FANTOMAS (France/1914/B&W/60mins/16mm/NFVLS)
Join Australia's leading film historian Barrie Pattison as he delves into the weird world of motion picture serials in the first of this four part program. Follow the cycle as it moves from its surreal origins with the serials of Louis Feuillade to James Bond, Indiana Jones and the Dark Knight. This program contrasts Feuillade's archetypal serial drama Fantomas with the Batman serial of the 1940s.
Dir: Louis Feuillade. A long excerpt from the classic French serial devoted to the exploits of the criminal anti-hero Fantomas. Our detective hero battles the hooded terror of the Paris streets, who brings his own vamp characters and boa constrictors into the fray. Combines a sense of fantasy and lyricism with documentary details of pre WWI France. With a new score performed live by Adrian Clement.
