Biography: life and films
Film director and screenwriter Louis Feuillade
played an essential part in the development and popularisation of cinema in France in
the early decades of the Twentieth Century. His philosophy was that the new medium
of film ought to be exploited as entertainment for the masses, not as an obscure art form
for an elitist minority. Although this popularist view injured his standing as a
serious film director at the time, he is now regarded as one of the key figures in cinema
history, a genuine master of the medium, with a remarkable foresight, imagination and
artistic flair.
Louis Feuillade was born in 1873 in the small
village of Lunel, Hérault, in the South of France, where his family ran a wine
making business. From an early age, he showed an interest in literature and he also
enjoyed writing poetry. In 1898, he moved to Paris to take up a post as a wine merchant.
After the death of his father and the collapse of the family business, Feuillade chose
to pursue a career as a journalist, writing articles for the Revue Mondiale. By
this time, he was married and had a young daughter, so he was struggling to make a decent
living.
In 1905, on the advice of a friend, André
Heuzé, Feuillade found employment with Gaumont, the second largest film production
company in France (after Pathé). Initially he worked as a screen writer,
but in 1907 he took up the position of Artistic Director for the whole of Gaumont's
output. In this role, Feuillade was himself obliged to direct films, and over the
next twenty years he would make over 700 films (mostly shorts). By 1914, he was
directing up to 80 films a year.
Feuillade's cinema was remarkably varied
and included realist dramas, such as
La Vie telle qu'elle est (1911), and
historical epics, such as
Prométhée (1908) and
L'Agonie de Byzance
(1913). However, the films with which is most closely associated, and the ones
which brought him greatest celebrity, were his crime serials, the forerunner to the modern
thriller. These included the five-part
Fantômas
series (1913-14), the
Les Vampires series (1915-16) and the
Judex films
(1916-18). With mad-cap chases, strong lead characters, complex plots, and daring
use of location filming, the films were years ahead of their time. They proved to
be hugely popular during the First World War, and helped to ensure that France maintained
its film-making industry in the face of strong competition from abroad.
Feuillade was actively making films for Gaumont
right up to his premature death in Paris in 1925. His remarkable talent and productivity
not only secured the future of France's film industry, but it also inspired subsequent
generations of film makers. Perhaps Feuillade's greatest legacy is the part
he played in the exploitation of cinema as a medium of mass entertainment, something which
could appeal to all classes of society.
© James Travers 2002
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