Lynx-Eyed Detectives and Shadow Bandits: Visuality and Eclipse in French Detective Stories and Films before WWI

Author(s): Tom Gunning Source: Yale French Studies, No. 108, Crime Fictions (2005), pp. 74-88 Published by: Yale University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4149299 . Accessed: 31/01/2014 09:36
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Yale University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Yale French Studies.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 128.135.100.108 on Fri, 31 Jan 2014 09:36:49 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

TOM GUNNING

Filmsbefore WWI

Detectivesand Shadow Lynx-Eyed Bandits:Visualityand Eclipse in FrenchDetectiveStoriesand

THROUGH A MAGNIFYING GLASS, DARKLY

allthese And the these the invisible, problemsunknown, questions; howinteresting the And are! amusing! mystery-so they 1897 L'accusateur, -JulesClaretie,

WhenD. A. MillerquotesEmileGaboriau's Monsieur detective Lecoq neithepoliceas "thatmysterious which, though describing authority ther seennorhearditself, sees andhearseverything nonetheless else," he associates the detective But genrewith "panopticalnarration."1 does thedetective withits scenarioofinvestigation, exposure, story, of and arrest, visual a regime the sort necessarily imply disciplinary Martin Downcast in describes his Eyes:TheDenwork, Jay magisterial a mastering, in Twentieth-Century French ofVision Thought,2 igration ofknowledge and in thealignment surveillance embodied objectifying of control? visionin thescientific vision social and the gaze panoptic The centraldevice of detective the clue, stagesa drama fiction, of contested As Carlo Ginzburg and metaphorically. vision,literally has said,"though there areprivileged be to seem opaque, may reality The dramaof to clues-which us allow it."3 zones-signs, penetrate thedetective in liesnotsimply inseeing, but seeingthrough, passstory Vifrom theevident to thelatent, truth ingfrom appearance. wresting I inand films. and fiction detective define suality obscurity together
1. D. A. Miller, ofCalifornia TheNoveland thePolice(Berkeley: Press, University 1988),24. 2. MartinJay, DowncastEyes: The Denigration of Visionin Twentieth-Century French ofCalifornia Press, 1993). Thought (Berkeley: University in Clues,Myths 3. CarloGinzburg, and "Clues:Rulesofan Evidentiary Paradigm," theHistorical trans. andAnneTedeschi, Method (Baltimore: John 1989), Johns Hopkins, 123. YFS 108,Crime Fictions, ed.Andrea GouletandSusannaLee, O 2005byYale University.

74

This content downloaded from 128.135.100.108 on Fri, 31 Jan 2014 09:36:49 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

TOM GUNNING

75

tendto tracethemanner ofviin whichthegenre workstheinterplay sionandopacity inthepeintoplots, andsituations characters, images, riod fromthe 1860s to WWI as mass audiencesmove from leafing to gawking at thecinemascreen. feuilletons through The emblem has longbeenthe for thedetective's "seeingthrough" hand-held of my comthe on margin magnifying glass (emblazoned screen thename in and with the deerstalker puter juxtaposition cap and thecomdetective theworld's mostfamous "Sherlock," invoking bination ofthescientific the hunter's and of observation intechniques stinct thatGinsburg Buttheimageof finds essentialto clue hunting). thedetective clues doesnotbea crimescenefor attentively combing arealConan Doyle'sHolmesbut(arguably-"firsts" ginwithArthur in an with Holmes anxhis French waysdisputable) (whom predecessor of Monsieur influence out of Gaboriau's his to iety goes way dismiss), Gause a magnifying Lecoq.4Lecoq does notliterally glass,although boriaudescribes his scrutiny ofthecrimescenein Monsieur Lecoq in theseterms:"Therewas not an inch of space thathad not been exalmostsay,witha examined and studied, one might plored, carefully magnifying glass."5 With the systematic detailedvisual Lecoq, Gaboriauintroduces to the itsinterpreand of the chateau scrutiny (theinvestigation genre tationin The Mystery of Orcival takesup nearlya hundred pages),6 frommute objectsa narrative of past events.But Gaboriau forcing understands but as a dinot simply as a visual process, investigation alecticbetweenvisionand meaning, as muchas a processofreading theexterior ofthetavern in Monsieur looking.Examining Lecoq, the detective declares: Thisexpanse ofearth, white covered with is an immense page snow, which the notonly their weareinsearch ofhave upon people written, movements andtheir the secret andcomings, their but thoughts, goings andanxieties that them. hopes 27) agitated Lecoq, (Monsieur the ground a simplevisual arrayinto a text from Lecoq transforms whosesecret mustbe wrested it.Thus,in Gaboriau's from description,
4. Holmes dismissed in A Studyin Scarlet,Sir Lecoq as "a miserable bungler" Arthur ConanDoyle,TheComplete andComHolmes(NewYork: Sherlock Doubleday 25. pany, 1930), 5. Imile Gaboriau, ed.E. F.Bleiler, Monsieur DoverBooks,1975), Lecoq (NewYork: 44. Originally in 1869.All translations aremineunlessotherwise published specified. 6. Gaboriau, 48Scribner's Charles Sons,1900), ofOrcival(NewYork: TheMystery 149.Originally in 1867. published

