Les vampires

"Les Vampires" (1915 - 398 minutes - B&W) is a classic of the mute cinema series directed by Louis Feuillade. In ten episodes, it counts the adventures of a masked assailants group who haunt Paris. The mythical actress Musidora [ the first "Vamp" of the European cinema ] is the star in the series, that achieved fame due to the great admiration among the surrealists (Andres Breton and Luis Buñuel were its bigger fans), seduced by the dreamily scenes that sometimes appears in the narrative. At first "Les Vampires" was rejected for the French vanguard directors, that considered it like a mere policeman series. The film was saved from destruction thanks to the efforts of the founder of the French Film library, Henri Langlois, and after years forgotten, "Les Vampires" was exhibited again in the sixties, in concurred sessions that had marked time, especially in Paris, London and New York, causing a reevaluation of the critics relatively to the work of Feuillade. Andres Bazin, the great critic of the French cinema, said that "Les Vampires" was "one of the biggest film of all the times", admiration shared with the directors of the new French cinema. Today, Feuillade is placed side by side to other geniuses of the mute period of the cinema, as Griffith, Stroheim, Murnau and Gance. The episodes: 1: The Cut Head (31 minutes); 2: The Ring that Kills (13 minutes); 3: The Red Book (39 minutes); 4: The Specter (30 minutes); 5: The Escape of the Dead Man (35 minutes); 6: Hypnotic eyes (53 minutes); 7: Satanus (42 minutes); 8: The Master of the Thunder (50 minutes); 9: The Poisoner (48 minutes); 10: The Terrible Marriage (57 minutes).

Seeing a police drama that is a favorite of surrealists like Luis Bunuel ought to tell you that this isn't an episode of Law and order.

It take place in a Paris that is empty because of WWI. The dreamlike scenes add to the story of a reporter Phillipe Guerande (Edouard Mathe) who is looking to a criminal organization known as The Vampires (sorry, bloodsucking fans, it's not about Dracula or his minions.).

The crime syndicate could be considered a forerunner of the Mafia as it had it's tentacles in every level of society from the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court to nobility.

A classic silent film.

Louis Feuillade, who directed over 600 films is the film great grandfather of Alfred Hitchcock and David Lynch. Musidora, who played Irma Vep is probably the first screen vamp.

An intrepid reporter and his loyal friend battle a bizarre secret society of criminals known as The Vampires.

Director Louis Feuillade is something of a legend, having directed an astonishing 630 films in the silent era (and perhaps more). He is best known for "Fantomas", the serial he made prior to "Vampires", and while the former may be marginally superior, they are both exquisite in their own way, and a great example of early thrillers.

Indeed, it is quite impressive that a film is seven hours long and still exists one hundred years later. Given how many silent films have since been lost forever, it is incredible that Feuillade's work seems to be intact and in great shape.

I can't say enough about this film--I've pursued and studied it for the last twenty years! I'm so happy it's finally been made available on video. The first time I saw it was at the Videoteque de Paris...everyday for a week I watched episode after episode but, to my horror, when I requested the last episode I was told it was unavailable! It seems that, just the day before, the grandson of Louis Feuillade--I believe he is Jacques Champraux--had the video pulled from public viewings while it was in litigation. I thought I was going to fall over! The singular reason I was in Paris was to see LES VAMPIRES and suddenly, I was swallowing a very bittersweet pill. Anyway, eventually I saw the last episode, "The Bloody Wedding," but not until some years later when the serial was shown in its entirety at the Art Institute of Chicago. FIN

A ten-part serial that took eight hours to watch with breaks, this thing defies not just summary but reliable recall: describing it is like trying to describe a year in my life. Chaotic, unpredictable, upside down, with endless sneaky tricks that defy our conception of 'movie' magic because they mainly involve Cirque-type human machines doing things that couldn't have been faked so convincingly at this date. I mean, you can see the splice whenever a character turns on the light, so when the bitchy criminal mastermind Irma Vep gets wrapped up in rope, then rolls down the side of a four-story building like a human yo-yo, you know you're watching history in the making. What's more, and redemptively, the stupid detectives are REALLY stupid, including this outrageous Italian stereotype who keeps nyuk-ing straight into the camera. There's a wild chase-fight scene on a moving train, a gas attack on a large high-society do, a kid accidentally shooting his father in the nose, and God knows what else. This dumbfoundingly imaginative, yet consistently goofy and crowd-pleasing movie could only have happened in a medium whose limits had not yet been properly defined - in fact you can see the definition happening on screen. When I grow up I want to be Henri Langlois, founder of the Cinematheque Francais, who rescued the world's only print of this film from the curb on garbage day. Hooray!