Les Vampires

If taken as a whole, “Les Vampires” is one of the longest films ever made, clocking in at just under 7 hours. No, I didn’t watch it all in one setting. That would be difficult for any film but for a silent film, impossible, at least for me. Not that it isn’t entertaining and interesting. The French film from director/writer Louis Feuillade from the Gaumont Studios has been restored by the Cinematheque Francois and is available in DVD and Blu ray from Kino Lorber. Aside from a lack of extras, it is a worthwhile film for your collection.I was aware of the film as it is in several best lists and is included in “1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die” book. It caught my attention again because I began watching the HBO series “Irma Vep” with Alicia Vikander. That series is actually a reboot of director Olivier Assayas 1996 movie “Irma Vep” starring Maggie Cheung. Assayas is the creator of the HBO series. Vikander plays Mira, a modern actress who plays Vep in the series which is a movie within a movie. I was intrigued by the series which actually shows clips of the silent film alongside the scenes being shot today. Confused yet? TMI?The 1916 film surprisingly was shot in Paris while the Allies were fighting the Germans 50 miles away. The original film was shown in 10 chapters ranging from 10 minutes to an hour. It is shown with updated intertitles from Kino Lorber as well as English subtitles over the French words when shown in newspapers, billboards, etc. The film by the way, isn’t about vampires, although it is easy to see that Irma Vep is an anagram for vampire. It is about a gang of killer robbers called The Vampires. Vep is played by an actress known as Musidora and she is the most interesting character in the movie. She is the head ‘moll’ in the gang but isn’t introduced until the 3rd chapter. She always reports to the Grand Vampire (Jean Ayme), a master of disguise. Although he will later be replaced by a couple more ‘Grands’ even more vicious. The woman never gets the title. A sign of the times.When the film originally played it didn’t get good reviews, but Musidora did. I suspect it was due to her appearance in Chapter 6. The Vampires would dress up in black, clingy body suits at night. This allowed them to slink around buildings and kept them hidden. And no one looked more alluring than Musidora in a body suit which easily displayed her best features.The hero in the film is a journalist named Philippe Guerande (Edouard Mathe) who along with his comical sidekick, Oscar Mazamette (Marcel Levesque), a former undertaker, do their best at tracking down the gang. It seems the newspaper man has arresting authority in France during this time. He and Mazamette are always targets for the Vampires. Another element shows up in the movie in the character of Juan-Jose Moreno (Fernand Herrmann), who heads a rival gang. He will also be a target for Guerande.What sets this film apart from other silent movies I’ve seen is the extent of the violence and killings. Chapter 1 is entitled “The Severed Head” which should give you some idea. And yes, we get to see the head. Other scintillating chapters include “The Spectre, The Corpse’s Escape, The Poison Man and The Bloody Wedding.” Another big scene involves some of the city’s high rollers attending a cocktail party. The Vampires have managed to board up the windows and send knockout gas into the big room. As everyone falls unconscious, the gang comes in and steal all of the guest’s jewelry. Other killings are carried out by poison, explosions, falls, boat sinking, hangings, strangulations, stabbings, canon fire and good old pistols.Like many silent movies, this one was done on the cheap, so you will see repeated use of the same sets, just with the furniture moved around. I had to laugh when I would see a room where someone’s desk would be facing the front/audience and characters would come in through a door in the back. Watching this movie like many silent moves requires patience and an understanding of how movies were made without sound. The actors would over exaggerate expressions and movement, as if they were in front of an audience in a stage production. Les Vampires is an interesting production as considered a masterpiece years after its release. A film said to influence the likes of Hitchcock, Fritz Lang, Luis Bunuel and even David Fincher. It certainly adds some context to the Irma Vep series and the 1996 movie which is now in my watch queue.

A great dvd of an incredible French serial. Considering that it was shot in 1915 makes it even more significant. The story was ahead of its time focusing on the chase and capture of a criminal gang. Great acting, story (even funny at times) and photography. The transfer was well done. This is a must dvd for anyone interested in films.

So says Oscar Mazamette, one of the three principal characters in Louis Feuillade's LES VAMPIRES and it sums up the plot concisely but hardly scratches the surface of the complexity of this legendary 10 episode serial. Feuillade (pronouced Foo-YAHD) had succeeded Alice Guy (rhymes with KEY) in 1907 as the production head of France's Gaumont Studios and produced and/or directed over 700 films between 1906 and 1924 (most were one or two reelers). His first large scale serial about the master criminal FANTOMAS (1913-1914) was an international success and helped to pave the way for LES VAMPIRES (1915-1916) which would be an even bigger success and would have a major influence not only on the crime drama as a genre but on many future filmmakers. It also introduced actress-dancer Musidora as Irma Vep, a black clad, dark-eyed anti-heroine (see cover) who would become one of the icons of early cinema. He would follow LES VAMPIRES with JUDEX (1916-1917) about a mysterious figure fighting for justice which gave Musidora another great villainess to play, that of Diana Monti. It too would be very successful (even spawning a sequel) and was remade by director Georges Franju (EYES WITHOUT A FACE) in 1963.The deceptively simple plotline of LES VAMPIRES has crime reporter Phillipe Guerande (Edouard Mathe') taking on a vast criminal organization known as "the Vampires" (sorry, no bloodsuckers here) with the aid of trusty, comical sidekick Mazamette (Marcel Levesque). Even though each of the 10 chapters is complete (no cliffhangers like in American serials), they are a rollercoaster ride of alternate identities, narrow escapes, and daring and dastardly deeds. What makes LES VAMPIRES work is Feuillade's use of Paris locations (ca 1915) and how restrained his performers are. The plot twists are varied and the characters are engaging and intruiging. Imagine watching a 100 year old version of HOUSE OF CARDS. The Blu-Ray release is basically the same as the old Waterbearer Films DVD although digitally remastered. The Mont Alto Orchestra score suits the material well although it's occasionally repetitive. To be fair I did watch all 7 hours with only one break (to change discs). If you've never experienced a Feuillade serial before then this is the one to start with. Some sections are in better shape than others but for being 100 years old, it looks remarkable. Try it and see. Betcha can't stop at just one episode!

