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Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated) Binding: VHS Tape EAN: 9786305166559 Format: Box set, Black & White, Special Edition, NTSC ISBN: 6305166552 Label: Water Bearer Films Manufacturer: Water Bearer Films Number Of Items: 4 Publisher: Water Bearer Films Release Date: November 11, 1998 Running Time: 420 minutes Sales Rank: 15510 Studio: Water Bearer Films Theatrical Release Date: 2015
Amazon.com: This legendary seven-hour silent French serial, one of the earliest and most original gangster films, combines realism and fantasy. Written and directed by Louis Feuillade, Les Vampires concerns an intrepid reporter's pursuit of a strange gang of jewel thieves terrorizing Paris. The gang ambitiously seeks political, psychological, and sexual domination of the city's social elite, with the seductive Irma Vep (an anagram of "vampire") as its brazen leader. While slow going at first, the 10-part serial becomes more and more fascinating with each episode, thanks in large part to the alluring Musidora as Irma Vep. Because of her many guises and frightful charms, she truly becomes a vampire of sorts. Feuillade achieves a subversive, nightmarish atmosphere amid the everyday goings-on of the city. Filmed on the streets and back alleys of World War I Paris, the 1915 picture was a huge commercial success, though temporarily banned by Paris's chief of police for glamorizing crime. --Bill Desowitz
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - Masterful Cinema
I've always been a big fan of art cinema and film noir movies. I am very fond of the early great Black and White silent films including Wings, Metropolis, Birth of a Nation and Napoleon among many others. I was greatly surprised with this saga of ten progressive chapters. The movie was made in 1915 and yes, there are repeating pieces of furniture seen between the different sets, and the night scenes are clearly shot during daylight. However, the movie is powerful and not as forcefully acted like many of the "big" early Hollywood movies. It gives you an eerie sense of reality because the actors ... Read More
Rating: - Brilliant, Pleasurable Films -- With Availability/Price Issues
If you have any appreciation for classic cinema, this collection of serials is a must-own DVD set. The cloak-and-dagger Parisian underworld is fascinatingly immersive, the early-cinema film techniques are ingenious, and Musidora is a truly bewitching and alluring antiheroine.
That said, I have to comment on the availability and pricing of this DVD set (which, by the way, is well-produced and features a beautiful restoration of the films). I bought this a couple of years ago, brand-new, for around 30 bucks from an eBay seller. This was during a period when it was supposedly out of ... Read More
Rating: - A classic of the mute cinema series
"Les Vampires" (1915 - 398 minutes - B&W) is a classic of the mute cinema series directed by Louis Feuillade. In ten episodes, it counts the adventures of a masked assailants group who haunt Paris. The mythical actress Musidora [ the first "Vamp" of the European cinema ] is the star in the series, that achieved fame due to the great admiration among the surrealists (Andres Breton and Luis Buñuel were its bigger fans), seduced by the dreamily scenes that sometimes appears in the narrative. At first "Les Vampires" was rejected for the French vanguard directors, that considered it like a mere policeman ... Read More
Rating: - NOT OUT OF PRINT
Recent inquiries to Image Entertainment about the availability of this disc indicate they are still waiting for stock to arrive in their warehouse. Other websites imply some sort of production problem with the disc that made it temporarily unavailable. Don't pay an outrageous amount for this title. It shall return!
Rating: - That's Entertainment
I have to confess that I first saw "Les Vampires" for academic reasons; because of its influence on the Surrealist movement. But now, having seen the entire series (lovingly restored) on its own terms, I think "Les Vampires" is just what it was originally meant to be-- an exciting, humorous adventure story and sort of a precursor of James Bond. The basic idea is that an investigative reporter becomes privy to the secrets of a criminal gang called "The Vampires" and manages to foil many of their plans. At the same time, WE become privy to the plans and in-fighting that go on between the Vampires and other ... Read More
