Les vampires

I watched this 336 minutes long film over three days. This 'legendary' silent thriller by Louis Feuillade is more like a historical document that serves to remind us how conventions, technologies, and tastes have evolved and changed ever since the first of ten episodes was made in 1915.

'Popular' with its contemporary audience, I am sure even a toddler today can spot some of the cracks in the plots. It was also obvious that the technologies of the mid-1910s would not allow shooting in dim light, and therefore all the street scenes at night are identical to those of the day time, making it sometimes rather confusing (even in this rather simple plot story) to follow the sequences of events. The actors, male or female, young or old, all seem extremely athletic and were capable of climing up the walls like a monkey on a tree! In terms of performance, it was a norm for the main characters to share their points of view by looking at the camera for a few seconds and even telling us with silent lips their inner thoughts as if failing to do so would hinder the communication with the audience!

There are things though which remain unchanged despite the thriller has moved on so much with the advance of technologies. For example, pairing the protagonist with a comic sidekick is still the norm, and while the lead has to stand up to scrunity in all aspects (and therefore a bit boring), his sidekick would usually have all the fun for human being, humourous and even naughty. I am charmed by the actor who played the sidekick in this film and found him most endearing and funny.

The major impact though is how the police was represented. It was not just that events evolve around the journalist, his sidekick, and the vampires, and that all the leads of crimes resulted from the (supernatural) instinct, extreme alertness, talents, hard working and integrity of the protagonists, but even at the scenes where police was present, it was them who gave orders to police as if they were their commanding officers!! Alfred Hitchcock never trusted the police, but it was here that they were rendered entirely redundant as if they were a mere group of salaryman in uniform!

The Vampires reminds me of Irma Vep, starring Maggie Cheung and directed by Oliver Assayas. The only thing I can remember the 'remake' of 1996 was how obscure and complicated it was. I wonder if I can understand it a bit better.