This is the second Louis Feuillade series I've watched, the first being Fantomas. Well, I enjoyed Fantomas very much and, in my opinion, Les Vampires is equally as good.It's presented in a similiar format, 10 episodes of varying length, each very inventive and entertaining.Les Vampires are a gang of criminals and the stories invlove them being pursued by journalist Philippe Guerande, while holding Paris in their grip of terror. Irma Vep is particularly strong and seductive as their female leader.The episodes are visually very impressive often having a surreal, dream-like quality to them. There is a strong musical score to compliment this.One of the main reasons I've written this review is previous comments have referred to the lack of tinting in this edition. This is true but having researched this, I've found this this version to be the best available. The tinting is effective but this monochrome version has far better picture clarity, without losing detail which can happen with tinting.Overall, this is an excellent, entertaining series and I'd highly recommend it.

The titular Vampires in Feuillade's 1915 film serial (ten episodes of variable length, ranging from 12 to 58 minutes) are a gang of master criminals plaguing Paris, and it is up to Philippe Guerande, reporter at Le Mondial, and later his sidekick, the stereotypically French Mazamette to stop them. What follow are plots full of criminal heists, car and bicycle chases, vengeance, counter-vengeance, thrilling escapes and detective work. The world of Les Vampires is oddly empty of normal life (the episodes were produced at the height of the Great War, in fact after Feuillade has returned wounded from the front), but completely full of thieves and other criminals. The Vampires have several grandiose schemes going on, using multiple identities, aliases and hideouts, and the authorities are helpless to stop them.Guerande is an alert and upstanding, if straight-laced character with Mazamette as comic relief (and often deus ex machina), but the real stars are the Vampires, and particularly Irma Vep, bar singer and master thief. Irma Vep, played by the actress Musidora, might be the first movie example of the cat burglar character - beautiful, deadly and fiendishly clever, as effective creeping across a rooftop in a skintight black suit as inflitrating a household as a maid or posing as a bank clerk in pursuit of valuable information. She steals the show so thoroughly that it feels almost like cheating when she is thwarted. The fascination with her has continued well into modern cinema, recreated in loving homages by Georges Franju (in the 1963 remake of Judex, a nostalgic look back at this early age in the movies), Olivier Assayas (in Irma Vep, an 1996 art movie) and of course many others who may not even know the original character.From the descriptions above, Les Vampires may feel like an action movie, and that's right. It is full of non-stop, breakneck action, stunts and improbable devices (like an apartment which hides a long-distance cannon, or a trap door at the entrance of a middle-class home). One can see traces of all kinds of later genres here - spy movies, crime, urban thrillers - in a very clean, very archetypal form that still works without a hitch. But what makes it so enthralling is that there is a darker undercurrent beneath all this. Unlike films which stylise crime until it is removed from reality and (therefore) doesn't feel effective, the criminals in this serial are merciless and murder anyone who gets in their way without regret, or even making long speeches about it. Characters who appear to be shaping up to major figures in the plotline are dispatched in a summary manner; the turns of the story are unpredictable and reflect the semi-improvisative character of the production. There is a sense of fear about how effective crime can become when combined with the anonymity of modern cities and the conveniances of technology, a sort of mechanised and invisible menace. And there are always the character's eyes, darting around and surveying the dangerous environment and if they are being followed - the lines between thieves and Guerande are blurred as he starts using the Vampires' methods against them, and, much like Dr. Mabuse seven years later, the air is thick with paranoia.In this release (Gaumont's restoration, UK release by The Mechanical Eye), the masterful musical score underlines this feeling of "wrongness" by tense and haunting themes as characters stalk along walls, peer through windows or hide behind curtains. As it has been remarked by others, some DVD extras would have been welcome on this three-DVD set. Here, we only get a few more short movies from Feuillade, showing the breadth of an amazingly prolific man's artistic output. Of course, Les Vampires stands well enough on its own: more than simple historical artefact, it sticks in one's mind to return again and again.

Beautifully restored, crisp image, looks nicer than the blu ray even.not tinted, its black and white, it's a matter of taste whether you want the tint, would have liked the option to switch that on or off.

Classic, was a great present for an expert in the field who was delighted to get it - everybody happy!

Excellent product, it is a pity there is no english subtitles(this helps also customers from many countries)