Louis Feuillade

Quote:
It is an outstanding film that sees Feuillade experimenting with this new cinematic genre that will lead to his classics, Fantomas, Les Vampires and Judex. The film is also notable for its introduction of the actor René Navarre, who plays detective Julien Kieffer and will go on to play Fantomas.

Le trust, ou les batailles de l’argent has a most unusual plot. The film involves the detective Julien Kieffer helping the industrialist Jacob Berwick spy on his rival Darbois in order to steal Darbois’ discovery of a formula to manufacture artificial rubber. This is the earliest example of a film that is based around corporate espionage; surprisingly, the film transcends its plot and proves to be compelling viewing.Read More »

Melodrama about a rich father who gains custody of his child while the mother goes off in tears. Of course, the child is miserable even though he has everything in the world but after a weekend trip at his poor mother’s house, the child realizes that money isn’t everything and he has to convince the father that his money is evil.Read More »

LA TARE is about Anna, a woman who is rescued from a Parisian dance hall to work in a charitable hospital. Over the years, she rises to become the head of the institution, but when an old habitué of the dance hall recognizes her picture, he attempts to blackmail her. When she refuses, he publishes a letter in the paper and the good local people who make up the hospital’s board demand her resignation.Read More »

Nymphs and cupids dance in celebration of the arrival of Spring.Read More »

A circus is in town so Bout-de-Zan (Rene Poyen) decides to sneak off and see the elephant while everyone else is sleeping. Once there he decides the best thing to do would be to steal it and the two then set off for many misadventures.Read More »

Quote:
The scenes of “Life as it is” resemble nothing of what has been done so far by the various film producers in the world. They are an attemp at realism carried for the first time to the screen as it was taken before to literature, theater and the arts.Read More »

Jacques d’Athys, a French adventurer, returns to his home in Nice after an expedition to Indochina where he has picked up a Eurasian fiancée and a book that, unbeknownst to him, contains a coded message revealing the whereabouts of both secret treasures and sensitive government intelligence. This makes him the target of foreign spies, including a Marquise of mysterious Latin origin, a Hindu hypnotist and an evil German doctor, who will stop at nothing to obtain the book.Read More »

Rudolph Strelitz, known as ‘Barrabas’, is the brutal leader of an underground gang who causes mayhe [dropcap][/dropcap]m and destruction to the lives of civilized people. A lawyer, Claude Varèse, is strongly determined to bring Strelitz to justice for the purpose of revenge, after his father was wrongly guillotined for the murder of Laure d’Hérigny, a mistress of a missing American millionaire. Later Claude Varèse’s sister, Françoise, is then abducted by the evil Dr Lucius, one of Barrabas’ henchmen.Read More »

Occupying a delicious place between Victorian melodrama and superhero comic books, Judex is one of the great serials from the career of French movie pioneer Louis Feuillade. From his castle lair high above the countryside, mystery man Judex (granite-faced Rene Creste) seeks to protect the lovely Jacqueline, while nursing a secret hatred for her fatcat father. Multiple kidnappings, assassination attempts, and narrow escapes follow; much of the mischief is orchestrated by wicked temptress Diana Monti (Musidora, the star of Feuillade’s Les Vampires). There’s also a delightfully overwhelmed detective (Marcel Levesque), who’s a sort of prototype of Monsieur Clouseau, and a streetwise Artful Dodger known as the Licorice Kid.Read More »