Director: Louis Feuillade
Year: 1915
Country: France
Language: French
I first heard about the 6.5 hour long silent Les Vampires about five years ago. I knew I wanted to watch it, yet was very hesitant because of the long run-time.There also wasn't any good restoration available at the time, until a few weeks ago. Kino Lorber released Les Vampires on August 13, 2012 on 2 Disk DVD and Blu Ray and the quality of the film on either format is much better than what can be seen on youtube or the previous DVD release/ I expected a film about vampires and their slow take over of Paris, while that would have been great the actual plot is even better. The film centers on the adventures of intelligent and resourceful jewel thieves, collectively referred to as Vampires, they seek wealth and physical, intellectual and sexual dominance over the wealthy French. It is a surreal and hypnotic yet realistic film, filled with great performances. It shows that you don't need special effects, or even half of our modern technology, to make an amazing film.
As I said, Les Vampires does not refer to a group of Vampires but a group of ingenious jewel thieves who target the wealthy in order to control them. They use various "terrorist" like methods which include the use of kidnapping, poisonous gas, various weapons and disguising themselves to reach their goal of complete domination over the city of Paris. Led by Virma Emp (Musidora), she giver the group their orders for the day and is also a master of disguises, using her skill to gain access to places that would almost be impossible to get into. Phillipe Guerande (Edouard Mathe) is the Sherlock Holmes of this story, a relentless investigator who seeks to end the madness the jewel thieves have created with their presence and have them all imprisoned. His sidekick is a man known as Oscar Mazamette (Marcel Levesque, an honest and loyal friend who has great insights into the psychology and history because he used to be a part of the ever expanding gang. However, he has reformed himself and dedicated his life to helping Guerande, though often provides more comic relief than help.
Les Vampires in an impressively complex French silent epic that is a fully functional blend of drama, horror, comedy and mystery. The strong plot, which alone is enough to drive you to see this film, has both a fantasy feel and a realistic feel. It features quite imaginative situations that could actually happen. Nothing in this film is too absurd, though nothing in this film is boring. The film has an eerie mood, likely because it was shot on location in post World War 1 Europe. The cinematography, though limited as the film was made during the earlier days of film, is good enough to keep you in a suspenseful state. While all the acting in this film is decent, Musidora's performance as the enigmatic leader of thieves stands out on its own. Musidora provides the bold sexuality and intense charisma Irma Vemp needs to make her an enticing character and believable leader. One of the reasons I was glued to the screen, was to see Musidora and her captivating performance.
One of my problems with the film is that the actors seem to be too aware that they're making a film. Certain actors, notably Marcel Levesque, keep looking back at the camera when they're performing a scene in which they do not need to face the camera distracts me and takes me away from the magic of the film. As a result I never really felt lost in the world of Les Vampires. The score in the Kino Lorber edition of the film is decent, a little underwhelming at time but certainly does its job by getting you to the edge of your seat during appropriately suspenseful times.
In conclusion, Les Vampires is one of the best silent films I have ever seen and certainly deserves a great restoration and home video release 97 years after it was seen in Paris theaters. It is my favourite film of the 1910's, any silent film fanatic needs to have this in their collection. If you are fairly new to Silent Cinema, have only seen a Chaplin film or have never seen a silent film at all I recommend seeing this in parts as the 6.5 hour length may drain you. I watched it over a period of three days, mainly because I found it too long to watch in one sitting. I definitely intend to watch this film again as it clearly is among the best made films of the silent era. Praise it! 4/5
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