Fantômas Online

Pierre Souvestre's and Marcel Allain's hero has always been a fascinating character for directors.To think that the novels were transferred to the screen in the silent era ,by Louis Feuillade and that the surrealist writers went into raptures over those films.The Paul Fejos 1932 version is worth seeking out too.

In the sixties,the novels were butchered by André Hunnebelle which made comedies out of them starring Jean Marais and Louis de Funès.Jean Marais played both Fantomas and journalist Fandor,which was an aberration.From the stories,there was nothing left but the proper nouns.

Claude Chabrol was the ideal director to film a new "Fantomas" and the choice of a TV miniseries was relevant,given the length of the novels (only three or four were adapted).Chabrol had always had a sense of mystery,which he sadly began to lose afterward.Helmut Berger ,one of Luchino Visconti's favorite actors ("la caduti dei degli" " Ludwig" ) , was THE Fantomas as he was in the novels.And Jacques Dufilho and Pierre Malet provided good support .

This exquisite TV series strongly impressed me when I was 13 yrs.,as a TV series of great beauty, immensely spectacular ,very bizarre and suspenseful, and strikingly well made. We used to discuss the TV programs at school, and I remember also that no one else liked this TV show—on the contrary, some seemed to hate it and were very dissatisfied with it. Indeed, FANTOMAS was remarkably original. The uncanny atmosphere, the strange characters, the air of menace and violence and cruelty made it a completely original thing.

The TV movie looked very compact and well conceived and exquisitely crafted—a great showmanship ,an astonishing flair for the suspenseful, fast—paced, thrilling show—something never seen before. At that time, I was in a phase when I was reading "Frankenstein", Leroux, Verne, Campbell, Leblanc and a thousand other things, and satiric magazines, Sci—Fi magazines, French comic books, and watching the Willis TV series, and collecting BATMAN cards. As a reader, bibliophile, _cinephile (the IMDb machine does not yet admit this word!), collector and boy, it was a great time, big fun. I was avidly taking note of a lot of new stuff. It was, concomitantly—FANTOMAS,FRANKENSTEIN,BATMAN, the great classic Sci—Fi, the comics, Verne, Leroux and Leblanc, Bruce Willis and 'Maddie', Sylvia Kristel's MATA HARI, I was reading ceaselessly ,with a feverish delight ,and picking licentious paragraphs from the literary classics ….

I remember Kristina Van Eyck in her femme fatal memorable role ....

My wife and I watched this episode after episode, enthralled the whole time. That is to say we really enjoyed it. The mini-series was shown on a cable program that contained highlights of French culture, pop culture in this case. This was the only thing that ever caught out attention on the program. I have no recollection of what cable channel it was on, but I do remember that we waited expectantly for it to come on. Since the series was in French, we had to get the dialogue from sub-titles, which neither my wife nor I care for, but we suffered through them for this series. If anyone gets a chance to see this, I would recommend that you take it. It isn't Citizen Kane, but it is interesting and can provide several hours of entertainment.

If we can agree to put aside the highly questionable moral position of Fantomas for whom human life has no value (except of course his own and his lover and brilliant accomplice, Lady Beltham), and therefore clears off number of people without any scruple, then the series is absolutely brilliant !

If we can accept the various intrigues and improbable and incredible situations that take place throughout the four episodes, then we can see as the filmmaking is brilliant.

In fact it's all about atmosphere, mood and mystery, absolutely gorgeous scenery ...

The different women / actresses in the series are frankly sublime, and men / actors are also not left out : a real treat for the eyes !

Kristina Van Eyck especially, (and Gayle Hunnicut too) wow… these are the real women !

Helmut Berger, the Prince of Darkness…

I didn't expect Jacques Dufilho to be as good as he is... and all supporting actors are excellent…

Apart in one strange and exceptionally beautiful scene, there is no direct eroticism in the actual meaning of the word, but an out-dated classic charm close to eroticism emerges all along the series, in many scenes. It is may be not obvious for everyone's eyes, but it was for me.

The tempo is rather slow, but as much the camera work as the work of the light are perfectly in accordance with the epoch and places where the action happen, at no time we do feel slowness or boredom. The scenes of battles and murders will certainly not appeal to realistic movie fans, but for me still, they are perfect in spirit and in the mood ...

I especially liked the one or two scenes in which Fantomas and Lady Beltham kiss each other : it looks like real kisses !

And not how I regret in almost any "classic" movies, in which unfortunately actors (as brilliant as they can be) literally stick their mouth on each other's in "love scenes"... which, in my opinion, always takes away a great deal of emotion, because no true lover in the world kiss by sticking just one mouth on the other's !

Apart that, I must admit that after the second episode "L'étreinte du diable" I was a little hesitant to continue watching, because it bothered me a little to see so many murders and kills, but the images were still so beautiful that I put aside my reticence. And fortunately... I did not regret it !

If you know and love "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" TV series with Jeremy Brett and Edward Hardwicke, then I sincerely think that you also may enjoy this Fantomas series.

I would not say the acting is exceptional, as are JB and ED in Sherlock Holmes series, no...

but it's more all assembled parts that makes this one a superb and exceptional series.

Fantomas is, to summarize, a film of charm and atmosphere ...

Me, I just loved it :-)

Helmut Berger as Fantomas? Good grief. An action hero he is not. This is a silly Batman wanna-be series. Watching Berger in his Batman outfit is time lost.