Underplayed Gems

Fantômas (1964)

Fantômas poster
Directed by
André Hunebelle
Genre
comedy film, crime film, crime comedy film, comedy thriller, detective film
Country
France, Italy
Runtime
1h 39m
Rated
NR
Rating
6.8 of 10 from 824 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this film is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

More films like thisWatch the trailer

or watch the trailer on YouTube

How it feels

A bumbling police commissioner teams up with a journalist to catch a masked super-villain who keeps outsmarting them. The hero and the villain are both played by the same actor. The chase is full of silly mishaps and slapstick comedy.

light-heartedcomedicplayfulfast-pacedcampyspiritedzanywhimsical

What happens

Fantômas (French pronunciation: [fɑ̃tomas]) is a 1964 French comedy film starring Jean Marais as the archvillain Fantômas opposite Louis de Funès as the earnest but outclassed commissaire Paul Juve. In the film Juve teams up with journalist Fandor, also played by Marais, trying to catch Fantômas but never quite succeeding. It was France's answer, in 1964, to the James Bond phenomenon that swept the world at around the same time. It is the first film of a trilogy, and Fantômas became extremely successful in Europe, the Soviet Union, Japan, and the United States. Mylène Demongeot plays "Hélène Gurn", the girlfriend of "Jérôme Fandor", Fantômas' archenemy. The general tone of the films is more light-hearted than the original Fantômas novels. Commissaire Juve, as played by Louis de Funès, becomes a comedic character, much unlike his literary counterpart. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

This page is from Underplayed Gems. Not quite it? You can browse by genre, country and year, or take this one into the 3D catalogue and ask the Catbot for something closer.