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Though we’re barely into a new calendar year, Kino Lorber has released one of the year’s most notable Blu-ray restorations, a superb presentation of Louis Feuillade’s famous silent serial Fantômas with a five title set ranging from 1913 to 1914. Surprisingly violent and full of cunning twists (based on the pulp novellas of Marcel Allain and Pierre Souvestre), the criminal overlord was an early template for genre cinema staples, including Feuillade’s later iconic characters such as Irma Vep or the crime fighter Judex (each in turn inspiring an innumerable amount of other auteurs, from Fritz Lang to Georges Franju to Olivier Assayas). But this was Feuillade’s first master of disguise, a cold hearted criminal intent on rending all the jewelry and other worldly goods from Belle Epoch Parisian women he could get his greedy fingers on.

Feuillade remains one of the most prolific auteurs of all time,...

Rarely do I run full press releases for new home video titles, but this is a special exception. Kino International, in association with Gaumont Films in France, has announced the release of a 3-dvd box set of all five of Louis Feuillade's Fantômas films. The box set's street date is September 21, 2010. None of these films have never been legitimately available on DVD in North America so this really is a cause for celebration. See the press release below for full details.

Kino International Releases A 3-dvd Box Set With Five Feature Films Starring The French Character FANTÔMAS

New York, NY - August 4, 2010 - Kino International, in a special arrangement with Gaumont Films in France, is proud to release for the first time in the United States a 3-dvd box set with a total of seven previously unreleased films featuring the French character FANTÔMAS, created by Marcel Allain (1885-1969) and...