Feuillade's "Fantômas" falls horribly short in the silent film genre, especially when held up to the contemporary films put forth by Germany and the United States. The acting feels half-hearted and heavily reliant on intertitles for direction. The plot arcs, in spite of a few scattered gems, smack of predictability - a viewer can almost always stay one or two steps ahead of the scene. And through the serial's longevity, it would almost seem that the film hopes we would forget all its wince-worthy moments that have past. Perhaps Feuillade's one saving grace is the intricate mise-en-scène of the masked ball and Lady Beltham's estate, as well as the artfully crafted bell tower sequence in the final installment. The American's had their big budgets, the German's had their big ideas, but as the first French silent I've seen, I'm at a loss to identify the dominant strengths.
