Restored

Avant-garde Visions - Belgian Heritage On Screen

Monsieur Fantomas
Mr Fantomas
Monsieur Fantômas

Ernst Moerman, Belgium 1937

Silent, Short, Experimental

"All those who can recall the adventures of the famous bandit retain them like the memory of a dream—what remains is an epic that feels more unreal than incoherent. Yet, those who do remember will find in this film a profoundly poetic absurdity of a story pushed beyond the limits of plausibility, whose images will transport them, for half an hour, to another world " - Ernst Moerman (La Gazette, 8 September 1937)

Monsieur Fantômas
Director :
Ernst Moerman
Year :
1937
Country :
Belgium
Actors :
Trudi Van Tonderen, Jean Michel, Jacqueline Arpé
Film Format :
B&W
Duration :
20'
Version :
ST : NL

Movie Info

Actors :
Trudi Van Tonderen, Jean Michel, Jacqueline Arpé,  Françoise Bert, Suzon Samuel, Mary, E. Miecret, Lea Dumont, Ginette Samuel, Ernst Moerman
Scenario :
Ernst Moerman
Production :
Films Hagen-Tronje
Director of Photography :
E. Van Tonderen
Musical composition :
Robert Ledent
Production designer :
E. Van Tonderen
Genre  :
Silent, Short, Experimental
Original Format :
35mm

Restoration Info

Project :
NextGenerationEU
Year of restauration :
2024
Digital Preservation :
Digital Restoration – 2K
Info restauration :
Ernst Moerman’s film Monsieur Fantomas (1937) has been restored in 2024 by the Royal Belgian Film Archive – CINEMATEK with the support of the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles. The works have been carried out based on the original 35mm negative kept in the Royal Belgian Film Archive collections, where the film has been digitised in 4K.

Ernst Moerman (1887/1897 – 1944) was a Belgian poet and filmmaker. I Deeply inspired by his reading of the 35-volume Fantômas series by Souvestre and Allain, he made his only film in 1937, Monsieur Fantômas, which he described as the “280,000th chapter” in the adventures of his hero. The hero was played by ‘Jean-Michel’, the pseudonym of Léon Smet, who was the father of singer Johnny Hallyday

Rich in references to the Surrealist movement, Moerman wove Paul Éluard’s poetry collection Capitale de la douleur (1926), into his film and frequently evoked motifs of renowned surrealist painter René Magritte – notably his bowler hat. Magritte himself appears at the end of the film, seen painting Le Viol (1934)[1]. The Belgian coast, a landscape cherished by Belgian filmmakers and especially by those working within the Surrealist tradition, also plays a prominent role in the short film.

Beyond serving as a tribute to his literary hero, Monsieur Fantômas is a work that aims to be parodic, anti-clerical[2] and completely dreamlike. “Through this recreated world, I sought to establish a form of communication. It is ruled by a supernatural reality in which each object, once made visible, discovers its true illumination. Freed from the layers of habit accumulated over centuries, the surrounding objects are suddenly confronted with this renewed reality. In this vital light, they finally cease to be invisible, allowing their previously unrecognized beauty to be revealed to us.” (Ernst Moerman, Le Rouge et le Noir, 29 September 1937).

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[1] RUBIN DE CELIS, S., « One Time Magic : The Film Adventures of Ernst Moerman and Henri d’Ursel”, Experimental Conversations 7, 2011. [Online] www.experimentalconversations.com; SMOLDERS, O., “Cinéma et surréalisme en Belgique », Textyles. Revue des lettres belges de langue française 8, 1991, p. 275. 
[2] DAVAY, P., Cinéma de Belgique, Duculot, Gembloux, 1973, p. 115 ; THOMAS, P., Un siècle de cinéma belge, Quorum, Ottignies, 1995, p. 49.