This content downloaded from 128.135.100.108 on Fri, 31 Jan 2014 09:36:49 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

76

YaleFrench Studies

ofa chiwiththeattention eachfootprint Lecoq "on hisknees,studied Gaclient" romancer hand of a the to future in read the (24). professing the boriau'scomparison to the relates divinatory process explicitly whatGinzburg calls the"venatic, arts, conjectural divinatory, evoking thana paraor semiotic"paradigm ofworking clues.7Rather through of of the visual traces clues digm pastin needof immediacy, provided a skilledreading. andinterpretation, ofthecrimescenerelieson conjecture Mastery method,but which,as Ginzburg recallingaspects of the scientific leadin itsattention traces andsymptoms to individual demonstrates, in a differto the identification ofindividual ing operates very culprits, ofgeneralizaentmanner from thesciencesoftheGalileianparadigm the text the tion and quantification 106-112). Further, (Ginzburg, detective readsremains ofindividuals a humantext, theproduct agiThe tatedby"secret thelaws ofnature. thansimply rather thoughts," detective notonlymustdivine ofculprits, thesecret but,like thoughts the immedia postmodernist the of read also must critic, against grain atelyvisible.When MonsieurLecoq arrivesat the Orcival chateau he immewherea murder and theft beencommitted, have apparently are the traces "There text: two the crime levels to diately recognizes then lefton purpose to misleadus-the jumbledup bed,for instance; there are therealtraces, as are thesehatchet cuts."8The undesigned, detective sees through themisleading deliberately placed inscriptions truth. the down to the self-betraying by culprit-author "undesigned," Whilethesedialectics ofsight anduncertainty certainly complicate thedetective's The strugvisualmastery, do they call itintoquestion? of truth to see structure to an gle underlying through appearances evisurface recallstheprotocols ofWestern penetrating metaphysics, denceto significant Plato'scave to theprocessofpsychofrom reality, Butwhatis takenfor truth andtheprocess analysis. bywhichit is disThe detective's covered of we the stakes history. constitute, might say, for the"truth" with not so much a engagement visuality provides clue, ofnew visual behindthegenre, as ofmodernity's lurking negotiation It is less Lecoq's pursuitof the truth thatmarksa new experiences. thanhis method ofhumanpassionon inanofreading thetraces genre and imateobjects andtheconfluence ina crime sceneoftheintentional withtheaccidental andbetraying. misleading
7. Ginzburg, ofthefield ofsnowas a writ117.Ginzburg quotesLecoq'sdescription tentexton thispageas well. 8. TheMystery ofOrcival,75.

This content downloaded from 128.135.100.108 on Fri, 31 Jan 2014 09:36:49 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

TOM GUNNING

77

Let'sapproach ofthetriumph thedetective less as an allegory genre ofthevisualin clarity and revelation, and moreas a dramatization of the ambiguities ofvisionin a new age offlexible and techidentities existsindependent truth no longer of nologicalvision.In thiscontext, the contingencies of sightand signification. As Jonathan Craryhas ofvisionin thenineteenth and earlytwentieth shown,theregulation and contingency, its physicality century dependson acknowledging thesubjectofbothscientific On a and aesthetic theory.9 investigation andhisthisembedded also rehearses popular level,thedetective genre torical visionwithdramas ofbothdiscovery and evasion. DETECTION AS SCIENTIFIC METHOD OR LOGICAL GAME: AN UNRESOLVED DIALECTIC
... withthisfellow a person has toworkin thedark, and, Lupin, ofdeducting instead a manmust thetruth from established facts, extract itfrom his ownbrain, learnifit is supported andafterward by thefacts in thecase. -Herlock Sholmes Arsdne in MauriceLeBlanc, Lupincontre
Herlock Sholmes (1906-1908)

