FACT FILE: LES VAMPIRES BY TIM MAJOR

Name: Les Vampires
 
AKA: That 7-hour silent epic film that isn’t actually about vampires.
 
Age: 103 years, good grief.
 
Hold on… how long is it? Don’t fret. Yes, Les Vampires regularly crops up in lists of the world’s longest films, and it’s epic in scope, sure, but it’s also a serial, not a single film. In fact, the ten episodes were released at cinemas months apart, spanning 1915 and 1916. It’s not as though the model should shock anyone these days – we’re using to bingeing on serials with far longer running times. Is Breaking Bad one of the world’s longest films? No, of course not. The Wire? Nope. Twin Peaks: The Return? Well, that’s a tough one, as the people behind the Sight & Sound annual poll will attest. Speaking of Twin Peaks, though…
 
You’re not going to tell me that Les Vampires has any relation to Twin Peaks. I absolutely am. Les Vampires was beloved of artists involved in the up-and-coming Surrealist scene. Rene Clair worked as Vampires director Louis Feuillade’s assistant; his short Surrealist film Entr’acte in turn inspired Salvador Dali’s and Luis Buñuel’s Un Chien Andalou, and Buñuel himself was a fan of Les Vampires, which he described as a transcription of ‘an unusual reality’. And what’s unusual for Luis Buñuel is nuts to anyone else. Track forward and the closest thing to the woozy lunacy of Les Vampires is the surreal, sensual and serialised Twin Peaks: The Return.
 
So is it good? It is good. It is very good. Oh, I love it.
 
You still haven’t told me what it is. Good point. While it’s primarily a crime film, it’s also essential viewing for horror film enthusiasts. I guess ‘proto-horror’ is a good term, dabbling in Gothic trappings, unnerving suspense and the threat of sudden, supernatural violence. But there’s so much more, too. Do you like crime stories? Underworld gangs? Heists? Detective tales?
 
Doesn’t everyone? I haven’t finished. Do you like action movies? Car chases?
 
Every once in a while, I guess. How about weird dream logic? Interspersed plot strands that disappear and reappear hours later? How about cutaways to films-within-a-film?
 
When did you say this was made? 1915. I know. Insane.
 
But then isn’t it terribly old-fashioned? I forgot to mention. How would you like to see the greatest female action star of her generation, performing her own stunts, acting like a badass, totally compelling in every frame and yet totally unknowable?
 
I think I’ve heard of the actress, Musidora. She has to be seen to be believed. While Les Vampires was commissioned by Gaumont as a riposte to an apparent wave of US female-led action films (such as The Mysteries of New York, starring Pearl White, the poster for which hangs on Chandler and Joey’s wall in Friends, Netflix nostalgia-binge-watchers), Musidora is only introduced in Episode 3 of Les Vampires. It’s no coincidence that that’s when the film really kicks off.
 
Is this the famous Irma Vep? Yup. The character ought to be a cheap joke (Irma Vep is an anagram of vampire, ha ha!) – but I swear she’s the best female villain in any film ever made. Actually, scratch the word ‘villain’. And ‘female’. She’s just the best.
 
Anything else? You bet. You’ve got a detective double act – straight guy Philippe Guérande and his hysterical assistant Mazamette. (The latter steals the show, gradually edging his way to centre stage to become the heart of the film, shoving his partner offstage.) You’ve got not one, not two, but three dastardly leaders of the Vampire gang – the recasting was prompted by actors’ squabbles with the director and, in one case, being conscripted to fight in the Great War.
 
World War I? And this was filmed in Paris, right? Right. If you find yourself wondering why the streets of Paris in Les Vampires are weirdly empty, that’s why. Filming started in July 1915; the city had been airbombed as recently as May of that year. The year before, Paris had been under siege by the German army. A sense of frozen panic pervades the film. That, and a preoccupation with giant cannons.
 
So there’s a lot going on in this film. So much.
 
Not bad for so-called ‘primitive cinema’. Don’t get me started. Early cinema might have been saddled with heavy cameras and acting styles better suited to being seen at a distance on the stage… but ‘primitive’? I promise you, Les Vampires is utterly, strikingly, incomparably beautiful.
 
Fine. But who made you the cheerleader for this film? Neil Snowdon, editor-in-chief at Electric Dreamhouse Press. He gave me the OK to write a book about the serial, so I did. Well, first I watched the film a crapload of times, until my dreams were its dreams. Then I wrote the book. And then I wrote ten pieces of weird fiction, one for each of the episodes – not quite fan-fiction, not quite covering the events of the film, but remixing its constituent elements in an order that seemed instinctively right.
 
Did it work out well? I honestly have no idea. Les Vampires is a fever dream, and last summer, I caught the fever. But I had a really, really nice time writing this book.
 
Good for you. One last question. Are there actual vampires in this film? There are not.
 
 
Tim Major’s book about Les Vampires is part of the Midnight Movie Monographs series from Electric Dreamhouse Press. The book features an idiosyncratic analysis of the film, along with ten new pieces of weird fiction. You can buy it direct from PS Publishing or from Amazon.
 
Tim Major’s novels include You Don’t Belong Here and Machineries of Mercy, and his spontaneous-clone thriller Snakeskins will be published by Titan Books in Spring 2019. Tim’s short stories have appeared in Interzone, Not One of Us and numerous anthologies, including Best of British Science Fiction and The Best Horror of the Year.

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