Fantômas

::For the band Fant?mas, go to Fant?mas (band)

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Fant?mas, a fictional master criminal and villain, is the subject of a series of early-20th century French detective thrillers.

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He is a master of disguise, always appearing under an assumed identity, often that of a person he has murdered. He is pursued in the novels by Inspector Juve, a police detective obsessed with his capture, and J?r?me Fandor, a journalist whose father Fant?mas murdered and impersonated. Fant?mas is assisted, sometimes reluctantly, by his lover Lady Beltham, an English noblewoman whose husband was another of Fant?mas's victims. Fant?mas makes use of bizarre and improbable techniques in his crimes, such as plague-infested rats, giant snakes, and rooms that fill with sand.

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During the series Fant?mas is given as the father of at least three children:

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• H?l?ne, illegitimate daughter by an unnamed mother. She posed as the daughter of the Emperor of India, who at the time of the novels was actually George V of the United Kingdom. She reluctantly helped her father on a number of cases and occasionally posed as the lover/wife of her brother or half-brother Prince Vladimir. She eventually fell in love with Jer?me Fandor and they married in volume 25 of the series. In later volumes her husband was suspected of also being her half-brother.
• J?r?me Fandor, actual name Charles Rambert. He believed himself to be the son of the deceased Etienne and Madeline Rambert. In Volume 26 of the series, however, Etienne was discovered alive, hiding in the Netherlands. He expressed his belief that J?r?me was actually the result of his wife's affair with another man. The latter was suspected to be Fant?mas, who was also by that time J?r?me's father-in-law and worst enemy.
• Prince Vladimir, another illegitimate son. Like his father he is a villain with sadistic and homicidal tendencies. He enthusiastically assisted his father on several occasions and also posed as the lover/husband of his sister or half-sister H?l?ne. Whether they actually shared a sexual relationship was left uncertain.

The original French language series of Fant?mas stories comprises 32 novels by Marcel Allain and Pierre Souvestre, which appeared in French between 1911 and 1913. The first seven books of the series appeared in English language translation between 1915 and 1920. The original covers of the novels, by Gino Starace, are often considered works of lurid genius in themselves, and may be seen at the "Fant?mas Lives" site linked below. During the 1980s, the first two novels of the series were published in revised English translations: Fant?mas appeared in 1986 with an introduction by the American poet John Ashbery, and Juve contre Fant?mas appeared in 1987 under the title The Silent Executioner with an introduction by the American artist Edward Gorey. The remainder of the series has never been published in English.

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In 1926, Marcel Allain published five more Fant?mas adventures written by himself alone, Souvestre having died in February of 1914. Between 1933 and 1938, he published three more Fant?mas adventures as newspaper serials, which never appeared as books. None of these later works have ever been published in English.

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The silent film pioneer Louis Feuillade directed five films based on the Fant?mas series, appearing in 1913-1914. They are regarded as masterpieces of silent film and are often considered to be superior to the novels themselves. His later serial Les Vampires, which concerns a mysterious crime syndicate known as "The Vampires," is reminiscent of the Fant?mas series in many respects, and generally considered superior to the earlier films. Both sets of films have been released on video. A number of subsequent series of Fant?mas films have been made, including one series starring Louis de Funes.

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The Fant?mas novels and the subsequent films were highly regarded by the French avant-garde of the day, particularly by the surrealists. Blaise Cendrars called the series "the modern Aeneid"; Guillaume Apollinaire said that "from the imaginative standpoint Fant?mas is one of the richest works that exist." The painter Ren? Magritte and the surrealist poet and novelist Robert Desnos both produced works alluding to the novels or the subsequent films.

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Fantômas: Influence ►



 

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