Country: France
Released: November 13th, 1915 - June 30th, 1916
Genre: Crime Thriller
Directed by: Louis Feuillade
Produced by: Gaumont
Written by: Louis Feuillade
Wow, this list really isn't making it easy for me.
Les Vampires follows Phillipe Geurande (Édouard Mathé), a reporter for the Paris Gazette who looks like an adult version of Alfalfa from The Little Rascals as he tries to discover the mystery of Les Vampires, a nefarious crime organization, and bring them to justice. It is one of the earliest examples of crime dramas in history and a great piece of cinema.
It is also over six hours long.
Released in ten separate episodes, the 'film' resembles a television show more than anything else, and answers the age old question, 'what if HBO existed in 1915?' And boy do you feel it's length. What started out as a fun and interesting mystery plot very quickly became a torturous slog. I wish I could say I was focused and analytical throughout the whole thing, but to be honest I spent most of the last episode browsing reddit on my phone. Six hours is too much to handle for a silent film like this, and with so much of the story being filler I found my diminutive attention span being pushed to its limits.
But hey, at least it wasn't The Birth of a Nation.
The closest thing I could compare the style of Les Vampires would be The Adventures of Tintin, and once my brain made that connection the similarities are striking: both feature young, boyish journalists with stupid haircuts as they solve mysteries and combat criminals with the aid of goofy sidekicks. The action is subdued and relatively realistic (the comic version, at least), and the stories follow similar beats: our plucky protagonist gets invited to visit a friend/relative/event only to get drawn into a mystery orchestrated by an evil shadow organization looking to make a profit; the protagonist foils them on a small scale but doesn't figure out the mystery; he gets kidnapped only to be saved by his quirky compatriot (who's way more interesting); followed by a series of small scale mysteries that tie into the greater story only to have the protagonist prevail and the bad-guys die/get arrested. In fact they are so similar I'd wager that Les Vampires was a direct influence of Georges Remi.
Speaking of Remi, why did Tintin never take off in North America? Seriously, it's freaking awesome. I used to spend hours in elementary and middle school reading that shit instead of studying and it was compelling stuff. I mean, it's popular in almost every single other country on the planet, why was it so ignored in the States? You Americans really need to get on that. And check out Asterix while you're at it.
But I digress. Phillipe isn't so much a character as he is a vessel for the adventure, a Gary Sue. Most of the character development (and I use the term loosely) falls on the shoulders of Mazamette (Marcel Lévesque), Phillipe's bumbling sidekick who's arch consists of going from being a womanizing criminal buffoon to being a married crime-fighting buffoon... who also becomes rich. But I'm being too harsh, Mazamette is easily one of the most enjoyable aspects of the movie simply because he manages to be slapstick while also just competent enough so as to not get irritating.
Let me list off a couple final observations before wrapping things up:
Released: November 13th, 1915 - June 30th, 1916
Genre: Crime Thriller
Directed by: Louis Feuillade
Produced by: Gaumont
Written by: Louis Feuillade
Wow, this list really isn't making it easy for me.
Les Vampires follows Phillipe Geurande (Édouard Mathé), a reporter for the Paris Gazette who looks like an adult version of Alfalfa from The Little Rascals as he tries to discover the mystery of Les Vampires, a nefarious crime organization, and bring them to justice. It is one of the earliest examples of crime dramas in history and a great piece of cinema.
It is also over six hours long.
Released in ten separate episodes, the 'film' resembles a television show more than anything else, and answers the age old question, 'what if HBO existed in 1915?' And boy do you feel it's length. What started out as a fun and interesting mystery plot very quickly became a torturous slog. I wish I could say I was focused and analytical throughout the whole thing, but to be honest I spent most of the last episode browsing reddit on my phone. Six hours is too much to handle for a silent film like this, and with so much of the story being filler I found my diminutive attention span being pushed to its limits.
But hey, at least it wasn't The Birth of a Nation.
The closest thing I could compare the style of Les Vampires would be The Adventures of Tintin, and once my brain made that connection the similarities are striking: both feature young, boyish journalists with stupid haircuts as they solve mysteries and combat criminals with the aid of goofy sidekicks. The action is subdued and relatively realistic (the comic version, at least), and the stories follow similar beats: our plucky protagonist gets invited to visit a friend/relative/event only to get drawn into a mystery orchestrated by an evil shadow organization looking to make a profit; the protagonist foils them on a small scale but doesn't figure out the mystery; he gets kidnapped only to be saved by his quirky compatriot (who's way more interesting); followed by a series of small scale mysteries that tie into the greater story only to have the protagonist prevail and the bad-guys die/get arrested. In fact they are so similar I'd wager that Les Vampires was a direct influence of Georges Remi.
Speaking of Remi, why did Tintin never take off in North America? Seriously, it's freaking awesome. I used to spend hours in elementary and middle school reading that shit instead of studying and it was compelling stuff. I mean, it's popular in almost every single other country on the planet, why was it so ignored in the States? You Americans really need to get on that. And check out Asterix while you're at it.
But I digress. Phillipe isn't so much a character as he is a vessel for the adventure, a Gary Sue. Most of the character development (and I use the term loosely) falls on the shoulders of Mazamette (Marcel Lévesque), Phillipe's bumbling sidekick who's arch consists of going from being a womanizing criminal buffoon to being a married crime-fighting buffoon... who also becomes rich. But I'm being too harsh, Mazamette is easily one of the most enjoyable aspects of the movie simply because he manages to be slapstick while also just competent enough so as to not get irritating.
Let me list off a couple final observations before wrapping things up:
- Coloured filters are used to distinguish between settings: Orange for indoors, blue for nighttime, and most jarringly green for outdoors. It's an original style and creative given the limitations of the time but ultimately unnecessary. More than anything it just looks odd and distracting, every time the characters went outside it looked like the reel suddenly got sick and was about to throw up.
- First child actor on the list, at least the first one with a meaningful role and not just used as a glorified prop to pull at the audience's emotional heartstrings (god-dammit Birth of a Nation). Child actors are always hit or miss but René Poyen, the kid in this, was surprisingly good. Probably because it was exclusively physical acting but overall it was a pleasant surprise. Let's hope it's the start of dozens of future child-actor abuse scandals to come!
- Also first car chase on the list. It only lasted a minute but seeing the actors stand up and fight on a moving vehicle was gripping, even if it probably was only at like thirty miles an hour.
- Dramatic irony is used to great effect and despite being the main crux of the suspense for most of the film doesn't get tiring.
- Why are half the villains Spaniards? What the hell did we ever do to the French?
I don't really have anything more to say about this one. The sets and costumes are impressive, but that's to be expected since most Parisian at the time looked like this, and for all we know they filmed at the director's house. Reading what actual film historians and people smarter than me have to say about the film makes me wish I could appreciate it more, but six hours is a lot to sit through. Not surprisingly the longer the viewing gap between episodes the more enjoyment I got out of them. The last five episodes, which I watched back to back, blur into an incomprehensible mess; my eyes glazed over and I couldn't help but wonder about what the future lay in store. When I came up with the idea for this blog I thought it would be smooth sailing; nothing but 50s sci fi and 80s action movies, with some classics sprinkled in for good measure. This movie has made me strikingly aware that I've got a ways to go before Scorsese or Spielberg.
Ah well, if you're a hardcore fan of crime dramas or noir there's definitely some enjoyment to get out of Les Vampires. Just don't try tackling it all at once.
No comments:
Post a Comment