Les Vampires

Film historians and buffs are in a dither over this newly restored seven hour French serial, written and directed by Louis Feuillade in 1915, the same year that an American director named D.W. Griffith released a controversial blockbuster titled Birth of a Nation. Led by the cunning, seductive Irma Vep (played by surrealist icon Musidora, clad in a form-fitting black-silk bodysuit), the Vampires are a vicious band of cat burglars who plague Parisian high society, concocting ingenious schemes (such as gassing a large social gathering and then picking them clean of their jewels) and killing without compunction. Doggedly pursued over 10 episodes by an intrepid investigative reporter named Phillipe Guerand and his comic-relief sidekick, Mazamette, the Vampires are routinely squelched only to bounce back with an even more grandiose plan in such viscerally-titled episodes as "The Severed Head", "The Ring That Kills" and "Dead Man's Escape." Unfortunately, modern viewers will still probably find this slow-going in the age of MTV-rapid editing (the fact that in 1915, Feuillade was on the cutting edge of creating a cinematic language will be utterly beside the point). Film lovers, on the other hand, will appreciate the surehanded artistry of Les Vampires and revel in David Shepard's exquisite color-tinted restoration and Robert Israel's orchestral score. Recommended. (R. Pitman)