Fantômas

I watched this film tonight on TV5 again for the first time in 20+ years and loved it. I had always wanted to see it again because it had left only good memories from when I was a teenager and watched it on German TV where it was very popular in the 70s. The main character is an evil rogue who outwits his pursuers by his skills in disguise and technical resources. The film (and its sequels) is based on a series of 1910s French pulp novels which have only sparsely been released in the U.S. (sadly unavailable in print right now). The novels influenced French surrealist and avant-garde artists/writers because of their fascination with moral transgression and black humor (a term coined by the surrealist Andre Breton in the 1930s). If you like slapstick comedy you will also enjoy Louis de Funes in the role of Inspector Juve. Sure, the film is badly made by today's standards and technically not as brilliant as the 1960s James Bond movies that it mocks--but, hey, at least the bad guy is smarter than the good ones, which is still refreshing to see compared to most oh-so-morally-PC Hollywood flicks today.

Enjoy!

Simplement culte de chez culte. A voir et à revoir

This movies i mean the three Fantômas were an important part of my childhood back in the late 60s or early 70s, i remember how much fun was to go the movies back then in my little coastal town of Banes in the east part of Cuba with my cousin Manny, and the Fantômas movies were the biggest hit of all, any Cuban over 40 years old will tell you how much they love this movie and because this movies Mylene Demongeot the very beautiful french actress became very popular in the beginning she was another copy of Brigitte Bardot as michele Mercier or Marina Vlady and many others were but as Vlady she became star in her own right, Louis de Funes the most popular of all french actors or comedian in Cuba became an idol back then he was really funny later in my life i discovered he was of Spanish decent and Jean Marais by the time of the Fantômas movies he was at the end of his stardom and i was very surprise when i discover later in my life he was gay and at one point he was the lover of Jean Cocteau, anyway i love the Fantômas movies and forever they will remain part of my life

It was wonderful for me to discover this classic French gem so late.

Why?

Because I was brought up on 007, and Fantomas harks back to early Bond in many ways: Thematically, musically, visually. But whereas Bond films perpetrate English rational thinking and ironic humor, Fantomas goes the French way: Farce, sexyness, and ...Louis DeFunés!!!

We are nearer to comic- book villainy here.

We also notice that lots of FRANCS were put where the Brits put their POUNDS. By this I don't doubt for a minute that by showing off Paris and the French Riviera the French government certainly wished to rival Britain's skilfully propaganda operation perpetrated by Bond films. (Let's not forget that Ian Fleming, who authored the books, was a British agent).

But though Marais has much of Roger Moore's (a future Bond) suave appeal, it is the zany, manic DeFunés who steals the show...turning the film into something hard to classify. In fact he single-handedly wreaks havoc, and triggers off material for Peter Sellers' future inventions like Inspector Clouseau (of the Suretée).

The stunts in this film are amazing, and coarsely riveting. Marais and elderly DeFunés pull off quite a few themselves. And the inflatable dinghy finale is so tongue-in- cheek it will have you giggling like a toddler.

Vive la Liberté!

This is a freewheeling fun narrative. Weeeeeeee. Funny parts along with the things happening.

11/19 p.s. This is a technical marvel of a flick that shows motorcycles in a chase sequence as they crash and riders flip through the air like out of The Road Warrior from predating the same type of action being done here way before.