also quite impressive, to the point that you hardly notice the absence of dialogue.

Although Feuillade’s motives in making this film were more to do with making money than creating a work of art, the director shows a remarkable artistic flair as well as great originality.  The Fantômas series is regarded by many as one of his finest achievements, an enduring masterpiece which, after its timely restoration by Gaumont in 1998, will continue to delight and entertain generations of film enthusiasts.

© James Travers 2001

See also:
Juve contre Fantômas
Le Mort qui tue
Fantômas contre Fantômas
Le Faux magistrat



Write a review for this film...


What do you think of this film?

More French Crime/Thriller
More French Drama
Recent DVD releases