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."