#4 Les Vampires
Year: 1915-1916
Directed by Louis Feuillade
Louis Feuillade made this serial film very quickly and basically scriptless yet it has become his most known work and I believe this crime/thriller movie introduced what suspense is like.
Les Vampires,a 7 hour silent movie divided into 10 parts is not about real vampires.It's about a ruthless gang who are calling themselves The Vampires and a journalist,Philipe Guérande who is trying to catch them.The director doesn't reveal all the characters at once but many of them are introduced or killed during the series.
I am pretty sure that the story is the greatest thing about this movie.Lots of spy tricks like poisoning,following,searching for clues,multiple identities makes this film really enjoyable and captivating.Note that Hitchcock and Fritz Lang were inspired by this and it's easy to understand why as it is full of suspense and darkness.During this long viewing,I was always surprised at how the director manages to twist the story so it's not repetative or boring.It even has tons of cheesy and unrealistic things such as Moreno's gaze which helps him to enslave people or multiple identities and hypnosis.Yet,the movie seems so logic and real that you can't notice when it goes more into the fantasy genre.It also has some shots and ideas which reminded me of newer films - two rooms which are next to each other are shown so you can see that person from one room is eavesdropping on person in another room,head in the box is delivered,person lays on the train rails and remains alive and so on.Notice that there's two partners in the film(one of them is always more silly) like it's now in most of the films.That's why I believe it's a very influental movie and when you watch it,it easy to see that.No wonder thriller and crimes genres are one of the best when Hitchcock learned from this and modern directors learned from Hitchcock.
I still found silence to be a drawback again but it definitely had a better way of showing subtitles than Birth of a Nation.Words were written mostly on notes(they were real messages in film) and very little dialogue is actually subtitled.I think the note thing was helpful as not only it would clue the viewers in but also make them feel as part of the vampire investigation.Yet,for me the story was still very complicated to understand fully so I think that I'd love it even more if I rewatch.Again,I felt at times that words reduce the suspense but for a silent film,it was like a real thriller.I mentioned that this film was made in a hurry and quality definitely suffers because of it,it was hard to follow that tremendous story since I had difficulties recognizing some characters.There's also this play with light(color) which I noticed in Birth of a Nation as well but only now I have figured out that blue color stands for night and sepia is for inside scenes.Night looks extremely bad!
I would also like to give some credit for music,so haunting and blends perfectly into this dark movie.
I think the acting is over the top at times especially by the two heroes - Mazamette and Guérande.It's too theatrical and there's lots of body language.There was this one scene where Philipe Guérande was looking for something and he was suspicious so he very visibly crossed his hands and looked over the room.
But there were some decent performances.I liked Musidora,Fernand Herrmann,Louis Leubas and some other minor role characters like the woman who played ballerina.
The characters are another great thing about the movie.The star of the whole serial is undoubtedly Irma Vep(played by silent movie star Musidora),the loyal accomplice of The Vampires leader,sneaky,ruthless yet elegant woman who always manages to escape her captives or to trick them.I loved her character,especially the subtle acting and her vampire look.Great female villain.
To sum up,I think it's one of the better innovative silent movies introducing thriller/crime cinema.Lots of suspense,captivating story,lovable and ruthless but still in a way sympathetic characters,haunting music,some kind of step into the noir genre,dark atmosphere,depressing situations and the final climax makes all this time worth your while yet the technical side and silence restricts Les Vampires from being an acclaimed and known masterpiece.I think it could be remade.
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