<p>After the tremendous popular success of the
Fant?mas novels, both of the major French
film studios — Pathé and Gaumont —
vied for the rights to produce films ba<x>sed
on the series. Gaumont won, and from
April 1913 to May 1914 Louis Feuillade
directed five Fant?mas films which critic
David Thomson has described as "the first
great movie experience."</p>
