After the tremendous popular success of the 　(📿)　Fant?mas 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 Fant?mas films which critic 　　David Thomson has described as "the first 　　great movie experience."