Les Vampires
Louis Feuillade - 1915

A gang of jewel thieves calling itself The Vampires plies its trade in early 20th-century Paris, pursued by an intrepid news reporter. Film gris.

This silent serial (10 parts) was held in high esteem by the Surrealists, who admired Feullade's ability to create on the run. He viewed each episode as a story within the story and so avoided the repetitiousness of other serials, which generally used a master template that was applied to individual episodes. Les Vampires, because it has less recycling than these others, can more easily be watched as a single film - if you've got 10 hours to kill.