Fantômas - À l'ombre de la guillotine (1913)
Directed by Louis Feuillade

Film Review

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.

Film Synopsis

When a valuable pearl necklace is stolen from the Princess Danidoff at the Royal Palace Hotel in Paris, Inspector Juve soon discovers the identity of the thief.  It is none other than Fantômas, the most notorious of criminal masterminds - a man of a thousand faces whom Juve is obsessively determined to put behind bars.  Juve's hunt for his archenemy heats up as he investigates the mysterious disappearance of an English aristocrat, Lord Beltham.  It seems that the dead man's widow, Lady Beltham, has been having a clandestine love affair with a mysterious man named Gurn.  Entering Gurn's apartment, Juve finds not only the mortal remains of Lord Beltham but also a set of business cards bearing the name he has come to loath: Fantômas.

It looks as if the feared king of crime has finally had his day.  Arresting Gurn proves to be an easy victory for the Inspector, and with Fantômas now finally secure in prison it seems that nothing can save him.  In a few days he will be guillotined and his reign of terror will be at an end.  But Juve has overlooked the cunning of both his criminal adversary and his accomplices.  Lady Beltham has concocted an ingenious plan to rescue her lover.  With the help of an actor named Valgrand who is the spitting image of Gurn she arranges a substitution that will confound the Inspector and allow Fantômas to continue his career of crime, having narrowly escaped the shadow of the guillotine...