thedetective's has been Traditionally, processofvisual investigation to theobservational sciences.RdgisMessac's monumental compared 1929 workLe "DetectiveNovel" et l'influence de la pensee scientiinventoried rethis associationwith somewhatcontradictory fique sults.10 Messac defined the detective thatcenters on genreas a story thegradual andrational event. Tracof a process explaining mysterious ofnarrative Messac supplieda genealogy, ingthisthread explanation, in a range ofworks Greekscienceanddrama, from finding predecessors TalmudicandArabian tales tales,eighteenth-century pseudo-oriental ofSerendip of and works the classical to Poe, (Walpole) Zadig(Voltaire), andDoyle (Messac,9). Messac connects thegenre's unravelGaboriau, of scientific ing of mystery by rationalmeans to the development and the of the rootsofdeThus the thought ideology Enlightenment. tection in the inof and rational lay questioning explanation miracles,
9. Jonathan in the On Visionand Modernity Crary, Techniques ofthe Observer: Nineteenth AtMIT Press,1999), and Suspensions Century ofPerception: (Cambridge: and Modern Culture MIT Press, tention, Spectacle 1999). (Cambridge: 10. R6gisMessac, Le "DetectiveNovel" et l'influence de la pensee scientifique Librairie Ancienne HonoreChampion, ofthisstrongly (Paris: empir1929).The relation ical andhistorical work toSiegfried DerDetektivKracauer's theoretical almostentirely at almostthesame time(1922-25,butonlypartially Roman,whichwas written publisheduntil1971)exceedsthescopeofthisessay.Messac'swork was highly influential on Walter ofthedetective Benjamin's understanding story.

This content downloaded from 128.135.100.108 on Fri, 31 Jan 2014 09:36:49 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

78

YaleFrench Studies

thoseofMontaigne, attackson Catholic"superstiProtestant cluding and David Hume's skepticism. The rationally (ifoften improbtions," Anne of and novels of the Gothic Radcliffe, ably)explained mysteries the narrative Messac for especiallySchiller'sGeisterseher provided form ofa rational to apparent miracles, directly anticipating approach theform ofthemodern detective story. andits Messac complicates thislongtradition contradicts?) (perhaps therelation withthescientific alignment byalso tracing enlightenment boththeenthegenre between ofmodernity, andthematerial conditions and thegenre vironment ofthemodemcitythatsupplied thedecorfor themassreadership form commercial that a madethegenre (Messac,11; ofthegreat 389-92; 419-23). Messac'sworkopenswithan invocation an emblem not station of the modem only railway providing metropolis, the ofthemodern also but and its and placewhere city energy immediacy, Messac claims, detective stories aresolden masse.The detective story, offers "Ifthedetective literature to a newmodern reality: corresponding novelsproliferate a need,a newneed"(5). itis becausethey satisfy In his conclusionMessac admitsthattherelation betweendetectaitivefiction and scientific rather remained thought superficial,'1 Mesloredto themass readership itsmodernity. thatdefines Initially sac differentiates ofmodern instance thefirst from thedetective story cennineteenth mass readership oftheearly in France, thefeuilleton andsystematic theclarity, tury, explanation contrasting compression, and oftheclassicalPoe tale to the"interminable" serialconstruction contheir of confesses closure he the But vague feuilleton. ultimately fluence. and compositionally opposedto theconAlthough logically cise tale ofdetection, tendedto swallow the detective thefeuilleton inWithin thefeuilleton, thedetective's story. logicaland systematic no longer ofnarrative vestigation development suppliedthearmature andclosure, butsimply becameone episodeinthefeuilleton's ongoing rushofsensations. as muchtimetoPonsonduTerrail's Messac devotes Rocamboleas to Poe orDoyle. feuilleton morethana decadelater, Slightly RogerCaillois in his short1941 book Le romanpolicierfollowsa similartrajectory. Caillois initially of the novel by claims thatthe detective the anarchy genreopposes
withthenon-Galileian ofthedetective 11. Ibid.667-68. Ginzburg's story alignment traditions ofindividuating Messacwitha wayoutofhis havesupplied conjecture might Messomewhat methods. relation to scientific claimsaboutthegenre's contradictory sac's tracing oftheinfluence crime and detective on theFrench ofCooper'sPathfinder novelpoints in thisdirection andsupplied one ofhismostinfluential insights.

This content downloaded from 128.135.100.108 on Fri, 31 Jan 2014 09:36:49 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

