Fantômas

Fantômas is the first of 32 novels penned from 1911 to 1913 by Marcel Allain and Pierre Souvestre. The title character is a ruthless thief and killer, a bloodthirsty successor to LeBlanc's Arsène Lupin. The first five novels were made into silent film serials. The character and the movies caught the eye of the French Surrealists who admired the primal violence of Fantômas, as well as his portrayal in the films, which are considered landmarks in French Cinema. In Fantômas, the Marquise de Langrune is savagely murdered and Inspector Juve, who is obsessed with capturing Fantômas, arrives to solve the murder. (Summary by Alan Winterrowd).

See the audio files of all novels on the following link: http://www.archive.org/details/fantomas_1007_librivox

Presentation on sound movies

I must say a special thank you to Ligia Mattos, a big supporter of this site, who kindly sent me the pictures used in this presentation. We both truly know that good things and people remain eternal while they live in other people’s hearts and the boundaries of time and death are just a way in which things are transformed. And transformation doesn’t mean leaving our dreams and beliefs behind. Good things are here to be remembered and cherished for good. This is life, this is hope, this love present in everything forever. Thank you for all your nice words.

Music by The Platters (The Great Pretender  - 1955)

Une idylle à la ferme - 1912

Country: France
Language: French
Director: Max Linder
Writer: Max Linder
Stars: Max Linder and Suzy Depsy
Also Known As: Ein Idyll im Gutshofe Austria / Germany
A Farm-house Romance UK

Roméo se fait bandit - 1909

Country: France
Language: French
Director: Romeo Bosetti
Writer: William Shakespeare (characters)
Stars: Romeo Bosetti and Max Linder
Also Known As: Romeo als Dieb Austria / Germany
Romeo Turns Bandit USA
Romeo Turns Brigand UK
Based on characters from Shakespeare's play: Romeo seeks out Juliet at her estate, and leaps atop a stone wall so that he can kiss her. But Juliet's father dislikes Romeo, and refuses to allow him to court his daughter. So Romeo organizes a group of friends to follow Juliet's father to a deserted place, where they tie him up. Juliet then joins Romeo and his group, as Romeo proceeds with a plan to use the situation to win the approval of Juliet's father.

Mon pantalon est décousu - 1908

Country: France
Language: French
Release Date: 15 February 1908 (France)
Director: André Heuzé
Writer: André Heuzé
Stars: Max Linder
Max Linder was one of the greatest early film comics who deserves to be wider known than he is. Long before the likes of Keaton, Lloyd and Chaplin - who acknowledged Linder as a major source of inspiration - Linder was creating short comedies that were far in advance of anything else being produced. While most early short comedies relied too much on people kicking each other up the backside for laughs, Linder took a look at the small things in life from which laughs could be wrung.
In the case of this film he plays a young man about town who splits his trousers while getting ready to go out one night. After applying some rather risky repairs without taking the trousers off, Max gingerly heads off to a dinner party. Of course, disaster strikes almost as soon as he arrives, and he spends the rest of the film frantically attempting to hide the gaping tear in his trousers from the other guests.

Max et sa belle-mère - 1912

Country: France
Language: French
Directors: Max Linder, Lucien Nonguet
Writer: Max Linder
Stars: Max Linder, Léon Belières and Charles de Rochefort
Also Known As: Max and His Mother-in-Law UK / USA
Max und seine Schwiegermutter Austria / Germany
Max and His Ma-in-Law UK
Pior que uma Sogra Portugal
Max and his young bride attempt to enjoy an Alpine honeymoon, despite the presence of her mother. The story here is that Max is newlywed, and not very fond of his voluminous mother-in-law, but she refuses to be left out of their honeymoon trip to some winter sports resort, and bravely soldiers on. They depart by train.. and it's a REAL train, with bi-level coaches that I've known to exist, but never seen in motion. What a contrast to the silly prop-model trains in studio used by Méliès several times! Arrived at the resort, they go through the motions of several sports: skating, sleigh-riding, skiing - all of course played for slapstick, but with nice surprising details, and great outside scenes which must have been very difficult in early movie-making, considering the reflections of snow. Mother-in-law is the only one who makes it almost all the way downhill on skis, while the others run down behind her.Even on the train ride back, she still sticks to at least one ski, so is transported in an unconventional way.. but the final scene indicates she now has really won the respect of her son-in-law.

Les débuts d'un patineur - 1907

Country: France
Language: French
Release Date: 10 May 1907 (France)
Director: Louis J. Gasnier
Writer: Louis J. Gasnier
Stars: Max Linder
Also Known As: Erster Versuch eines Schlittschuhläufers Germany
Max Learns to Skate USA
Max Wants to Skate USA
Max patineur France (alternative title)
Max veut apprendre à patiner France
The Unskillful Skater UK
Versuch eines Schlittschuhläufers Austria
Production Co: Pathé Frères
Max causes havoc when he joins other skaters on a frozen lake. This was the first movie in which Max Linder appeared as the charming gentleman dressed in silk hat and mustache, a character who soon made him one of the most beloved comedians on the silver screen before World War I.