Fantômas | Blu-ray Review

Though we’re barely into a new calendar year, Kino Lorber has released one of the year’s most notable Blu-ray restorations, a superb presentation of Louis Feuillade’s famous silent serial Fantômas with a five title set ranging from 1913 to 1914. Surprisingly violent and full of cunning twists (based on the pulp novellas of Marcel Allain and Pierre Souvestre), the criminal overlord was an early template for genre cinema staples, including Feuillade’s later iconic characters such as Irma Vep or the crime fighter Judex (each in turn inspiring an innumerable amount of other auteurs, from Fritz Lang to Georges Franju to Olivier Assayas). But this was Feuillade’s first master of disguise, a cold hearted criminal intent on rending all the jewelry and other worldly goods from Belle Epoch Parisian women he could get his greedy fingers on.

Feuillade remains one of the most prolific auteurs of all time, credited with a boggling six hundred and thirty titles between 1906 and 1924, and Fantômas is regarded as his first masterpiece. The five separate titles included in this disc set amount to about five and a half hours, though thematically they seem best enjoyed on separate viewing occasions rather than binging all at once. Introduced in Fantomas in the Shadow of the Guillotine, the wily titular thief (played by Rene Navarre) becomes the obsessive object of Inspector Juve (Edmund Breon) and his sidekick, the peppy journalist Jerome Fandor (Georges Melchior). Another recurring character is Princess Danidoff (Jane Faber), a wealthy woman whose heart and jewels are swindled by Fantomas.

As we follow the criminal through these five episodes, most of which are between sixty to seventy five minutes in length, an ambitious amount of plot twists transpire, some laughable while others are inventive or even chilling. Using gloves made of skinned human flesh in The Murderous Corpse is as grisly a detail we’re apt to see in contemporary filmmaking. Both Fantomas and the tenacious Juve undergo several elaborate disguises, resulting in episodes where Fantomas is actually portraying the inspector tracking him, and in another incarnation of this which results in a clever escape at the end of The False Magistrate.

Feuillade would make early use of the cobalt blue background for his nighttime sequences in Fantomas, though compared to Musidora’s rooftop escapades in Les Vampires these sequences are few and far between. Prizing a slow dissolve to distinguish Navarre in his various bearded and white haired disguises, it’s easy to see how Feuillade’s energetic serial quickly became such an iconic game changer.

Disc Review:

In celebration of the 100th anniversary of the film’s release, Gaumont collaborated with the Centre National du Cinema and the Cinematheque francaise for this superlative 4K restoration of Feuillade’s serial. Supplied with a score from Sonimage, the audio track is playfully menacing. But the accomplished restoration of this century old footage is particularly impressive. Kino Lorber does fantastic job with this Blu-ray release, not to mention the inclusion of not-to-miss extra features, including rare shorts by Feuillade and two audio commentaries from film historian David Kalat plus an animated gallery of cover artwork from the Fantomas novellas, courtesy of Tim Lucas.

Louis Feuillade – Master of Many Forms:
This ten minute feature explores the origins of Feuillade as a filmmaker, who began working at Gaumont and then became the art director during the 1910s. Succinct, the segment details Feuillade’s contributions to cinema.

The Nativity (1910):
This fourteen minute short from Feuillade depicts just what its title implies, with several elaborately designed sets (and reflects his interest at the time of appealing to audiences seeking Biblical depictions).

The Dwarf (1912):
This near seventeen minute short depicts a dwarf sized author who anonymously writes a successfully received play.

Final Thoughts:

Like its 2012 release of Feuillade’s Les Vampire, Kino Lorber magnificently restores this earlier achievement from the auteur. The collection is not to be missed for cineastes.

Film Review: ★★★★/☆☆☆☆☆
Disc Review: ★★★★½/☆☆☆☆☆