Louis Feuillade

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Louis Feuillade (February 19, 1873 – February 25, 1925) was a French film director from the silent era.

Louis Feuillade was born on February 29th 1873 in Lunel (Herault - France) in a family of modest wine merchants. Just beyond adolescence, he showed a deep interest in literature and created numerous drama and vaudeville projects. His excessively academic poems were occasionally published in local newspapers. He also acquired a reputation as a critic of bullfighting. He came to Paris in 1898 to acquire literary fame. Famished journalist, he would suffer miserably for a long time.

At the beginning of 1905, he started to regularly sell screenplays to Gaumont, and soon got the chance to direct them himself. In 1907, he was appointed artistic director of the company. He would occupy this position until 1918, while at the same time continuing to produce his own films, so that by 1925, the year of his death, he estimated that he had made around 800 films. (At the time he started in cinema, a film rarely lasted more than ten minutes). He made films of all types: trick films at the beginning, copied on great Méliès, comedies, bourgeois dramas, historical or biblical dramas, mystery or exotic adventures … But he showed his genius most clearly in his unforgettable serial films. The"Fantomas" serial in 1913, the result of a long apprenticeship - during which the series with realistic ambitions "Life as it is" played a major role - was his first masterpiece. It is also the first masterpiece in what the modern critic, from both a literary and a cinematographic point of view, would later call "the fantastic realism" or the "social fantastic".

He is credited with developing many of the thriller techniques used famously by Fritz Lang, Alfred Hitchcock, and others.

Filmography: 1907 : Tea at the Porter's House (Le Thé chez la concierge) (the oldest of his films we have) 1908 : The Legend of the Spinner (La Légende de la fileuse) (film with tricks, Méliès style) 1910-13 : "Baby" serial: Baby Apache (Bébé Apache) - 1911 (Series of comedies performed by a 4-year-old child, the little Clément Mary, later René Dary - around 90 short films). 1911 : Heliogabale (ancient drama) 1911-12 : Serial "Life as it is": The Defect (La vie telle qu'elle est: la Tare) - 1911 (dramas and realistic comedies - 14 films) 1913-14 : Series of "Fantomas" (Mystery drama - 5 films) Series of "Bout de Zan": Bout de Zan steals an elephant (Bout de Zan vole un éléphant) - 1913 (This serial, performed by the little René Poyen, replaces the "Bébé" serial - 62 short films) Series "The funny Life": The Jocond (La vie drôle: le Jocond) (vaudevilles - 5 films) 1915 : "The Vampires"(Les Vampires) (10 episodes) 1916 : "Judex" (12 episodes) 1918 : "Vendemiaire" (Rural drama during the First-World-War - in 2 parts) "Tih-Minh" (12 episodes) 1919 : "Barrabas" (12 episodes) 1921-22 : "Good Mood" Series Seraphin or the Naked Legs (Belle Humeur: Seraphin ou les jambes nues) - 1921 (vaudevilles - 5 films) 1922 : "Parisette" (12 episodes) 1923 : "Vindicta" (5 stages)