TOM

GUNNING

79

oftheplot,beinversion obeying preciserules,such as the structural with the discovery ofthe crimeand thenreconstructing the ginning events that A story it."Thisis nota narrative, buta deduction. preceded is nottold,butis rather ForCaillois,thegenre reconstructed."12 was more "mathematical": eliminates growing progressively "Reasoning sensation."Caillois tracesan evolution heroesof from theromantic PonsondeTerrail ofthe andEughne roomdetectives Sue tothedrawing twenties andthirties, NeroWolf suchas theobeseandhedonistic who leaves his office, but intellectually out thelogic ofthe rarely figures crime. The codification ofrulesofthegenre, as supplied bytheEnglish DetectiveClub, marksthealmostalgebraic ofthegenre condition in itsfinal thegenre an evolution: becomesa jeu de l'espirit, "intellectual mechanism" whosepleasures areabstract (16-25). "One doesnotpick novel forthe pleasureofbeingtold a story," Caillois up a detective claims. "Rather one participates in a magicshowin whichthemagician immediately revealsall his secrets"(35). Caillois substitutes andmathematthetradition ofthebrainteaser ical abstraction forthe scientific about but his method, argument the evolutionof the genreparallelsMessac's--including his second Caillois ultimately ofthelogical,rulereverses his divorce thoughts. bounddetective from its Cailloisrealizes sensational story beginnings. thatthepopularity ofthedetective on depends its corpses(53). story The genre, he decides, existsin thetension betweentwopoles,thatof "the ambitions ofintelligence" and the "appetite forsensation"(68). The genre cannotsurvive oflogical in the rarified atmosphere simply "The shadowofdeathmustfallovertheindifferent problem solving: schemasoflogic" (54). The comparison ofthedetective withtheabstract protocols story ofthescientific even seemto champion those who method, it,does by notyieldan identification ofthegenre visionandprowiththeabstract cesses ofrationality. At best,logicaldeduction suppliesone aspectof the genre-an aspectdialectically related to the evasionsofa villain sewriter Pierre view oftheFantomas (Caillois quotesmystery V6ry's thepoleofsensation Fant6mas andthe withthebandit ries, identifying withhisadversary poleoflogicalinvestigation Juve [Caillois, inspector ofininvolvesthe subterfuges 68-69]). The optiqueofthe detective as muchas it involvesclarity and demonstration. visibility
12. Roger franraises/ Aires:tditionsdeslettres Caillois,Le roman policier(Buenos Sur,1941),12.

This content downloaded from 128.135.100.108 on Fri, 31 Jan 2014 09:36:49 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

80

YaleFrench Studies THE FLICKERING DETECTIVE: TRUTH AND ITS SCREENS

andindistinct, Silhouette ofhorror, silhouette simultaneously precise for an instant, silhouette whichmelted intothenight, disappearing ofthewall-it as a darkspoton thebright background reappearing was thesilhouette ofFant6mas! -Pierre Souvestre andMarcelAllain, Fant6mas: Lepolicierapache(1911)

As a visualmedium, with thecinemamusttackletheissueofvisuality a visualrhetoric. Cinemain itsseconddecade(1906-1916)underwent a gradualnarrativization, as more complex storiesand characters appearedaround 1909, entailinga shiftin genres.Cinema, I have thannarfirst as a meansofvisual displayrather claimed,'3emerged than rather ration. Untilaround1906an aesthetic ofvisualattractions, domithecreation ofa coherent line orwell-defined characters, story natedmostfilms. becomes narrative increasingly important Although visual after stillprivilege cinematic 1907,theemerging highly genres In French actionoverdevelopment ofcharacters orplot. early cinema, thedetective in whichthedeductive from films aspectofcapemerges the criminal turing playslittlerole.Slapstickcomedies,chase films, before 1909 and trick films formed the mostpopularfictional genres most anddetective inall ofthem. Although figures occasionally appear ofcrimichasefilms a number werecomedies, early pursuit portrayed du monde nals,suchas Pathe'sUn tour policier(1906),Les chiensconthe trebandiers or de clearly (1906), Les chiens police (1907),imaging rolesofpursuing opposing culprit. policeandfleeing The strong filmand thedetective relation betweenthetrick genre with the entailsa morecomplexevolution. The trick genreappeared and ofcinema,exploring ofthefilmapparatus its origins possibilities as substitution techniques, splices and stopmotioncreatedmagical transformations in theearly andPathe.Likemostofthe ofMd1ies films and cinemaofattractions, on visual novelty, the trick filmdepended detective The French neededrenewal. genre byaround1907thegenre films of one-reel the series from featuring emerged gradually, moving detectives Nick Carter, and Nat Pinkerton Nick Winter, beginning ofZigomar about 1908to itsflowering films in theseriesofmulti-reel
inThomasElsaesser 13. See "The CinemaofAttractions" andother essaysgathered andAdamBarker, FilmInBritish eds.,EarlyCinema:SpaceFrameNarrative (London: stitute, 1990).

This content downloaded from 128.135.100.108 on Fri, 31 Jan 2014 09:36:49 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

