1915/FR 440m Dir: Louis Feuillade Key Cast: Musidora, Edouard Mathe
Original Screenplay
It's taken me some time to watch this nigh-on seven hour serialised film. I have a limited attention span at the best of times but I find that silent films require a level of attention rarely required from a 'talkie'. The length comes from the fact that this is essentially a TV series made before the invention of TV. It's in ten episodes, each of which tells it's own story but uses recurring characters and there's an over-arching plot too.
The title is somewhat misleading as there are no blood-sucking monsters in sight. Instead 'Les Vampires' are a criminal gang in Paris led by a succession of Grand Vampires with master thief Irma Vep (Musidora) constantly sneaking around in a skin-tight costume. Journalist Philippe Guérande (Édouard Mathé) begins an investigation into the group, aided by his friend and the comic relief of the piece Mazamette (Marcel Lévesque).
It was apparent to me that there was no grand plan when it came to writing this with- it seemed that Louis Feuillade made an episode and then worried about what would happen next when he needed to. This does mean that the film is quite disjointed in terms of plot with characters suddenly arriving and then exiting all over the place and only the three leads appearing throughout.
It's a cat and mouse thriller as Guérande tries to intercept the Vampires various grand schemes and the Vampires become increasingly frustrated at being thwarted and seek to kill him. It has a bit of everything- there's murders, gunfights, gadgets like a canon that be disassembled into an assortment of luggage, poisonings and even the earliest cinematic example of a chase on the roof of a moving train that I've seen. It's an early action thriller and you plot it's legacy from Fritz Lang to Alfred Hitchcock to James Bond and Indiana Jones and beyond.
It's incredible that Feuillade managed to make this given the technical limitations, the lack of cinema pedigree to look back on and the fact that the First World War was raging on not that far away at all. It's a truly remarkable achievement.
It's easy to be put off by the length but it's fairly accessible when viewed episodically as it was originally intended. The first great thriller that incorporates tension and threat, great action scenes and even a hint of comedy. Superb!
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