Film Review
After the huge success of the
Fantômas
serial between 1913 and 1914, Gaumont were more than eager to produce another
serial, mainly to fend off competition from the rival French film company Pathé
(which had just acquired the rights to an American serial,
Les Mystères de New
York). Louis Feuillade delivered a crime serial in a similar vein, this time
a ten part serial (each episode being approximately 40 minutes in length) featuring a
gang of seemingly invincible master criminals known as 'the Vampires'.
The series was made during the early years of World War I, and this makes an impact not
just in the chilling content and doom-laden mood of the piece, but also in the eerie look
of the abandoned locations chosen by Feuillade. If anything, the cinematography
is darker and more artistically accomplished than in the
Fantômas series,
and the film still has the power to shock and chill the spectator. It is reported
that much of the series was improvised on the day, which could explain some of the bizarre
and totally unexpected plot developments.
The series made a star out of the actress Musidora, who has the honour of being the first
vamp and femme fatale in cinema history. In her tightly fitting black costume, and
with her beautifully alluring looks, her part as the notorious Irma Vep (an anagram of
'vampire') has an indelibly iconic feel about it, and must have both shocked and delighted
cinema audiences at the time. Musidora was such a hit that she subsequently starred
in Feuillade's later film,
Judex (1916).
The Vampires series was enormously popular in war-time France, far more so than the comparatively
dismal Pathé offering,
Les Mystères de New York, even if it received
some pretty damning criticism at the time. Both the police and respectable critics
condemned the series for its apparent glorification of crime and dubious morality - not
that this did anything to stem the series' growing success.
Les Vampires is widely regarded as a masterpiece of the crime/thriller genre (made
long before the genre had been established). The series has entered into French
popular culture, providing a great inspiration to successive generations of writers and
film-makers. Famously it had an impact on the surrealists, notably André
Breton and Luis Buñuel, and also the New Wave film directors Alain Renais and Georges
Franju. With its recent release on DVD, it has found a new generation of willing
admirers.
The ten episodes of the Vampires series are titled as follows:
1. La Tête coupée
2. La Bague qui tue
3. Le Cryptogramme rouge
4. Le Spectre
5. L'Évasion du mort
6. Les Yeux qui fascinent
7. Satanas
8. Le Maître de la foudre
9. L'Homme des poisons
10. Les Noces Sanglantes
© James Travers 2002
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Next Louis Feuillade film:
Judex (1916)
Film Synopsis
Paris is in the grip of an unseen, nameless, terror, against which the police are powerless
to act. A criminal organisation known as the Vampires create fear and mayhem, killing,
looting, abducting - no crime is too daring, or too despicable. Little is known
about the gang of villains except that they are led by the Grand Vampire and his seductive
partner, Irma Vep. A journalist, Philippe Guerande, investigating the murder
of a government official soon runs up against the Vampires, and so begins his long crusade
to rid Paris of this evil scourge...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.