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