FILIBUS (1915)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous* 
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *drama*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *sociological*

FILIBUS is billed as the first film in history with a "female supervillain." Given that the titular villainess appears about four years after the first FANTOMAS book, and she has three separate identities, it's likely that someone involved in this Italian production sought to emulate the success of the French supercriminal. The movie, running about 80 minutes, seems not to have been a financial success, but since it's true that there weren't a ton of starring female villains in the early 20th century, even in other media, FILIBUS has attracted some attention in feminist circles.

At the movie's opening, Filibus is lauded as an elusive "sky pirate," who preys on her victims with an airship and a small crew of henchmen, who alone know that Filibus is both a woman and a prominent social figure, name of Baroness Troixmonde (Valeria Creti). If anyone thought that FILIBUS was going to be a rousing Vernian story about airship battles, though, the low budget of the film shows itself in the fact that one barely gets a look at the ship, except for static shots of the crew leaning on the railings. It's not even clear how the damn thing operates, be it by balloon-power or by powered flight.

Filibus sets her cap to swiping a pair of fabulous diamonds, and since she knows that renowned detective Kutt-Hendy is protecting the gems, she launches a plan to frame him for the theft. She assumes the identity of a male count and cozies up to Kutt-Hendy's sister Leonora so that she can monitor the detective's plans. At one point Filibus' henchmen use a sort of metal cab lowered from their airship in order to expose the sleuth to sleep gas. Then they take his handprint with a copying process, so that they can make him look guilty of collusion later.

In addition to being cheap, the film is fairly slow and plodding, even though the two principals are good. Kutt-Henry, after getting framed, worries that he might be schizophrenic. Eventually he works things out and sets a trap for Filibus, and manages to both capture her and learn her identity. However, the wily crook gets free and escapes in her airship. Perhaps the producers hoped that the film would be popular enough to garner a sequel, but it wasn't in the cards.

FILIBUS, though significant for the gender of the villain, is not a combative work; it's just a heist tale starring the heist artist, possibly more like Arsene Lupin than Fantomas. It's also not any sort of monument to Lesbianism or "genderfluidity," any more than Conan Doyle's only Irene Adler story. Modern activists could probably conjure more of these phantoms from multiple readings of TWELFTH NIGHT than they ever could from FILIBUS.