He is obsessively chased by Inspector Juve, who is generally the only one able to see Fantômas's tracks. As described by Schütt (2003) in her analysis of French crime fiction literature, Fantômas is the cause of almost any unsolved crime, a merciless criminal who can get away with his evil deeds by impersonating pretty much anyone. Fantômas wears his iconic black hood and black leotard, more sinister features than the traditional gentleman thief's domino mask and tuxedo.įantômas is a criminal genius, ruthless and particularly elusive. Despite these discrepancies, the blue-masked Fantômas is arguably the one that is most easily remembered.Ī poster for the third Fantômas serial by Louis Feuillade. The trilogy, which started in 1964 with Fantômas, departed considerably from the novels by giving the story a more comedic tone as preceded by the first two Pink Panther films, and by making Fantômas (played by Jean Marais) more of a James Bond enemy by likewise borrowing from the first two Bond films. The popular depiction of Fantômas as wearing a blue mask, black gloves, and using technological devices did not originate in the novels, but is a result of the popularity of the trilogy of Fantômas films directed by André Hunebelle in the 1960s. Such a system ensured that the film studio could produce sequels reliably. Second, the film rights to the books were immediately snapped up. This approach allowed the authors to produce almost one novel per month. The books and films that came out in quick succession anticipate current production methods of Hollywood, in two respects: First, the authors distributed the writing among themselves their "working method was to draw up the general plot between them and then go off and write alternate chapters independently of each other, meeting up to tie the two halves of the story together in the final chapter".
In the history of crime fiction, he represents a transition from Gothic novel villains of the 19th century to modern-day serial killers and supervillains. The character was also the basis of various film, television, and comic book adaptations. One of the most popular characters in the history of French crime fiction, Fantômas was created in 1911 and appeared in a total of 32 volumes written by the two collaborators, then a subsequent 11 volumes written by Allain alone after Souvestre's death. A "classic image of the Parisian oneirology", according to the French poet Robert Desnos.įantômas ( French: ) is a fictional character created by French writers Marcel Allain (1885–1969) and Pierre Souvestre (1874–1914). The cover illustration for the first volume of Fantômas, anonymous artist, 1911.
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