Judex

Although technically a remake of Louis Feuillade's 1916 pulp fantasy serial—a silent adventure of crime and retribution—Georges Franju's 1963 film is more of a surreal reimagining. Franju is oddly faithful to the source material's bizarre plot, in which a masked vigilante who calls himself Judex (American magician Channing Pollock) makes it his personal mission to punish cruel banker Favraux (Michel Vitold) and also battle wicked femme fatale Diana Monti (Francine Bergé). But the director compresses Feuillade's five-hour-plus film series into 97 minutes and trades the original's rollercoaster pacing and cliffhanger-style adventure for a kind of dream ballet. Pollock plays Judex with an impassive blankness, while Franju compounds the strangeness by providing no motivation for Judex's actions and revealing no personality behind the mask. Maurice Jarre's delicate and lyrical score suggests not menace but rather tragedy and a wistful sense of loss, while the crisp black-and-white cinematography of Marcel Fradetal adds to the unreal quality. A strange and beautiful cult picture, Judex may be too abstract even for fans of foreign cinema from the revolutionary 1960s, and it is certainly less essential than many other films from that vibrant era, including Franju's own Eyes Without a Face, a haunting horror film. Nonetheless, this DVD re-release and Blu-ray debut looks superb, and features extras including two short documentaries directed by Franju, a 1998 documentary about Franju, and interviews with his collaborators. A strong optional purchase. (S. Axmaker)