Fantômas (1913 serial)


Fantômas is a French silent crime film serial directed by Louis Feuillade, based on the novel of the same name. The five episodes, initially released throughout 1913-14, were restored under the direction of Jacques Champreaux and released in this new form in 2006.

Series

The series consists of five episodes, each an hour to an hour and a half in length, which end in cliffhangers. Episodes one and three end with Fantômas making a last-minute escape, and the end of the second entry has Fantômas blowing up Lady Beltham's manor house with Juve and Fandor, the two heroes, still inside. The subsequent episodes begin with a recap of the story that has gone before. Each film is further divided into three or more chapters that do not end in cliffhangers.
  1. Fantômas I: À l'ombre de la guillotine
  2. # Le Vol du Royal Palace Hotel
  3. # La Disparition de Lord Beltham
  4. # Autour de l'échafaud
  5. Fantômas II: Juve contre Fantômas
  6. # La Catastrophe du Simplon-Express
  7. # Au "Crocodile"
  8. # La Villa hantée
  9. # L'Homme noir
  10. Fantômas III: Le Mort Qui Tue
  11. # Le Drame rue Novins
  12. # L'Enquête de Fandor
  13. # Le Collier de la princesse
  14. # Le Banquier Nanteul
  15. # Elizabeth Dollon
  16. # Les Gants de peau humaine
  17. Fantômas IV: Fantômas contre Fantômas
  18. # Fantômas et l'opinion publique
  19. # Le Mur qui saigne
  20. # Fantômas contre Fantômas
  21. # Règlement de comptes
  22. Fantômas V: Le Faux Magistrat
  23. # Prologue
  24. # Le Prisonnier de Louvain
  25. # Monsieur Charles Pradier, juge d'instruction
  26. # Le Magistrat cambrioleur
  27. # L'Extradé de Louvain

    Cast

Fantômas was enormously popular upon its release in France, and made Navarre, who played Fantômas, an overnight celebrity. In a rave review from a 1914 issue of the French journal Chronique cinématographique, critic Maurice Raynal wrote that "There is nothing in this involved, compact, and concentrated film but explosive genius."
In his contemporary critical review of the Fantômas serial, Peter Schofer notes that contrary to some modern understandings of the series, Fantômas was not interpreted by its audience as a suspense film. Based on a previously published and widely read newspaper serial, audiences of the time were already extensively familiar with the plot, characters, and outcome of the story, making the film much more about how the story might develop as opposed to what might happen next.