TOM GUNNING

81

andFant6mas theteens, from 1911to 1914.14 As cinemaentered cameratricks becameabsorbed intotheincreasingly popularnarrativized ofcrimefilms, comedies.In the historical and society genres dramas, couldimage tricks of the cinematic detective early development genre, theprocesses ofambiguous visionand elusiveidentity. and transforTrickfilms thatrenewed themysterious appearances mationofthegenre criminals by pursued by introducing mysterious Martina frustrated ofthe detective genre. police shadowedtheorigin Dahlquist has analyzeda seriesoflate Frenchtrickfilmsstretching from Artheme 1908to 1912(Le voleur Dupin mysterieux, Jim, Slippery devices (inof trick These filmsemploya battery echappe encore). trickeffect, includingobjectanimation-the principal post-M6li&s in France troduced around1907),creating withimpossibly flexcrooks ibleandprotean These anamorphic bodiesthatdefy thelaws ofnature. thin remove themselves their feet toshakeoff flatten culprits legirons; tubes intosausage-like enoughto slideunderdoors;makethemselves to getthrough substitution holes,and,through cuts,appear magically, fadefrom onepartofa roomto another, orsimply In place of disappear. thepredictable the bodiescatalogued andidentified bypolice through Bertillon bodies these cinematic criminals method, possessuniquely theslippery As such, nature ofthefilm mirroring imageanditsdevices. the visual and anarchy, theyembodya utopiandreamof liberation oftheinsaisissableFant6mas around introduced the equivalent being same timein theserialnovelbyPierre andMarcelAllain. Souvestre A 1911one-reel Le film detective from Path6'sNick Winter series, out of the shows the detective pickpocket mystifi6, genreemerging trick of films but still on the comedy hypervisuality earlycinrelying the formative role that ema,demonstrating imagesofvisionand concealment intheorigin ofdevicesholdsthe ofthegenre. A gamut played filmtogether, rather all dealingwithvisualizing crimeand detection than developing a coherent The filmbegins narrative of deduction. witha pickpocket The pickpocket a bank messenger. gesfollowing tureshis intentions third ofrobbery to thecamera.In thefilm's shot,
14. I notedtheinteraction in "Attractions, film ofthetrick andthedetective genre and the History of Genresin EarlyFilm,"GrifDetection, Disguise:Zigomar, Jasset 47 (May,1993).It has sincebeenfurther fithiana byMarinaDahlquistin her developed of excellent dissertation "TheInvisible SeeninFrench Cinemabefore 1917"(University in Abelprovides ofthedetective an excellent overview Stockholm, 2001).Richard genre French cinemain The Cine Goes to Town:French Cinema 1896-1914(Berkeley: early ofCalifornia 355-88. University Press,1994),

This content downloaded from 128.135.100.108 on Fri, 31 Jan 2014 09:36:49 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

82

YaleFrench Studies

detectiveNick Winterappearsand observesthe pair surreptiously, a bankbuilding. in lighting his pipe,as theyenter seemingly engaged He thendraws outa bookcontaining known criminals. of photographs Witha cut-into a mediumclose-up,Winter holds the book so it is it. He locates visibleto thecameraand beginsleafing clearly through thepickpocket's and to the camera turns expresses delight. mugshot, Inside the building, Nick Winterducksbehinda pillar,thenreIn the witha fake beard. inan entirely newcostume emerges, disguised bankoffice, Winter stillshadowed themessenger observes bythepickA cut-in has to a close shotfocuses on thecane thepickpocket pocket. on a satchel. counter next to the bank messenger's placed Prongs emergefrom it, open the satcheland removebank notes,replacing themwithnewspapers. The close shotshowsonlytheprocessofrobthe therobbery bery, ignoring characters.'s playsa keyrole Although in thefilm's in itself, itsvisualization isolatesit as an attraction story, theplayofthings overhumaninteraction. dominating In thefollowing sidleup to thepickpocket we see Winter longshot, and liftthebanknotesfrom who bebythemessenger him,observed lieves he is witnessing a robbery. is seized by a groupofmen Winter who takehimoff of in front to thepoliceas a thief. The cameratracks Winter andthecrowd tothepoas themenmarch himdownthestreet lice headquarters in an extraordinary shot. At police headquarters, Winter with an eye his card,shownin close-up:a triangle presents within itwiththeinscription, Detective."In thereturn "Nick Winter to longshot,thestolenbondsare discovered Winon thepickpocket, teris released, and thebankmessenger shakeshandswithWinter. This one-reel ofcrimeand detection filmtellsa coherent by story crimof the the visual of the detective's foregrounding pursuit aspects inal and theculprit's difficult to In place oflogicaldeduction, crimes. identifies theculprit. fileofknowncriminals image,thephotographic Winter's trick immediatedonning of a disguiseis achievedthrough work.Tricksubstitution for time the necessary effects, eliminating could make anyperformer the equal of such quicktransformation, as Trewey ofthecrime, The method or Fregoli. changeartistes using themechanical cane (apparently through cinematically accomplished withinthefilm, becomesa visual attraction stop-motion animation), as does theprocessoftaking to policeheadthestreet Winter through shot. Along the and unusual quarters through flamboyant tracking
15. Abeldescribes itas stopmotion ofthefilm, in his discussion 355-56.

