Thursday 31 July 2008

The Fantômas I want to see

What did you say?"
"I said: Fantomas."
"And what does that mean?"
"Nothing... And everything!"
"But what is it?"
"Nobody... And yet, it is somebody!"
"And what does that somebody do?"
"Spreads terror!"

("Fantomas"- Chapter 1)

I already talked about him in this entry. Fantômas is the master of crime, Satan made human, showing to the modern world that there is such thing as pure, gratuitious, unrepentant evil. I first came to know about Fantômas from the stupid André Hunnebelle adaptations. I remember stumbling on the last half of Fantômas contre Scotland Yard when I was a young child. It was stupid and too comedic, but I thought the Satanic laughter of Fantômas was scary enough. It is much later, in my early teen, that I discovered the novels. I don't know why I didn't read more than two. I will correct that mistake soon.

Anyway, I know about Claude Chabrol's version, with Helmut Berger in the main role, but have never seen it. I found the intro on youtube, in German. You can see the last minutes of the previous episode, which is the equivalent of the last page of the very first novel, and the opening credit. It seems very good, quite faithful to the source material (although Juve should be younger and his reaction as far as I remember was one of anger and despair when he discovers that Fantômas escaped the guillotine, much stronger than here, but it is true it is dubbed) and it really makes me want to see the whole series. Anyway, why can't I find these things on DVD? It seems to be lost and forgotten, for all eternity. Just like Fantômas himself in a way, almost forgotten it seems. He deserves another adaptation.

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