"Les Vampires"

Tonight I watched part of a Silent movie called "Les Vampires" (1915). Why did I only watch part of it, you ask? Then you ask, "was it so bad you turned it off"? I answer with a Resounding "No"! to your second question, because "Les Vampires" was so good, and so much fun, that I would have kept watching with pleasure, except for the fact that it is 7 hours long. "Holy Smokes"!, you say, "so that's the reason". and you are right.

Yep, the running time for the movie is 421 minutes, but the thing is, that it was not originally released to theaters at that length. Way back in the early days of cinema, there was something called a "serial", where fans would be shown a new episode every week or so. Serial episodes were short, so in most cases they were part of the evening's feature film program. But by creating a "serial", they created a returning audience who just couldn't wait to see What Happened Next. In France, in the early days of movies, there was a filmmaker named Louis Feuillade, who in his life made almost 700 films.

Shirley, you can't be serious, but I am serious (and don't call me Shirley). I mean, I only know that Feuillade made 700 flicks because I looked him up on IMDB, and it seems that he was quite prolific, though I would guess that much of his work is likely Nickelodeon fare, and not the Nickleodeon TV Channel either, but the original motion picture box that a patron looked through to see flapping pictures rapidly flickering away. But "Les Vampires", from what I saw tonight, is surreal and fantastic, with tremendous B&W photography that looks enchanting almost, though it is a crime movie at it's core. On the dvd (as in the theater one hundred and three years ago), there are ten "chapters" to "Les Vampires". The episodes average out to about forty two minutes in length, though some are shorter and some longer. The story is this : In Paris, in 1915, is a daring and costumed gang of master criminals who call themselves "Les Vampires". Their leader is one Doctor Nox, an alias of course, and they also have members who are part of the Paris theater scene. They use one actress primarily to subliminally intimidate the public. Her name is Irma Vep, which - when rearranged - spells Vampire. Pretty darn subliminal, I say.

So they have this group of very sophisticated criminals, made up of doctors and Counts (oh no!), and actresses, and they prowl the Paris streets and rooftops in the early morning hours, looking to break in, or commit mayhem, or just generally disrupt civilised life. There is a subtle suggestion, at least in the first three episodes that I have seen, that the Vampires are occult-oriented, even Satanists. Pretty far out for a 103 year old movie. And that's another thing worth mentioning, that the picture looks very good considering it's age. Back to the story : there is an Intrepid Reporter on the scene. He is Intrepid because for one thing it's a Cool Sounding Word, and also because No Ordinary Reporter would take on the omnipotent Vampires. So it has to be an Intrepid Reporter. But anyway, in the first episodes that I saw tonight, the Reporter is hot on the trail of the true indentities of the various Vampires, who wear All Black as they prowl the darkened landscape above the streets of Paris.

It is all very inventive stuff. The picture on the Kino disc set looks practically brand new, as if you are right in the room of the detectives who  are out to stop the Vampires.

I will probably watch another couple of episodes tomorrow night, just to maintain continuity of the story.

Anyway, I am UltraMega Tired. Gonna allow my eyes to close as they have been attempting to do for a while now.

See you in the morn.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)