With unseen interviews shot for Cinéastes de notre temps and excerpts from his films (Judex, Le sang des Bêtes, La tête contre les murs), André S. Labarthe offers a portrait of Georges Franju, whose seemingly disconnected work deals with a central theme: justice and freedom. “Not fantasy, the unusual. That is, a fantasy scene always is such in form; take, for example, what Marcel Allain once said to me. The Fantômas writer said: ‘You see, I created a character of terror and fear because I put ski mask on the actor.’ Without a doubt he created a character of fear, fantasy and terror. But a frightful fantasy character through the power of a mask: when we see Fantōmas wearing a ski mask, then terror is created. It is terror, but terror that is purely form. For me personally, though, Fantômas is a terrifying character not when wearing the mask but when he is out in the crowd. When Feuillade puts him on the subway, when he is among people, when we know he is there… he is not recognized and we know he is there to kill. What is unusual attracts me, because the unusual is what creates anxiety.”

Georges Franju, Georges Franju, le visionnaire