Juve, in the highest of spirits, pronounces some regrettable words. They cause the prisoner to start. He wakes up, and once awake, Fantômas is no longer Juve's captive. Juve has failed again this time. One means remains for him to achieve his end: Juve will have to get into one of Fantômas's dreams – he will try to take part as one of its characters.

[Fantômas] ... is never entirely invisible. One can see his portrait through his face... When memories pursue him he follows his arm, which drags him away. His movements are those of an automaton; he brushes aside any furniture or walls that are in his way... Fantômas' science is more valuable than his language. We do not guess, and we cannot doubt, his powers.

Robert Desnos's 25-stanza poem La Complainte de Fantômas ("The Lament Of Fantômas"), was dramatized and broadcast throughout France and Belgium in November 1933. Antonin Artaud, previously appointed as director of the “Bureau of Surrealist Research” by André Breton in 1925, featured as the voice of Fantômas, whilst Kurt Weill composed the music (now lost). By all accounts this was an epic production, and a worthy final tribute to the Lord of Terror by one of the leading Surrealists.

In retrospect, it may be tempting to suggest that at least some of the mythic and oneiric qualities that the Surrealists attributed to Fantômas were over-exaggerated – certainly the authors were as bemused as Freud was by the attentions of these rabid avant-gardists – but the fact remains that it is as much due to its championing by Breton and company as it is to the film adaptations of Louis Feuillade that the legend of Fantômas, the unseizable Emperor of Crime, endures to this day.

Notes

[1] The following issue of Littérature featured a play by Breton, Robert Desnos and Benjamin Péret entitled "What a Beautiful Day!", in which Fantômas appeared upon the family coat of arms of a monkey .

[2] “Sur le marteau de la porte en argent bruni, sali par le temps, sali par la poussière du temps, une espèce de Bouddha ciselé au front trop haut, aux oreilles pendantes, aux allures de marin ou de gorille : c'était Fantômas...”

[3] This affinity with anarchy, violence and crime was also reflected in the Surrealists’ obsession with notorious real-life cases of the day, including the bloody exploits of the outlaw Bonnot gang, the serial Bluebeard murders of Landru, parents-poisoner Violette Nozière, female assassin Germaine Berton, and the case of the Papin sisters, two maids who butchered their employers.