Tuesday, April 5, 2011

The Lord of Evil returns

I'm not so much on silent movies - a lack of patience on my part, I suppose - but I'm fascinated with the original Fantomas films, some of which are now available in high quality restoration on YouTube, as for example:



Inspector Juve's pursuit of Fantomas is of course doomed to failure. You know that he'll never succeed when in the opening sequence F. puts on his executioner's hood, which he'll use to good effect when he submerges himself in a huge vat of vin rouge after chucking a 20-ft python into the Inspector's sleeping chamber.

But the chase itself, which proceeds quite leisurely and with great attention to detail, takes you through the streets of Paris and places you into some fascinating Belle Epoque venues and contemporary interiors.

What better way to prepare for the several centenary events commemorating the first appearance of the Lord of Evil presented  this week in San Francisco by City Lights Bookstore.

I downloaded the ebook for the Juve vs. Fantomas novel off Amazon.com for only ninety-nine cents.

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