Monsieur Fantômas is a unique surrealist homage to the criminal mastermind from the feuilletons of Souvestre and Allain. The film, subtitled “A Surrealist Film”, parodies both the church and the police, but above all, it is a poetic quest for love. Fantômas (played by Léon-Michel Smet, father of Johnny Hallyday) is pursued by three bumbling agents – a nod to Hergé’s Thompson and Thomson and Magritte’s anonymous figures. The film is steeped in absurdity: a priest in women’s underwear, nuns in masks, and Fantômas transforming into a double bass. A scene featuring a nun in a swimsuit walking past a one-way street sign reveals Moerman’s provocative humour. Yet his Fantômas is also a tragic hero, an Orpheus searching for Eurydice. Shot in dunes and monasteries, the film references Magritte’s painting Le Viol and the poetry of Paul Éluard. Though technically rough, the film embraces improvisation: the execution by cannon and the farandole of nuns dancing around a pole are pure poetry. Premiering in Brussels alongside Buñuel’s Un chien andalou, the film was considered a masterpiece by some (including Éluard). Today, it remains a fascinating curiosity, a “joyful and marvellous” (Dominique Païni) rebellion against conventional cinema.

Bruno Mestdagh