This content downloaded from 128.135.100.108 on Fri, 31 Jan 2014 09:36:49 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

TOM GUNNING

83

withthesecinematic thevisuality ofmodern policeprocesses devices, fromthe of Le pickpocket mystifif, shapes the narrative strategies file Bertillon identification oftheculprit a through photographic using Winter's theeye unobserved His emblemas a detective, surveillance. bureau within thetriangle, of imitates theemblem ofAlanPinkerton's butalso inscribes thesenseofa powerofsurveilprivate investigators, transcendent lance,a watchful eye. Buteveninthissimpleplot,successful intersects surveillance with and misidentification. techniquesof invisibility Disguise,the main detective orpolice spyfrom techniqueofthefeuilleton Vidocqto Ineven not or Sherlock at all M. scorned spectorJuve(and Lecoq by shared an arenaofdeceptive bydetectives Holmes)creates appearance andcrooks. effect unThatWinter's is achievedherebya trick disguise derscores thenarrativization rather than ofa trick foregrounddevice, withestablished ingit. The filmbalancesnew scenarios techniques, thewayfor thenew detective opening genre. to the screenby Gaumontin By the timeFant6maswas brought and the dethe of had progressed narrativization 1913-1914, process tectivefilm's still relations to thetricks ofthe cinemaofattractions, so evident in itsdirect 1911-1913 series, predecessor, Zigomar Etclair's became morevestigial. But,as Dahlquist and Monica Dall'Asta have LouisFeuillade as realized noted, bydirector 16thecinematic Fant6mas In Souvestre thedialecticofvisionand obscurity. profoundly engaged and Allain's novels,FantOmas's nature expressesmore ungraspable thansimply his ability to evadecapture. Thatno one can laya handon himbecomesalmosta preternatural Fantomas almostmaking quality, into a bodiless,nearlyomnipresent force. Fantomasdissolvesinto a nearabstraction. He becomes, linesoftheseries as thefamous opening and and ... Nobody... says,"Nothing... yetnevertheeverything less somebody!"1 and itsinvisi7-the very terror ofmodern principle ble,yetalwayssensed,threat. In thethirty-two takes novelsthatcomprise the series,Fant6mas on numerousfalseidentities named ones, plus about two (fifty-two dozenanonymous figures bythecountofDidierBlonde18).Although
16. Dahlquist, a Musidora," nerodaZigomar 197-98;MonicaDall'Asta,"Il costume inIl colore andLeonardo nel cinemamuto, ed.MonicaDall'Aste,Guglielmo Pescatore, ManoEdizioni, Quaresima (Bologna: 1996),164-81. and 17. Pierre andMarcelAlain,Fant6mas(New York: WilliamMorrow Souvestre Company, 1986),11. 18. DidierBlonde, Les voleurs des visages(Paris: M6taili6, 1992).Theyarelistedon pages140-44.

This content downloaded from 128.135.100.108 on Fri, 31 Jan 2014 09:36:49 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

84

YaleFrench Studies

areonlygradthereader canusuallyspotthem, ofFant8mas theavatars ually recognized by Juve.In the prologuesto Feuillade'sFant8mas in a theseidentities thestart arelaid bareto theaudiencefrom films, Naof from the actor medium (Ren6 sequence close-upsdissolving whoplaysFant6mas Whilethisfilmic to each ofhis disguises.19 varre) devicegivesthefigure thedisguisesmoreviofFant6mas underlying sual presence his also highlight thanhe has in thenovels, theprologues face mostmysterious covered "The Man in Black,"bodyand disguise, and hood.As Navarre bya blackbodystocking pulls thehoodoverhis withthedarkness of his veiledfigure face,theshotgoesdark, merging theframe to endtheprologue. The blackfigure conofFant6mas takeson notonlythetraditional notations ofdeathor evil,but also invisibility. As in theZigomarsealofblack costumeswithdarkunlitbackgrounds ries,theblending lows figures orto escapeback into either to emerge from nothingness orsuddenemergence, Buttheeffect ofactualdisappearance obscurity. so well worked in out in Jasset's appearsinfrequently Zigomarfilms, Feuillade'sFant6masseries,perhapsbecause the device smacks too much ofthetrick whose Zigomarused all film.In contrast to Jasset, thedevicesofthetrick Feuillade stageshis unself-consciously genre, use ofloevents within a stunning canny world, making recognizable of cation shooting,-theactual streets, and rooftops trainstations, Paris.WhenFant6mas, in Juve versusFant6mas,escapesfrom police " fake whose an overcoat his "manteau his agents truqu, holding arms, his armsremain in thehandsofthepoliceas he sprints away,explains tricks. escape,notthemagicaldevicesofcinematic and obscurity, Thus Feuilladedevisednew scenariosofvisibility such as themaskedball in Fant6mascontre Fant6mas(1914),which uses thedeepstaging like Feuillade, thatdirectors Bauer,and Evgenii a newviFranzHofer oftheearly films introduced in thefeature teens, cinsual stylesuitedto thenarrative ofthenew narrative ambitions ema.20 In Le policier contre of Fant6mas the source apache, Fant6mas,
in as exemplified 19. I havediscussed thedifferent tacktaken narrative bythefilms thisprologue andDisguises in "A Tale ofTwo Prologues: andRoles,Detectives Actors in Fantomas FilmandNovel,"The Velvet 37 (1996). Trap Light in YuriTsivian, 20. Discussionoftheuse ofdeepstaging in theteenscan be found "Two'Stylists' inA SecondLife:German oftheTeens:Franz Hofer andYevgenii Bauer," Cinema's FirstDecades, ed. Thomas Elsaesser(Amsterdam: Amsterdam University to Cinema:StagePictorialTheatre andLea Jacobs, Press,1996), 264-76; BenBrewster ismand theEarly Feature Film(NewYork: Oxford 1997);and,dealing University Press, withFeuillade, Harvard David Bordwell, specifically ofFilmStyle(Cambridge: History University Press,1997).

