Deborah Cooke: Author

Mr. Math and I have been on a run of viewing silent movies. It’s quite interesting. I hadn’t known much about them, beyond loving Metropolis. The latest version of Metropolis, which comes closest to reconstructing the entire original film is impressive, and made me more curious about silent films.

Right now, we’re watching Fantomas, a serialization created in France around 1911. Fantomas is himself the master criminal terrorizing Paris, and Juve is the police inspector determined to catch him. This series was based upon a successful series of books at the time, and there have apparently been many additional films and graphic novels since. (Here’s the Wiki, which talks about all the various versions of the story. The one we’re watching is listed under Films: Silent Serials, directed by Louis Feuillade.)

One thing that’s interesting about this series is how similar it is to modern television shows. You can see the seeds of the television police procedural in each episode – Fantomas commits a crime, and Juve arrives on the scene to try to solve it, prove Fantomas’ guilt, then catch Fantomas. Fantomas escapes in the last minute – or at least he has in every episode so far – so that there can be another episode. There are also ongoing threads, details that have not been resolved and characters who reappear – like Fantomas’ lover, Lady Beltham. Most of the installments end with a cliffhanger or at least a hook, tempting the viewer to come back for more.

These films also show life over a hundred years ago. In terms of detective work, the Paris police do forensics and fingerprinting, something I hadn’t known was in practice then. Many scenes are filmed in Paris streets, so you can see what the city looked like then. For example, there’s a mix of horse-drawn wagons and carriages on the cobbled streets, taxis with combustion engines, steam powered buses and bicycles. In one sequence, an investigator follows a suspect as she takes the subway or Métro – in 1911. One sequence takes place on the gabled rooftops, another in the sewers, and characters routinely crawl through chimneys and furnace flues. There are glimpses of prison cells in the day, theatres, homes, gardens and boarding houses. The clothes are also wonderful. In terms of social history, the eye candy is fabulous – if all in black and white.

Finally, I’m enjoying the film techniques. Cinematography is in its infancy in this era but there’s tremendous inventiveness in this series. One sequence involving a train crash is filmed with model trains – it’s very well done. The only clue is that the smoke from the steam engine is out of scale with the train. This is a common technique now, but it must have been pretty innovative then. The stories remind me of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes series, particularly in showing a similar adversity between Juve and Fantomas as Holmes and Moriarty. Fantomas and Moriarty share a taste for unusual methods – I seem to remember Moriarty using a snake as a “silent executioner” as well.

Mr. Math has commented that in silent films, it doesn’t matter what language the director and actors spoke. It’s true. In this version, the inter-titles are done in English, but you really don’t need many of them. You can guess what the characters are saying to each other, by the context, their gestures and expressions. I was surprised by how violent Fantomas is – he is a psychopath with no compassion for others. The difference is that the violence is not shown on screen – he lifts a knife to abuse a victim, the knife descends, and the scene is cut. In the next scene, the inspector will be reading an account of the crime with horror. The train crash showed mangled cars with people running to help, but no blood or injuries. It’s still horrific, even without the graphic display of gore, which is also intriguing.

Have you ever watched any silent films? Do you like them?