Fantômas (1964)

Louis de Funès was one of the funniest French comedians who has made a big number of movies. As a kid I always liked watching them as he was always funny and when he got angry he had so much energy that it you coulnd’t help but laugh. As I grew up I never watched his movies again until I was asked by a family member if I had ever seen Fantômas. I never did and didn’t hear of it either, so decided to watch it. Is this the type of movie I remember watching when I was young?

Fantômas is the villain in this movie, a blue faced terrorist that puts fear into the hearts of the French with his attacks. He has been doing so for a while and it’s up to Commissaire Juve (Louis de Funès) to catch him as he leads the investigation. Fantômas is a master in disguises and uses masks which are similar to the ones you’ve seen in something like Mission Impossible.
This movie has the feeling of being a Bond movie. Fantômas has a secret layer and a bunch of henchmen and the final part of the movie is full of action, with lots of chase sequences. Some of them have obviously been sped up. I never understood why this is done in movies as it is so obvious.

I wasn’t expecting too much from this movie, but must say that I thoroughly enjoyed it. There weren’t as many laughs as I expected either as Louis de Funès seemed to play his role a bit more serious. Is Fantômas a masterpiece? No, not at all, but I was surprised by the fact that it was a entertaining action movie with some nice set pieces and a little bit of humour. This movie spawned two sequels. I started watching the second one last week, but actually fell asleep during it. From what I saw it wasn’t as good and enjoyable as this one.

Score: 8

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9BevMqTwgc]