This content downloaded from 128.135.100.108 on Fri, 31 Jan 2014 09:36:49 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

TOM

GUNNING

85

the maskedball held by Duchess Alexandra (actuallyLadyBeltham, an intricate Fant6mas'lover)fortoutParis provides game ofblurred of theyoung Juve, Fandor, companion inspector journalist identities.21 decidesto attend theball dressed in theblackmaillotandhoodofFanNot to as doesa policeagent theCommissioner. t8mas, accompanying in his black be outdone, ball FantOmas himself at the garb. appears elea somewhat Feuilladefilms theball in a singlelongshot,from vatedanglethatallows the depthoftheballroomwithits costumed dancers toprovide The Duchesssitsinthe an eye-catching background. The first maninblack(presumably Fandor) foreground greeting guests. attracted ofguests, byhis enters, bows,andkissesherhand.A number at his novelcostumecomeforward and gawkat him,actually picking and disapblack silk.He movesintothebackground withthedancers ofattenThe center pearsfrom view,swallowedbythemerry-makers. tionreturns and comto theforeground as the Police Commissioner dress and pay respectsto the panion appearin eighteenth-century Duchess. Theysummon from off screenthesecondmanin black,preFanAs he enters, thepoliceagent, whoalso payshisrespects. sumably dorbecomesvisibleamongthedancers in thebackground, apparently to theright ofhis double.He comesforward foreground catching sight actions wherethetwoblack clad men confront each other, mirroring withthe as they bow to each other, as they thenbothdisappear merge man dancers in thebackground. cutsawayas a third Feuilladebriefly to in black (presumably in a car.Returning Fant6mas arrives himself) next thesameframing thechair as before, risesfrom theCommissioner to theDuchess,andthenewcomer kissesherhand,and crossestoher, sitsnextto her.One oftheother becomesvisibledancing Fant6mases in midground. A third risestodancewiththeDuchess as the Fant6mas otherFant6masdancesintoproximity. The mirror couplescollidein center oftheframe and a the confrontation in takes foreground, place as other dancers seemstobe issued themanda challenge around gather betweenthetwomenin black.Theywalk awayintothedepth, disapin man in third a the crowd. are no After pearing visible, they longer black (we laterrealizeit is Fandor) from enters searching foreground, for theothers. ofdeep staging ofplaying Usingtheeffects space,directing (depth attention entrance exits and and concealingand revealing through characters of composithe movement of extras,symmetry through cenFeuillade leadstheviewer's ofshifting a carnival tion), eyethrough
21. Souvestre andAllain,Le policier 247-62. Presses Pocket, 1973), apache (Paris:

This content downloaded from 128.135.100.108 on Fri, 31 Jan 2014 09:36:49 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

