{"id":20688,"date":"2016-01-07T05:35:52","date_gmt":"2016-01-07T13:35:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qgp.ykq.mybluehost.me\/cinephiled\/?p=20688"},"modified":"2016-01-10T10:49:53","modified_gmt":"2016-01-10T18:49:53","slug":"videophiled-classics-fantomas-cinemas-original-supervillain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/videophiled-classics-fantomas-cinemas-original-supervillain\/","title":{"rendered":"Videophiled Classics: ‘Fantomas’ \u2013 Cinema’s original supervillain"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"FantomasBD\"Fant\u00f4<\/strong>mas<\/i><\/b> (Kino Classics, Blu-ray) \u2013 There may be no more creatively energetic, playfully inventive and entertaining surreal filmmaking in the years 1913 and 1914 than the five wicked short features of Louis Feuillade\u2019s serialized adaptations of the pulp adventures of Marcel Allain and Pierre Souvestre, films that captured the imaginations of filmgoers of the time and inspired the crime and adventure serials of the next decade, including Fritz Lang\u2019s Dr. Mabuse<\/i><\/strong> films.<\/p>\n

Thief, assassin, escape artist and master of disguises, Fant\u00f4mas (played with calm, stylish command by Rene Navarre) is the cinema\u2019s first supervillain, an anti-hero who is very much the center of attention in this mad masterpiece of secret identities, violent conspiracies and cliffhanger twists. Navarre (star of dozens of earlier Feuillade films) opens Fant\u00f4mas in the Shadow of the Guillotine<\/i><\/strong> (1913) the first film in the series, by appearing in the series of disguises he\u2019ll be taking on through the film, one incarnation dissolving into another, and then proceeds to brazenly steal the jewels of a Princess, personally handing his card to his victim: blank until his name fades in and then back out, like a taunt. Inspector Juve (Edmund Br\u00e9on) is assigned the case and the battle of wits and wiles between the elaborate charades and schemes begins. There’s a manhunt, a capture, and an escape that has to be seen to be believed. It\u2019s insane and improbable and irresistible and it was an instant smash with audiences, and the final shot of the short (under an hour on DVD) feature essentially guarantees not just a sequel but a series: the Inspector is back in his office, dejected and beaten by the criminal who escaped the guillotine, and the final intertitle reads: \u201cFrom now on, Inspector Juve will have but one obsession: capturing Fant\u00f4mas.\u201d<\/p>\n

Their game continues through Juve vs. Fant\u00f4mas<\/i><\/strong> (1913), which begins on another brazen theft and features a dramatic train wreck (a fabulous miniature of toy trains on an elaborately detailed set), The Murderous Corpse<\/i><\/strong> (1913), which opens with Juve missing and presumed dead, Fant\u00f4mas vs. Fant\u00f4mas<\/i> <\/strong>(1914), with Juve is suspected of being the master criminal, and The False Magistrate<\/i><\/strong> (1914), where Fant\u00f4mas murders a judge and takes his place on the high court (the judge himself is dispatched in a particularly insidious manner).<\/p>\n

Each films is filled with wild plots and demented side schemes and features exotic gimmicks, from snakes unleashed into what should be the safety of one\u2019s own parlor to a dead man hung from the inside of a bell like a clapper. There are poisons, guns, murders galore ,and corpses that disappear and reappear with alarming frequency. But most insidious of all is the lack of motivation for most of his crimes. Greed seems beside the point: Fant\u00f4mas likes to cause chaos and mayhem and seems to enjoy murder as a way of proving his superiority and taunting his nemesis.<\/p>\n

In an era when the language of cinema was evolving at an amazing speed, Feuillade looks old-fashioned on the surface of things, shooting in series of still tableaux shots with the actors choreographed within the frame like it\u2019s the proscenium arch of an intimate theater. But within the frame the staging is dynamic and dramatic, composed in depth and filled with motion, and the breakneck plotting and editing drives the film at a furious pace. Feuillade methodically explicates complicated schemes with a minimum of shots, and then detonates the screen as a scene explodes from stillness to furious action. In Juve vs. Fant\u00f4mas<\/i><\/strong>, for instance, on what appears to be a deserted waterfront piles up with empty barrels, gunmen suddenly pop out of barrels and start shooting at Juve. The sudden transformation from still life is like an explosion. It\u2019s both archaic in style and strangely modern, and even with contemporary eyes you can see why audiences embraced its dime novel deliriousness and surrealists appreciated its mix of elaborate schemes and incoherent complications.<\/p>\n

The five short features (they run from 54 minutes to 90 minutes) are mastered from a new 4K restoration from Gaumont and the Centre National du Cin\u00e9ma (created for the film’s 100th<\/sup> anniversary), which was scanned from the original nitrate negative. The increase in texture and detail from Kino’s earlier DVD release is immediately evident, and it features an orchestral score (replacing the compilation score edited from classical music recordings from the DVD release). This is a significant upgrade from the DVD and it’s gorgeous.<\/p>\n

It carries over the supplements of the earlier DVD. There is commentary by film historian and silent film expert David Kalat on the first two parts of the series. Well researched and passionately presented, it\u2019s more of a lecture on the origins of Fant\u00f4mas in print and the aesthetics of Feuillade\u2019s direction and adaptation (\u201cThe Fant\u00f4mas films are marked by narrative chaos\u201d) than a running commentary on the films themselves, but it is fascinating and very informative. The set also includes two bonus Louis Feuillade shorts,\u00a0The Nativity<\/i>\u00a0(1910) and\u00a0The Dwarf<\/i> <\/b>(1912), neither of which have been remastered for HD, and “Louis Feuillade: Master of Many Forms,” a ten-minute featurette on Feuillade\u2019s career originally presented on Kino\u2019s\u00a0Gaumont Treasures<\/i>\u00a0box set.<\/p>\n

Calendar of upcoming releases on Blu-ray, DVD, Digital, and VOD<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fant\u00f4mas (Kino Classics, Blu-ray) \u2013 There may be no more creatively energetic, playfully inventive and entertaining surreal filmmaking in the years 1913 and 1914 than the five wicked short features of Louis Feuillade\u2019s serialized adaptations of the pulp adventures of Marcel Allain and Pierre Souvestre, films that captured the imaginations of filmgoers of the time […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":20689,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[140,99],"tags":[73,3854,3849,3393,3850,3851,3852,3853],"yoast_head":"\nVideophiled Classics: 'Fantomas' \u2013 Cinema's original supervillain - Cinephiled<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/videophiled-classics-fantomas-cinemas-original-supervillain\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Videophiled Classics: 'Fantomas' \u2013 Cinema's original supervillain - 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