4. Les Vampires 1915

Directed by Louis Feuillade

Synopsis

The film is far far far far far far too long to give an appropriate synopsis here. And I have a migraine. Basically there's this group of amazingly acrobatic cat burglars who call themselves Les Vampires. However, they are not without their nemesis. The nemesis comes in the form of our intrepid reporter Guerande, who spends the whole "film" trying to catch them until he does. All's well that ends in a Waco style massacre.

Review

First things first. This is not exactly a film. Firstly, it's 440 minutes long, yes, not 44...440. Secondly it's broken up into 10 semi-independent episodes, varying from 1 hour long to just 13 minutes long. Also they were not shown back to back in the cinema. They were a series that you had to go watch in the cinema because TV's were so scarce they hadn't been invented yet.

So don't even attempted to watch it in one go. I had to do it in a short span of time, watching two episodes a day and it was too much. Still, you should watch it, it is truly amazing. Probably the first thriller commited to screen it is so influential it isn't even funny! From car chases, to secret passages, to heroines dressed in giant skin tight stockings, to fights on top of trains, all the cliches are here, the comic relief sidekick, glorification of police brutality. But here they were not cliches, this is actually where they started. And for that the "film" is brimming with merit. It is a work of genius.

In terms of characters, Phillipe Guerand, the main actor, is actually quite dull. On the other hand you have two priceless characters in the famous Musidora playing Irma Vep (what a clever anagram) and the precurssor of Stan Laurel in Mazamette, the faithfull comedic side-kick of Guerand, who steals the show in any scene he is in. Some find Mazamette to be hammy... and, well, he is, a big lump of ham who is a lot of fun to watch. The scenes in the first two episodes in which Mazamette repeatedly shows the picture of his children to Phillipe in order for him to understand why he works for Les Vampires are priceless.

I also enjoyed the smart use of the titles with little flying letters in order to make anagrams and coded messages clear. Very clever.

So, I really liked it. But it needs to be taken in small doses. Fortunately you can do that for free with google video! Yay!

Final Grade

8/10 (probably 9 if I wasn't a bit sick of it by now)

Trivia

Musidora:
"It is vital to be photogenic from head to foot. After that you are allowed to display some measure of talent."

There's ladies in skin tight clothing. What are you waiting for?

For the ladies: Mazamette is a Hunk.