86

YaleFrench Studies

tersofattention thatlurkbethatparalleltheconfusions ofidentities neath the playful While black. men in of hardlyas multiplication as in the Duchess' the confrontation that takes winter baroque place oftrueand themaskedball in thenovel(with reflections garden during falseFant6mases in theglasspanesoftheconservatory) (Le multiplied a stable Feuillade's policierapache,259-60), framing grounds shifting withFeuillade's interact Scenes ofvisual ambiguity play ofidentity. use ofclose-ups ofevildeeds, evidence torevealthemethods ofcrime, or clues ofidentity in hat in G Gurn's (themonogram Fant6mas;the hollowbottlethrough underwaterin Juve whichFantOmas breathes contre in thenotein thedeskblotter Fant6mas;Elizabethconcealing Le mort on thedeadly qui tue;Fant8mas gasin Le fauxmagisturning trat). The hyper-visuality a reductio ad absurofone suchclue provides dum oftherevelatory powerofthe cinema.In Le mortqui tue,after on her PrincessSonia's pearlnecklacehas been stolen,a fingerprint neckis shownin close-up, in frame the a policeagent's pointing finger to theimpression. This incriminating evidenceis thenphotographed and thephotograph examinesit.Poas Fandor also appears in close-up lice agent andcomesupwithan "inBertillon examines thephotograph fallible containmatch"forthefingerprint. This identification fiche, and fingerprints, also appearsin close-up.But the ing photographs in his cell identification Dollon who was murdered pointsto Jacques in we the film. In early manner, learnthat guignolesque typical grand Dollon's hand,thereby from Fant6masmade glovesof skin stripped ofa dead man.Whenthe Stateprocessesand leavingthefingerprints thenthebody cataloguesbodiesto supplyinfallible signsofidentity, can also be re-processed, ofSlippery manner notin thecarnivalesque butthrough thescientific ofsurgery. Jim, processes ofidentity, thecriminal's evasionofcapture, blurring Celebrating and theambiguity as ofvisionin thedetective genre signsofa radical resistance morethanvalorizethe toregimes ofcontrol do may nothing rulesofthegame.Butignoring those thecomplex including fantasies, ofresistance, its appeal renders inherent in thepush/pull ofthegenre in French The processesof detailedinvestigation incomprehensible. detectivestoriesand filmsfindstheirreversed image in the feuilIsoand murders letonesqueescapes,thefts, by criminals. performed of the either our view lating genre. aspect ultimately impoverishes Modern ofevidence, ofdetailed observation andprocessing techniques
while constantlypressing against barriersof opacity with new tech-

This content downloaded from 128.135.100.108 on Fri, 31 Jan 2014 09:36:49 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

TOM GUNNING

87

nologiesof enhancedvision and morenuancedprocessesof categoalso spawnnewmethods ofevasion,suchas Fantimas'sfalse rization, The inverse ofthelaw bytheoutlawrehearsed fingerprints. mirroring in theseadventures obsessionalcommay merely expressa modern than rather a radicalalternative tothepanoptical But, society. pulsion, even as meresymptoms, at least a reaction such ambiguities present Forthe cultural of control. to,not simplyan application of,regimes of a such incidents must become evidence history critic, tangled clues, ofbothefforts at control andfantasies ofrevolt. Two examples, serveas a ofmorecomplete might analysis, worthy and conclusion: Feuillade's1913filmUne erreur Claretragique Jules tie's 1897novelL'accusateur.22 In both,evidenceofa crimeseemsto be produced cinema means.In Feuillade'sfilm, bynew technological becomesan unwitting witnessas a man viewinga Gaumontcomedy film shoton thestreets ofParissees hiswifepass byin thebackground ofa shot,armin armwithanother and ofthefilm man.He buysa print in close-upscrutinizes the frames he believes show evidenceof his theman wife'sadultery. Obsessed,he plotsherdeath, onlyto discover fromabroad.Claretie'snovel picturedis her brother just returned ofa last trace oftheoptogramme, thereputed adoptsthepseudoscience visionleft ofa muron theretina oftheretina ofa corpse. Examination dervictim whoslashed a man'simage, themurderer yields presumably the victim'sthroat.23 the image as a close The detectiveidentifies friend ofthevictim.The man is arrested, it is discovbut eventually eredthattheimagedoes notpicturethemurderer, the but a portrait victimhad ofhis friend, thelast thing he gazedon as he died. In bothoftheseworks, theunreliability theplotturns on revealing ofvisual evidence, to evenwhenrelying on new scientific technology vibetween not oscillation capture things easilyseen.Theystagethe sion and obscurity The detective thatrulesthedetective story, genre. as in the France at the turn of especially practiced century, participates in a modern as well as visualculture ofhiding awareoftheattractions this ofthefailure ofinsight as well as its successes.Within seeking,
22. Translated as TheCrime Arno Press, 1976)(Reprint). oftheBoulevard (NewYork: his OliverGayckin from thisnovelto my attention and I have also profited brought films. discussion ofthescientific andvisualaspectoftheFantomas thoughtful et ses 23. The history oftheoptogramme is discussed in Philippe Dubois,"Le corps Notessurquelquefictions dansl'iconographie scientifique fant6mes: photographiques de la secondemoiti du XIX si.cle," in L'actephotographique et autresessais (Paris: 212-16. Nathan,1991),

This content downloaded from 128.135.100.108 on Fri, 31 Jan 2014 09:36:49 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

88

YaleFrench Studies

To quote a genre, sightand its imagecan neverbe takenforgranted. motto includesreffrom Luc Godard's du cinema(which Histoire Jean erenceto Une erreur "This is not a justimage,it is just an tragique): thejustimageand The vacillation for thesearching between image.""24 thelureof"justan image"defines ofthedetective thecritical energy in in film. literature and genre popular

24. "Pas une imagejuste, justeune image."Godard quotedin GodardSon + Image ed.ColinMcCabeandMary 35. 1974-1991, Abrams, 1992), Harry (NewYork: Lea Bandy

This content downloaded from 128.135.100.108 on Fri, 31 Jan 2014 09:36:49 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions